When Dolby Vision 2 was announced back at IFA 25, I was confused. The press release was littered with marketing speak with little specificity – what was needed was information in nitty gritty terms, what was provided was rather bland and vague.
Cut to four months later at CES 2026, and there’s now a much better idea of how Dolby Vision 2 will work, who will support the HDR format and the effect it’ll have TVs from the most affordable to premium tier.
With HDR10+ Advanced also due for release, it looks like the HDR performance on TVs is about to get much, much better.
Dolby Vision 2 – now with clarity
The amusing aspect about when Dolby Vision 2 was first launched was that, when I approached people on the Hisense side about any information they had about the announcement, they didn’t seem to know about Dolby Vision 2 until the announcement went live.
Then there was TCL looking to steal some thunder from Hisense being announced as the launch partner, but TCL was not mentioned in the initial press release, so it seemed to jump the gun with its reveal.
With Hisense and TCL onboard, Philips TP Vision is the next company to reveal that it will add Dolby Vision 2 support to its 2026 TVs, with a selection of OLED, Mini LED and DLED models.
Dolby Vision 2 requires the MediaTek Pentonic 800 with MiraVision Pro silicon chip for it to function. As I gathered, it won’t be available as an over-the-air (OTA) updates for older models (pre-2026).
Your TV will need this chip if you want to watch Dolby Vision 2 programming on it. However, the CES press release does mention that some Hisense and TCL models will receive an OTA update, which would imply it won’t be available out of the box for some TVs (at least at launch).
It looks like a big upgrade
At Dolby Live in the Park MGM hotel, I was given a demonstration of how Dolby Vision 2 works, and it is in my mind a clear upgrade over the original Dolby Vision format.
Dark detail has improved, likely in response to mastering of TV series and films becoming too dark for some TVs to handle – case in point the Game of Thrones episode The Long Night which caused some TVs to buckle with the amount of darkness throughout the episode.
Dolby Vision 2 could make that a thing of the past by maintaining a closer through line to how it was originally mastered. A couple clips showed that the depth or black levels and detail were maintained, but character’s faces were more visible in darker scenes. That got a thumbs up from me.
In a demo of a TV that had Dolby Vision 2 and one that didn’t, highlights (the brightest part of the image) and colours were also improved with Dolby Vision 2. Specular highlights looked brighter, the range of colours shown were much wider, and overall brightness did look better for a more attractive image whether with films, TV series or games.
This wasn’t on a premium TV either, but a mid-range priced screen (Dolby wouldn’t be drawn on which model, exactly) to show the impact that Dolby Vision 2 can have. Again, it’s a noticeable bump up, the improved brightness of the image seems to draw even more detail from the picture.
Motion, a scourge of some TVs, has seen improvements with Dolby Vision 2 with its Dynamic Motion Judder feature. The strength of the motion processing applied to a scene is now dynamically altered, depending on what’s required. If there’s a lot of judder the strength of the motion processing will increase to reduce judder, and when there’s less judder and stutter in a scene, it will climb back down so you aren’t faced with smearing or artefacts.
There are about 15 levels of motion processing that Dolby Vision 2 can cycle through, though with this feature, I am curious as to what the likes of Sony, LG and Panasonic will feel with their (very good) motion processing features.
Still some question marks
There are still some question marks over Dolby Vision 2. LG was suspiciously quite about the format, which might suggest they’re not onboard yet. The likes of Sony and Panasonic have stayed relatively quiet about any support for Dolby Vision 2.
And what about physical media? Can existing libraries of 4K Blu-ray be ‘upscaled’ by a TV that supports Dolby Vision 2? Do 4K Blu-ray players need a similar chip to enable Dolby Vision 2, and if so, we will see re-releases of older models or new players hit the market?
And will Dolby Vision 2 be a feature that drives adoption of TVs in 2026? Especially as streaming services ‘restrict’ Dolby Vision HDR to their premium tiers – how can you watch Dolby Vision 2 if you’re subscribed to the lowest tier with ads?
And though Peacock was announced as a streaming service to go with Canal+ on the broadcasting side, with all respect to Universal’s Peacock, it’s not on the level of Netflix, Disney+ or HBO Max when it comes to subscribers.
There are still things up in the air about Dolby Vision 2, but it is looking promising, and I am looking forward to seeing it reach people’s homes.
