Opinion: Ask yourself this question. Have you watched a TV show or film in Dolby Vision HDR? My guess is… maybe.
Dolby Vision is an HDR format designed to present your favourite TV shows and films in the way the filmmakers intended them to be seen. Well, give or take the capabilities of your TV.
But the great thing about Dolby Vision is that it can tone-map (for lack of a better word, adapt its performance) to your TV’s capabilities. If your TV is on the less expensive side, you won’t get the same level of performance as a premium TV, but there would be a degree of consistency.
That is, if you’re actually experiencing it in Dolby Vision.
Where in the world is Dolby Vision?
One of my bugbears – and likely a topic I’ve withered on about in the past – is that Dolby Vision content isn’t readily accessible.
Sure, most 4K TVs on the market support the HDR format – unless, of course, you’re Samsung – when it comes to streaming services, Dolby Vision is tied into the most expensive tier, and while it’s available on 4K Blu-ray, film studios are pushing that format more towards collectible status in a similar way to what vinyl has become.
People who stream don’t seem to paying for the most expensive streaming tier, instead settling for HD, which is understandable in terms of price but in my mind it’s something of a home cinema sin if you have a 4K TV.
The TV events I’ve attended in the last year have offered some interesting info with regards to people’s watching habits. At Philips TV and Audio launch event at the start of 2025 – the percentage of people who were watching across all Dolby Vision modes was 0.1%. And according to Philips, more consumers were watching in SDR than in HDR.
And then the topic came up again at Roku’s US event when it turned out that of the two streaming sticks that were announced, Dolby Vision wasn’t available. You’d have to purchase the Roku Streaming Stick 4K to get it.
Has Dolby Vision failed?
So while I understand that Dolby wants the perception of being a ‘premium’ product, that status is only earned if people are paying that premium for it.
At this point, it doesn’t seem like many want to pay that premium or really understand the impact Dolby Vision (or HDR in general) can have.
Dolby should be striving for ubiquity with its HDR format, instead it risks being forgotten – that is, if anyone knew it existed in the first place.
