- Eclipsa Video is a new HDR standard coming to phones first
- It is backed by experts from Google, Apple and NBC Universal.
- For now it will not compete directly against Dolby Vision or HDR10+
There’s another HDR (high dynamic range) standard that displays need to know, developed by experts at Apple, Google and NBCUniversal, and it looks like it will offer open source (and license-free) competition to Dolby Vision, albeit on phones and laptops rather than TVs.
It’s called Eclipsa Video and, as FlatpanelsHD reports, it was announced without much fanfare. Complementing Eclipsa Audio, which you may remember was released in 2025 and is based on the SMPTE 2094-50 technical standard.
One of the key goals is to solve a major problem with HDR: HDR is designed to balance highlights, shadows and contrast so that nothing is lost, but all device screens have different brightness limits. That means HDR signage can be confusing, leading to a less than ideal viewing experience.
That shouldn’t happen with Eclipsa Video. The standard includes metadata protocols to inform the video what the limits of the display device are, so that HDR can adapt accordingly. “The video you’re watching looks exactly as the creator intended,” Google’s Roshan Baliga said last month.
Meanwhile, the upcoming Dolby Vision 2 standard aims to address the exact same issue, while adding plenty of other updates. Especially on cheaper, lower-capable TVs, you should get better results with HDR, as long as both your TV and content provider support the standard.
Getting to the phones first
Support for Eclipsa Video will be required at both the hardware and software levels, with an initial focus on phones, according to the official press release. Approved devices are expected to start appearing this year, and given Apple’s involvement, we wonder if the iPhone 18 Pro could be first in line.
The press release promises “stellar video performance on compatible smartphones, laptops, desktops and more,” and it’s perhaps telling that there’s no mention of TVs; perhaps the intention is not to disrupt the current dominance of Dolby Vision and HDR10+ standards on larger screens, or at least not right away.
It’s unclear exactly how this fits into the current landscape, and right now we don’t have many details to go on. The Eclipsa Video standard is actually under the control of the HDR10+ consortium, which has confirmed that future devices will be able to be certified for both HDR10+ and Eclipsa Video.
That suggests we’re looking for something that complements rather than competes with the HDR10+ standard, at least for smaller screens, although HDR10+ will remain a separate entity as well.
As for Dolby Vision and Dolby Vision 2, given how much support Apple has historically given to Dolby Vision, and that NBCUniversal-owned streaming service Peacock has already announced it will support the upcoming Dolby Vision 2, Dolby may not have much to worry about… yet.
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