This week, before IFA 2025, Dolby announced Dolby Vision 2, the next generation version of its advanced HDR format. It comes in two flavors: Dolby Vision 2 and Dolby Vision 2 Max, which adds even more improvement of image quality, and will only receive support on televisions that meet certain performance points as certified by Dolby.
Obviously, the big question is which televisions will admit it, and if current televisions could be updated with it, if they have the correct specifications.
So we approach the manufacturers of the best televisions for official comments, and talk to people from the industry to get the view behind the scene. For the most part, television manufacturers are being cautious about it, but we have some concrete responses and more unofficial information of the acquaintances.
What television manufacturers will support Dolby Vision?
Hisense
Let’s start with Hisense, because he is the official launch partner with Dolby for Dolby Vision 2. It is confirmed that at least a small portion of its current elite televisions, including LED television LEDs Hisense UX116 RGB (which we tested recently) will have support. It is not clear exactly how many current televisions will be updated, but I would expect the approach to be more in its inclusion on future televisions.
LG
LG is also remarkable, because it is only television manufacturer officially saying that it is No Working on the Dolby Vision 2. LG support told Techradar “we currently have no plans to support Dolby Vision 2 HDR.” Not only that, but LG told us that “our understanding is an update (any brand) is not possible since Dolby Vision 2 improvements are hardware, not just software.”
I will return to that comment on the update of the existing televisions later, because it does not seem to be precise (as you may be able to guess for the plans of Hisense).
Samsung
Samsung has not provided an official answer to the question of Dolby Vision 2 support, but I understand that it does not plan to change its long -standing position in HDR, expect Samsung to stay with HDR10+ in the predictable future.
TCL
TCL also did not provide an official answer to the question of Dolby Vision 2 support, but there was a subtle hint your position in your stand in Ifa. See if you can detect it in this image.
I understand that if Dolby Vision 2 collects support among the key streamers, we should wait for future TCL televisions to reach much delay.
Sony
Sony told me: “Dolby is one of our important partners. Our current televisions are compatible with Dolby Vision and Atmos. So are we in discussion with Dolby? Yes, but at this time we really don’t have a clear statement to make about Dolby Vision 2.”
More to come …
Several other television manufacturers did not respond at the time of writing, and I could not get any track of the entire industry on their plans.
What about the update of existing televisions?
I have tried to dig in the declaration of LG about the update not possible, and it seems that there is perhaps there is some confusion. Dolby refused to officially respond to this statement, but my understanding of discussions with people in the industry is that it is theoretically possible to update some Existing televisions, but it is a small list, and is not yet 100% simple.
LG’s statement that Dolby Vision 2 requires a hardware update seems to be true, but the hardware in question is integrated into the Pentonic 800 MediaTak processor for TV, which is already used on several televisions available to buy today (even from Hisense, without knowing it). As you just read before, Hisense has plans to add support to at least one existing television that uses that mediatek chip.
But it also seems possible that even if a television uses that chip, there could be another part of its specification or performance that would block the Dolby Vision 2 certification, so having the chip does not guarantee anything. And the chip is only in a limited number of televisions, all released in the last six months.
However, even beyond whether it is technically possible to update existing televisions, there is also the question of motivation. A source of the television industry with which I talked said that even if televisions can be updated, we should not generally expect television manufacturers to dedicate time, money and effort when there is no Dolby Vision 2 content available, and we don’t do it when that content arrives.
When reading between the lines, I also suppose there is a financial element: television manufacturers would prefer that you buy a new set to obtain Dolby Vision 2, I hope.
Which is a shame, because it would be great to have Dolby Vision 2 on cheaper televisions, since it is an impressive update on budget screens.
