LG is adding support for the Eclipsa Audio format to its 2026 models, as well as certain 2025 TVs. This is an alternative to Dolby Atmos, which offers spatial audio via streaming, and was primarily developed by Samsung and Google.
According to a report from FlatpanelsHD, all LG 2026 TVs will be compatible with Eclipsa Audio, and support has been added to the following 2025 TVs via a free update: LG G5, LG C5, LG CS5, and LG QNED9M.
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Samsung said it would not expand to areas where Dolby Atmos is not widely used or prohibitive. “Dolby is not seriously involved in gaming, and it is not involved in car audio,” said Samsung Audio Lab vice president Allan Devantier (although I should add that Dolby definitely invests heavily in car audio; see the Cadillac Optiq this year).
Analysis: a surprise, given LG’s caution with other formats
Some TV brands, such as TCL and Hisense, like to adopt a large number of form factors, which helps give their TVs an incredible value feel. LG tends to be much more cautious about these things.
The company has supported DTS audio formats on occasion in the past, but that has been on and off; It is currently disabled. LG also told me at a recent event that it still has no immediate plans to support Dolby Vision 2, and representatives weren’t sure if the 2026 TVs could be updated to support it in the future.
This decision was based on the lack of Dolby Vision 2 content currently – LG said it would consider support when there are things to watch that fully utilize the format.
Now, one could point out that both DTS and Dolby Vision 2 require a fee to be included in a set, so there’s a strong reason for a company not to support them if they don’t think it’s a problem to exclude them.
However, HDR10+ does not require a fee for support, but LG has always vehemently opposed it, focusing solely on Dolby Vision HDR. In the past, LG’s response has often been similar to the Dolby Vision 2 response: that there wasn’t enough content to justify adding support.
More recently, HDR10+ has been added to more streaming services (including Apple TV+ and its movie rentals, Disney+ in some countries, including some Hulu content, and Paramount+ on some content), so last year I asked LG about adding support since it’s now more widely available.
The company said it still doesn’t see the point and claims that almost everything available in HDR10+ will also be available in Dolby Vision. He also said that he believes his own tone mapping processing is superior to HDR10+, which eliminates the need for it and that he would simply probably never admit it.
So why is Eclipsa different? Well, I suspect it has to do with something I mentioned earlier: YouTube. YouTube does not support Dolby Atmos, and I suspect it never will. YouTube is also more popular on TVs than even Netflix and Disney+. And televisions have become the most popular way to watch YouTube, surpassing even phones.
If people start expecting and enjoying things on YouTube with more immersive Eclipsa Audio, then LG doesn’t want to be left as a platform where you don’t get the best sound from the most popular streaming app. Especially since Samsung already supports Eclipsa Audio, and Google TV supporting Eclipsa means that TCL, Hisense and Sony will surely include the format. And if Samsung has been working with Amazon, we can assume that Fire TVs will support it at some point.
LG could afford to be “left out” of HDR10+ because, as it said, Dolby Vision was the only game available for so long in practice, and it’s still the biggest player. But Eclipsa Audio will make its impact in places Atmos will probably never reach, so it makes sense for LG to join Samsung in an upstart format for once.
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