Your TV says it has Dolby Vision but it probably only has half of it

Dolby Vision is arguably the best HDR standard there is for content consumption. Dolby’s proprietary HDR standard uses an enhancement layer to provide 12-bit color, which is an upgrade over the 10-bit color offered with HDR10 or HDR10+. Moreover, Dolby Vision offers manual controls and profiles for colorists, giving studios more precision over their high dynamic range (HDR) releases. This is why Dolby Vision ended up as the superior format, despite HDR10 and HDR10+ being free to use.

There’s a catch, however — many TVs branded as supporting Dolby Vision are only compatible with the basic version. Dolby Vision IQ, Dolby Vision 2, and Dolby Vision 2 Max each offer color and brightness tuned to your specific environment, but they require a subtle hardware sensor your TV probably lacks.

Dolby Vision is only the start

It’s a great HDR standard, but there are newer versions

Credit: Brady Snyder / MakeUseOf

If your TV only supports Dolby Vision, you’re still getting a better viewing experience than if it merely supported HDR10 or HDR10+. The big difference between the three popular HDR standards is their included metadata and color depth. Dolby Vision and HDR10+ both support dynamic metadata with specific color and brightness information for each scene or frame, while HDR10 simply includes a single profile for the entire film.

Beyond that, Dolby Vision manages to provide 12-bit color atop of the 10-bit HDR10 baseline using a clever trick. The standard leverages an enhancement layer that separately sends extra color data for the Dolby Vision player to reconstruct into a usable video stream with 12-bit color. Neither HDR10 nor HDR10+ support anything beyond 10-bit color, so this is a key perk of going with Dolby Vision instead.

These benefits are only part of the Dolby Vision puzzle. Newer iterations of the standard add color and brightness adjustments tailored to your real-time environment. For example, if your TV is in a bright room with lots of sunlight and glare coming through nearby windows, a dark scene in a Dolby Vision master could be unwatchable. Starting with Dolby Vision IQ, TVs can use an ambient light sensor to preserve the color and brightness signature of Dolby Vision’s HDR metadata while fine-tuning it to your room’s current lighting conditions.

Your TV’s ambient light sensor unlocks new features

Dolby Vision IQ, Vision 2, and Vision 2 Max all use it for color adjustments

The latest crop of Dolby Vision variants add features like Light Sense to optimize video streams for your TV’s specific settings and your room’s ambient environment. They’re bundled together as part of a Dolby Vision IQ suite, which is technically not a new version of Dolby Vision, but rather a set of premium features for higher-end TVs. Dolby calls this a “superset” of the Film Maker Mode (FMM) made by the UHD Alliance, as Vision IQ’s iteration preserves post-processing and white point levels while delivering custom content and room optimizations.

There’s a new Level 11 metadata for Dolby Atmos that includes content type information to power a feature called Automatic Playback Optimization. There are five content types available: Default, Movies, Game, Sport, and User-Generated Content. Dolby Vision IQ takes the content type into account when determining adjustments for noise reduction, frame-rate conversion, and sharpness. For example, the Game content type offers lower latency while the Movies content type limits post-processing.

Both Automatic Playback Optimization and Light Sense require specialized TV hardware, and the latter uses an ambient light sensor to identify the lighting conditions of your room. It detects the brightness of your room and considers the lighting information from Dolby Vision metadata, combining data from the two sources to produce custom brightness and color values that provide the best experience in your room. Without the ambient light sensor, though, your Dolby Vision TV won’t be able to take advantage of this Vision IQ perk.

Dolby Vision IQ is on its way out, though, because Dolby announced Dolby Vision 2 last September. There are two tiers, Vision 2 and Vision 2 Max, and both include Light Sense support for new TVs with the necessary chips and an ambient light sensor. For instance, Hisense will make TVs compatible with Dolby Vision 2 due to the inclusion of a fresh MediaTek Pentonic 800 chip with a “MiraVision Pro PQ Engine.” ​​​​​​​

With Dolby Vision 2 Max, a light sensor is required

Don’t expect the full Dolby Vision experience on your TV without one

Dolby Vision 2 Max outright requires an ambient light sensor, so if you see the Vision 2 Max brand on a new TV, you’ll know it has one. For Dolby Vision and Dolby Vision 2, however, this hardware is entirely optional. To use the pivotal Light Sense feature in Dolby Vision IQ or Vision 2, your TV needs to have one.

It’s worth noting that the Dolby Vision 2 rollout is just beginning. There aren’t affordable TVs with Dolby Vision 2 on the market yet, and Dolby Vision 2 content could take even longer to appear. Peacock is committed to making Dolby Vision 2 content, and separately, the streaming service will also be the first to offer Dolby AC-4 audio. Dolby Vision 2 is the adaptive HDR standard of tomorrow, but Dolby Vision is still the version of today.

Light Sense is still available on Dolby Vision TVs if they support Vision IQ and have an ambient light sensor. However, don’t buy a Vision IQ screen and expect it to support Vision 2 or Vision 2 Max later. You’ll need new hardware for that. If your TV lacks the ambient light sensor required for room-specific color and brightness adjustments, it might be best to hold off for Vision 2 to become widely available.

Display Size

50″-85″

Operating System

Fire TV

Display Type

QLED Mini-LED

Display Resolution

4K

Others

Dolby Vision IQ, Dolby Atmos

Hisense’s E7 Cinema Series TV offers a QLED panel with a 4K resolution. Crucially, it also supports HDR10+, Dolby Vision IQ, and Dolby Atmos. The screen sports a 144Hz refresh rate and comes in 50-inch to 85-inch screen sizes. There’s a light sensor that unlocks Dolby Vision IQ support, but you may be better off waiting for upcoming Hisense panels with Dolby Vision 2 or Dolby Vision 2 Max support.