If you’ve been in the market for a new TV lately, you’ve probably encountered a ton of tech jargon making your decision even trickier.
With the amount of acronyms on offer for the latest TVs, a trip to Best Buy can sometimes feel like studying the periodic table.
HDR, HDMI eARC, OLED, QLED, 4K, 8K and the like definitely make it confusing when choosing what type of display you need or want.
Luckily, Dolby has – as it has traditionally done with TV sound – made it a bit easier by using actual words to describe its tech.
Dolby Vision is now becoming popular and you’ll see its logo, along with audio brethren Dolby Atmos, slapped on a wide range of TVs on sale.
But, what exactly is it, and why should you care? Let’s break it down, because it’s way more than just a shiny new feature.
Dolby Vision HDR explained
Think of HDR (High Dynamic Range) like giving your TV a pair of glasses that help it see a broader range of colors and brightness.
Dolby Vision is like giving those glasses a custom prescription tailored to each scene you’re watching.
It takes everything HDR does and turns it up to 11, delivering better brightness, richer colors, and deeper blacks that make everything from action-packed blockbusters to serene nature documentaries look incredible.
HDR is a solid step up from regular viewing – some people even argue it’s more important than the resolution when it comes to picture quality – and Dolby Vision adds a layer of finesse that makes everything even more immersive.
What is HDR, and why should you care?
At its core, HDR is about making your TV picture more vibrant, with enhanced brightness, deeper contrasts, and more colors. It takes your TV’s display to new heights, enabling content to pop with lifelike realism. To understand how much of a big deal HDR is, you need to know what you’re upgrading from.
SDR – i.e. what your TV was doing before HDR became a thing – is limited to 8-bit color, meaning it can only display about 16 million colors.
The brightness of an SDR TV peaks at around 100 nits, with a contrast ratio of about 1,200:1 – meaning the brightest image could only be 1,200 times brighter than the darkest.
HDR, in contrast, expands the color range and boosts brightness. HDR displays start at around 300 nits, with high-end models now hitting over 1,000 nits, allowing for richer, more vibrant colors and deeper blacks.
This means you’ll be able to see more details in both dark and bright scenes, creating more dynamic visuals.
HDR10 vs Dolby Vision: What’s the difference?
When it comes to HDR formats, HDR10 is the most widely used. It’s a basic HDR standard that uses 10-bit color, delivering about 1 billion colors.
While that sounds impressive, it’s still a far cry from the true-to-life color richness we experience IRL.
Dolby Vision tries to take things further; it 12-bit color and can display up to 68 billion colors, creating a much richer, vibrant image with more subtle details in the highlights and shadows.
Dolby Vision, therefore, gives you an image that’s more true-to-life by allowing for a wider color spectrum, more precise color gradations, and more realistic lighting effects.
The difference is easily noticeable, especially in scenes with complex lighting, where every detail is revealed with perfect clarity.
What is Dolby Vision IQ?
HDR10 uses static metadata, meaning the settings for brightness, color, and contrast are set to an average value for the entire piece of content. While this approach is perfectly fine, it can’t fully take advantage of what your display can do.
Dolby Vision IQ – the latest version of Dolby Vision – uses dynamic metadata, which means it can adjust those settings frame by frame, or scene by scene.
This ensures that each shot is optimized to show off the maximum dynamic range of your display – from the brightest highlights to the deepest shadows. It’s like getting a custom-tailored picture every time you watch a new scene.
Additionally, Dolby Vision IQ uses the TV’s built-in ambient light sensor to assess your room’s lighting. It then adjusts the brightness and contrast of the content in real-time, ensuring that HDR visuals appear vibrant and detailed, whether you’re watching in a brightly lit room or a darkened space.
Where can you get Dolby Vision?
Many modern TVs come equipped with Dolby Vision support, from the likes of Sony, LG, TCL, Hisense and more, and it’s also available on a bunch of the latest streaming devices such as Fire TV sticks, Apple TV and the Google TV Streamer (4K).
Smartphones and tablets on both sides of the iOS/Android divide also increasingly offer Dolby Vision smarts too.
The good news is that Dolby Vision works with a growing number of popular streaming services, including Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, and Amazon Prime Video, with a growing library of Dolby Vision content.
And it’s not just limited to movies and shows. If you have a Microsoft Xbox Series X or Series S, you can enable Dolby Vision, if your TV supports it, to enjoy vibrant environments without having to adjust any settings.
Dolby Vision FAQs
No, you cannot. You can get Dolby Atmos for sound on your PS5, but the visuals are HDR10, not Dolby Vision.
Samsung TVs do not support Dolby Vision; the Korean giant has instead chosen to implement its own HDR standard, HDR10+.
Many streaming services (like Netflix, Disney+, etc.) will display a Dolby Vision logo or badge when you select content that supports it. Your TV might also show a notification or indicator when it’s receiving a Dolby Vision signal.
Yes, Dolby Vision is generally considered superior to HDR10. While both offer improved picture quality compared to standard dynamic range (SDR), Dolby Vision’s use of dynamic metadata gives it a significant advantage. It’s worth noting that HDR10+ also uses dynamic metadata and is a competitor to Dolby Vision.
