The next generation of TVs will aim for improvements in colour and better balance in the darker parts of the image, as a system made for TV and movie viewing gets its own sequel.
TVs regularly see improvements in technology, and the change from your older set to the latest model shows that well, but those changes also come from support of colour. Specifically, there’s standard dynamic range and high dynamic range.
You’ve probably seen initialisms like “SDR” and “HDR” over the years, and that’s exactly what they stand for, with their definition really about the amount of colours on screen. Standard dynamic range is regular colour, while high dynamic range boosts the colour with brighter lights that don’t fade into white as obviously, darker shades with more detail, and vibrant but still detailed colours.
Most TVs made today support HDR, and many phones do, too. When you capture a video on current iPhones, they too support HDR, handy because your TV probably does, as well.
In fact, it’s been a little longer than a decade since HDR started popping up on TVs, though it’s been in the past five years or so that most TVs had the technology. There are a few of these, the biggest arguably from Dolby in Dolby Vision, which also makes the Atmos spatial sound standard.
But with new TVs from late 2025 onwards, we could see a new standard, as Dolby Vision gets a sequel.
Announced at IFA this year, Dolby Vision 2 is on the way. While it won’t come with a fancy sequel name — “Dolby Vision 2: A Brighter Day” and “Dolby Vision 2: Electric Boogaloo” are clearly the top choices — what Dolby Vision 2 will arrive with is a new image processing engine and what Dolby calls “Content Intelligence”, an AI-connected system to optimise TVs to fine-tine the shows and films for the TV itself.
That’ll include balancing the darks in an image when a scene is perceived as “too dark”, using an approach Dolby calls “Precision Black”. Meanwhile, another system, “Light Sense”, will use ambient light detecting and reference data from the content to optimise the TV.
Interestingly, Dolby Vision will actually come in two flavours: Dolby Vision 2 and Dolby Vision 2 Max, with the latter being a little bit better for “the highest performing TVs”. A cynical person would suggest the Max variation is likely going to appear on the more expensive TVs on the market, though it remains to be seen whether anyone will really be able to spot the difference.
In terms of where you can expect to find the new form of HDR, Dolby Vision 2 will appear first on a Hisense TV, with the technology found on MediaTek’s Pentonic 800 chip found in supported screens. While that sounds a fair bit like jargon, it basically means Hisense’s RGB-MiniLED TV is the first television to get Dolby Vision 2.
Previously, Hisense’s RGB-MiniLED technology was announced for two models set to arrive in Australia from $22,999 in a 100 inch model and $39,999 for a 116 inch variation.
