Just as every mid- and high-end 4K TV brand (aside from Samsung) had gotten on board with Dolby Vision as the preferred standard for high-dynamic range (HDR), Dolby has announced a new and improved version, Dolby Vision 2, which adjusts your TV’s settings to match the lighting of your living room for better visibility in real time. And with 2026 TVs hitting stores, the new standard is making its way into new TVs, adding yet another feature to watch for when you shop.
Based on what we’ve seen so far, though, widespread adoption will be slow-going. It’s in a few of Hisense’s new TVs, including the UR9 and 116UX. TCL, too, in its C-Series and X QD-Mini LED. Some sets, like the Philips OLED811, will get support via software update later this year.
Dolby Vision 2 is an interesting and exciting feature, especially for cinephiles and sports fans, and something I expect Popular Mechanics will recommend looking for in your next TV sooner or later. For now, though, the tech is in its infancy and hamstrung by both its less-than-ubiquitous availability and a lack of content that supports it. Here’s what you need to know:
Dolby Vision 2 incorporates AI that adjusts your TV’s settings for you, calibrating your TV to the best possible brightness, color, and contrast based on the lighting conditions in your space. “Content Intelligence,” as Dolby likes to call it, measures ambient lighting conditions using sensors built into your TV. The goal, Dolby says, is to make your shows as easy to see as possible, while preserving the color accuracy and lighting filmed by their creators.
This is going to be a big help for folks who don’t like to tweak settings. If you have your TV in a room with lots of windows, lighting conditions will change throughout the day: Now, your TV’s settings will automatically shift as the glare increases and decreases with the arc of the sun.
And have you also noticed that a lot of movies and shows these days have nighttime scenes so black that you can barely see anything? Dolby Vision 2 will also include better tools to detect when scenes are too dark to see and then adjust them automatically for easier viewing.
It also reportedly fixes one TV’s most controversial feature. You may have had a film buff or tech-adept friend tell you to turn off motion smoothing: It’s a feature that’s designed to reduce screen shake, but often makes action sequences look unreal. (Some people call it the “soap-opera effect.”) Dolby claims that Vision 2 offers an improved version of motion smoothing that can fix the shake without those side effects.
That motion smoothing, plus smart white balance adjustment, is going to help sports fans and gamers, which feature fast-paced action and objects that move across the screen in a split-second. Normally, optimizing the picture to clearly show a black hockey puck speeding along ice or a dark football flying over a grassy stadium can make white areas look too blue or bright and blown out, as the picture tries to constantly adjust to quick cuts from one part of the action to another. It will let the TV respond automatically to adjust the white balance in a way of the picture that prioritizes smoothness that lets the viewer keep track of fast-moving action without making white areas of the screen look so uncomfortably bright.
“Great. Now I have to rush out and replace my Dolby Vision TV with one that supports Dolby Vision 2, huh?” I can hear you thinking it. And the answer is no, not yet. While it’s going to do great things for home viewing in the next few years, the reality is that you won’t be able to use Dolby Vision 2 most of the time, even with the right TV. These new features only work when specific content—shows, movies, video games, etc.—is specifically designed to support Dolby Vision 2, and there’s no content out that does so yet.
It’s coming, though, slowly but surely. Peacock is the first major streaming service to confirm that it will add Dolby Vision 2 support in the U.S., which will launch by the end of 2026. We don’t know how many shows will get support, though. (Based on past experience, it will likely be a small number to start.) No other streaming services have announced plans to support it yet.
Based on the original Dolby Vision’s success, I’m relatively optimistic that it will see wider adoption, though it’s hard to say when that will happen. Last time, it took years: the original version of Dolby Vision launched in 2014, but didn’t find its way onto any streaming service until Netflix added support in 2016. The rate that services add it this time around will likely depend on how quickly TV manufacturers add it to budget-friendly sets.
And that means there’s no rush to run out and buy a TV with Dolby Vision 2. Considering that most people replace their TV once every five to 10 years, it may be nice to have, but it would be a mistake to make a purchase based on one specific emerging format. As more TV formats adopt it, you can expect that our experts’ guidance will change: For now, image quality—brightness, contrast, color depth—is still the most important thing to keep in mind when buying your next big screen.
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Matt Jancer has been in the industry for 15 years and lives in his favorite urban death maze, New York City. He’s traded words for money on behalf of more than 15 magazines. Some of his longest-running bylines were spent covering cars, motorcycles, outdoors gear, health and fitness for Car and Driver, Outside, Esquire, Smithsonian, Playboy and Wired. When he’s not writing about motorcycles and our place in the wilderness for a living, he’s writing for enjoyment, riding his motorcycle, and mountain climbing out West. He believes everyone needs at least one hobby they have none of their ego invested into, and so guitar noises and cooking smells have been known to emanate from his apartment. Oh yeah, and he thinks pigeons are way underrated.
Mike Epstein is a Senior Commerce Editor at Hearst Enthusiast Group, producing reviews for buying guides Popular Mechanics, Runner’s World, Bicycling, and Best Products. Prior to joining Hearst, he was a video game and technology critic for over 10 years, with bylines at IGN, Gamespot, Variety, Lifehacker, Kotaku, GamesRadar, Flavorwire and Digital Trends, among others. Now, he’s a jack of all trades, helping reviewers share everything they know about all kinds of technical gear, from snowblowers, to running shoes and bicycles, and every kind of gadget imaginable.
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