Dolby Vision 2 is here for TVs – this time it’s fixing motion, bumping up HDR quality, and comes in two flavors

Dolby Vision 2 will include a new image engine, and adaptive 'Content Intelligence'
Dolby Vision 2 Max has 'Authentic Motion' and is designed for high-end TVs
Hisense is the first TV maker to announce support

Dolby has announced the successor to its advanced HDR format, Dolby Vision. Appropriately enough, it's called Dolby Vision 2, and over time it will replace both the current Dolby Vision standard and the Dolby Vision IQ variation, which adapts the picture based on the ambient brightness in the room.

However, it's not the only option: Dolby is also introducing Dolby Vision 2 Max, which is an even more advanced version designed specifically for high-end TVs, such as elite OLED TVs and new RGB mini-LED TVs.

Dolby Vision 2 will be supported by Hisense on high-end TVs that use the MediaTek Pentonic 800 chips, which is the first chip with full support for the new standard, and includes the groundbreaking 116-inch RGB Mini-LED that we recently tested in-depth.

This chip is used by other TVs, but we're not sure which models will support Dolby Vision 2, because which chips are used in which TVs is not always as logical as you might thing – I've reached out to all the major TV companies to ask about their plans to support Dolby Vision 2 in the future, and will publish any news I receive.

So what's actually new this time? There's a big focus on adapting the picture to improve it while keeping the artistic intent the same, and this time that's not just about colors and luminance – Dolby Vision 2 also brings with it some exciting-sounding tweaks to motion handling.

Authentic Motion in a next-gen engine

"Dolby Vision 2 redefines how we think of Dolby Vision to unleash the full capabilities of modern TVs while giving artists unprecedented opportunities to push their creative boundaries further than ever before,” says John Couling, Senior Vice President, Entertainment at Dolby Laboratories, in the introduction to the new format.

There are three main areas that have changed in Dolby Vision, not including the introduction of Dolby Vision 2 Max (which we'll come back to in a minute).

Let's start with the one I'm most intrigued by (and probably most videophiles will be as well): Authentic Motion. It kind of does for motion handling what Dolby Vision does for dynamic range, enabling it to be tweaked on a "shot-by-shot basis" by the creators when mastering the movie or TV show, rather than having the TV set to a particular motion setting that overrides everything.

Dolby makes clear that this is "the world’s first creative driven motion control tool" [emphasis mine], and that this will "make scenes feel more authentically cinematic without unwanted judder".

It might provide the perfect solution to a potential issue with Filmmaker Mode on TVs: we don't want artificial motion smooth to make movies look unnatural, but TVs aren't always capable of showing the 24fps movement of film with some timing issues that create juddery effects.

If this can be solved by having the filmmakers add in some motion adjustments to the film master encode, which are then communicated to the TV through Dolby Vision 2, that could be a win all around: always natural motion, but only when it's needed.

Next up, is a "redesigned and even more powerful image engine" powering Dolby Vision 2. There's not much detail on this yet, but basically Dolby has upgraded the tools that power the creation and playback of Dolby Vision content, offering new options for creators, while also promising that "content in Dolby Vision will look even more astonishing when enjoyed on a Dolby Vision 2 display."

Content Intelligence is here (at least it's not more AI)

Part of the pitch of Dolby Vision was always that it helps to adapt the original mastered picture to the capabilities of your particular TV, and Dolby Vision 2 will expand on this depending on what's happening in the content itself, as well as what screen you're using. There are a few key new features, and Dolby has wrapped them all up under the name Content Intelligence, which thankfully makes no claims around AI tuning despite the trendy name,

First up is Precision Black, which is designed to "reduce consumer frustration that the image is 'too dark'" by boosting content that's just too murky to see on some TVs (too late for that infamous Games of Thrones battle, but so it goes), but promises to do this "without compromising artistic intent."

Next up is Light Sense, which is designed to adapt the picture based on the ambient lighting in the room, but in combination with "reference lighting data from the content source" for best results – making it an improvement (and a replacement for) the adaptive picture of Dolby Vision IQ.

And there are a few optimizations for live sports, including "white point adjustments" and "motion control" that are both specifically aimed at improving live sports broadcasts.

To the Max

Finally, the most mysterious part of Dolby Vision 2 so far is the Max version. Dolby says it will have more to share on this later, but it's basically designed to make the most of the highest-performing TVs, including bi-directional tone mapping and new advanced tools for enthusiasts.

The overall idea is to push the highest-performing TVs as far as they can go, to really give you maximum visual bang for your buck when it comes to punchy and clear picture quality.

If some of this seems a little vague in terms of what improvements you should expect from it, don't worry – I'll be speaking to Dolby in depth about the changes soon, to get a sense of how big a change this will be in practice.

When will all this arrive? More info on availability and timing will come later – even if makers of the best TVs support it, we also need content to be produced using it. So far, Canal+ is confirmed to be on board for that, but we'll need to hear a lot more.

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