Samsung has introduced HDR10+ Advanced, an AI-powered update to its royalty-free HDR standard, on its 2026 television lineup. Amazon Prime Video has begun supporting the format, which utilizes dynamic metadata and AI processing to compete with Dolby Vision 2.
The introduction of this AI-enhanced format intensifies the technical rivalry between royalty-free standards and proprietary solutions like Dolby Vision 2. By integrating AI-driven motion smoothing and regional brightness mapping, Samsung is attempting to close the performance gap that previously favored Dolby's licensed hardware. This move forces streaming services to maintain dual encoding workflows, though the ability to upgrade existing HDR10+ metadata may ease adoption for platforms like Amazon Prime Video. Watch for whether LG 2026 AI TV lineup, the primary HDR10+ holdouts, maintain their exclusive commitment to Dolby Vision as AI-optimized picture quality becomes a standard consumer expectation.
The HDR10+ ecosystem has expanded significantly since Samsung first introduced the royalty-free standard in 2017. HDR10+ Technologies LLC reported that more than 170 companies had joined the consortium by mid-2025, including content studios, chipset makers, and display manufacturers. Amazon Prime Video remains the most prominent streaming backer, having encoded its entire HDR library in HDR10+ since 2022. The addition of AI-driven processing in HDR10+ Advanced represents the most substantial technical upgrade since the format's inception, positioning it as a direct response to Dolby's own next-generation announcement.
Dolby responded to competitive pressure by announcing Dolby Vision 2 at CES 2025 in January, introducing its own AI-powered processing engine that uses content-aware machine learning to optimize brightness, color, and motion on a scene-by-scene basis. Dolby Vision 2 requires new hardware support and is tied to Dolby's licensing fee structure, which has historically been a barrier for budget TV manufacturers. Hisense and TCL both confirmed Dolby Vision 2 support on their 2026 flagship sets at CES 2026, signaling that even cost-sensitive brands are willing to pay Dolby's licensing premium for premium-tier differentiation. Meanwhile, Panasonic confirmed continued HDR10+ support across its 2026 OLED lineup, maintaining its dual-format approach alongside Dolby Vision.
Independent testing has begun to quantify the performance gap between the two next-generation formats. Rtings.com published a comparative analysis in July 2026 showing that Dolby Vision 2's AI tone-mapping produced measurably lower clipping in highlights above 1,000 nits on test patterns, though the difference narrowed to under 2% when content mastered below 600 nits was evaluated. Samsung has countered that HDR10+ Advanced's genre-based AI optimization, which adjusts motion smoothing parameters based on whether content is sports, film, or animation, delivers perceptible improvements in fast-motion scenes without introducing the soap-opera effect. Netflix confirmed in June 2026 that it would not adopt HDR10+ Advanced for its streaming service, citing its existing investment in Dolby Vision 2 encoding pipelines and the complexity of maintaining parallel HDR workflows across its global content library.
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