Samsung just showed off its new HDR10+ Advanced, a high-tech picture format aiming to make TV images look even better. This new system will go head-to-head with Dolby Vision 2, both promising to deliver stunning visuals on upcoming TVs. It offers upgrades that closely match Dolby Vision 2, but also includes its own special features. These new tools from both companies aim to improve image quality for today’s advanced TV screens, especially since current HDR formats were created before these newer technologies became common.
HDR10+ Advanced features six main improvements. One is HDR10+ Bright, which is like Dolby Vision 2’s ‘bi-direction tone mapping.’ It helps HDR pictures look more accurate and vibrant on today’s super-bright TVs, especially on the future’s RGB mini-LED TVs. Most movies today are made for TVs with a maximum brightness of 1,000 nits. If a TV is brighter than that — like many new mini-LED TVs — HDR10+ Bright will accurately adjust the image to take advantage of that extra brightness, making dark areas clearer and bright areas more dazzling. Samsung plans to launch its new ‘Micro RGB’ TVs in 2026, which will offer very high brightness and richer colors, making this tech perfect for them.
Another feature, HDR10+ Genre, adjusts picture settings based on what you are watching. For example, a dark crime show might keep more detail in shadows, while a sports broadcast will focus on clear, vibrant colors. HDR10+ Intelligent FRC lets movie creators tell your TV exactly how much motion smoothing to use, even changing it shot by shot. So, a slow drama will have little smoothing, but a fast panning shot that might look jerky will get a bit more, making everything look smooth as intended. This can even adjust based on your room’s lighting.
For gamers, HDR10+ Intelligent Gaming adapts picture settings in real time to the room’s lighting, making it especially well-suited for cloud gaming. This could mean you see more detail in the dark parts of a game. HDR10+ Local Tone Mapping helps mini-LED TVs control their backlights more precisely, leading to better contrast and less light “blooming” into dark areas. Finally, Advanced Color Control gives creators a way to send more precise color information to TVs, so they can display colors more accurately, as the creator intended.
Samsung plans to include HDR10+ Advanced in its 2026 TVs, which we will likely hear more about at CES 2026. Amazon Prime Video will also support this new format. While Samsung has only shown simulated footage so far, compared to Dolby Vision 2’s real demos, HDR10+ Advanced might have an advantage if it launches with popular Prime Video content ready to go. We expect CES 2026 to become a major battleground for these new HDR formats and advanced TV technologies.
