Samsung announced on August 4, 2026 that a new, higher-quality video format called HDR10+ Advanced is coming to Prime Video this month. Amazon's service is the first streaming platform to offer it globally on supported titles (Samsung Newsroom, Korea Times).

The rollout starts on Samsung's 2026 television lineup, with plans to expand to other products in the future (Korea Times). Samsung co-developed the HDR10+ format, and its Galaxy phones already use it for video recording through the Camera app's Advanced video options (Samsung Support).

HDR10+ Advanced focuses on two main improvements. The first is called Enhanced Overall Brightness. Standard HDR applies one brightness setting to an entire movie or show. That is like adjusting the brightness on your phone once and leaving it there whether you are indoors or outdoors. HDR10+ Advanced instead adjusts brightness scene by scene, so a dark night scene and a bright sunny scene each get their own optimal settings.

The second feature is called Intelligent Motion Smoothing. Most TVs that smooth out motion use one setting for the whole program, which can cause visual glitches when scenes change. HDR10+ Advanced uses scene-by-scene information to adjust the motion processing as needed, aiming to reduce glitches while keeping fast action smooth.

Samsung also said the format uses AI-powered tone mapping to show more detail in shadows during dark scenes and deliver brighter highlights in action movies and sports (Engadget). Tone mapping is how a TV decides which brightness levels to show. The AI makes scene-by-scene decisions about how to distribute brightness across the image.

Samsung first announced HDR10+ Advanced in November 2025 and showed it off on its latest TVs at CES in January 2026 (Engadget). The company published announcements simultaneously across its US, global, Spanish-language Spain, and Colombia newsroom sites, signaling a coordinated worldwide launch rather than a test in one region (Samsung US, Samsung Global, Samsung Spain, Samsung Colombia).

The broader context here is Samsung's push to stand out through better image quality technology. HDR10+ competes with Dolby Vision, which also adjusts brightness scene by scene but charges licensing fees. HDR10+ is free for manufacturers to use, which has helped it gain adoption among TV makers and streaming services. The new AI-powered tone mapping and scene-level motion features in the Advanced version push the format into territory that has mostly belonged to expensive, high-end TVs with their own proprietary processing.

The initial limitation is hardware. HDR10+ Advanced only works on Samsung's 2026 TV lineup at launch, so the number of people who can use it grows only as they buy new TVs. Samsung has said it plans to expand to other product categories, which could mean mid-range TVs or mobile devices, but has not specified which ones or when.

For the people who create and prepare streaming video, the key question is what extra information the Advanced format requires. The scene-by-scene brightness and motion data suggest that shows and movies must be specially prepared with this information included. That could mean a gap between the announcement that the format is available on Prime Video and the actual number of titles that are properly set up for it.

Samsung previously said that the entire Prime Video HDR library is available in HDR10+ (Samsung Media Library). Whether those titles carry the full Advanced metadata or need to be re-processed is not yet clear from the announcement.

What is clear is that Samsung is building a complete picture-quality pipeline: from recording video on Galaxy phones, to preparing and distributing it on Prime Video, to displaying it on Samsung's 2026 TVs. This fits a wider pattern in the TV industry, where manufacturers increasingly compete not just on screen hardware but on the software that controls how content looks when it reaches your eyes.

For viewers with a compatible 2026 Samsung TV, the practical result is more detail in dark scenes, brighter highlights during action and sports, and motion processing that adapts to what you are watching rather than using one setting for everything. Whether those improvements are worth buying a new TV for is a question only the market will answer.