Dolby Vision 2, a new technology for improving picture quality on TVs, is arriving on consumer televisions for the first time. Hisense's 2026 UX, UR9, UR8, and U7 models are the first TVs to get it (The Verge). The format was first announced in September 2025 and had reached "in market" status on some Hisense TVs as of Dolby's third-quarter 2026 financial results on July 30 (Dolby Investor Relations). TCL and Philips will add Dolby Vision 2 support to select TVs later in 2026 (The Verge).

To understand what's new, it helps to know what Dolby Vision does. Most movies and TV shows are filmed with a wider range of brightness and color than a standard TV can show. Dolby Vision is a format that tells the TV how to adjust its brightness and color settings for each scene, so the picture looks closer to what the filmmakers intended. Dolby Vision 2 is an upgraded version of this system, with a more powerful image engine and more detailed scene-by-scene instructions, called metadata.

The new format comes in two versions: Dolby Vision 2 Max and standard Dolby Vision 2. The Hisense sets rolling out now include the Max version (The Verge).

Dolby Vision 2 Max includes three features that the standard version does not. Authentic Motion smooths out the stuttering or blurriness that can happen when film-based content plays on modern high-refresh-rate TVs. An updated ambient light sensor adjustment, which builds on an earlier feature called Dolby Vision IQ, automatically tunes the picture based on the lighting in your room. Pro settings allow fine-tuning of tone mapping, which is how the TV adjusts the brightness levels in the source material to match what the screen can actually display (The Verge).

The standard Dolby Vision 2 tier is designed for less expensive TVs that do not have ambient light sensors or the hardware needed for Authentic Motion. It still includes adjustments for brightness both up and down, fine-tuning of brightness in specific areas of the screen, an intensity slider, and works with existing Dolby Vision content (The Verge).

Both versions require special hardware inside the TV. The only chip currently capable of running Dolby Vision 2 is the MediaTek Pentonic 800 (The Verge). Hisense's first Dolby Vision 2 TVs are powered by that chip (Dolby). Older Dolby Vision TVs cannot be upgraded to Dolby Vision 2, but they can still play Dolby Vision 2 content by ignoring the extra scene-by-scene instructions (The Verge).

A key change in Dolby Vision 2 is its ability to increase the brightness of content to take full advantage of a TV's light output. The original Dolby Vision mostly worked in one direction: it made very bright movie content dimmer so it would fit within what a TV could display. Dolby Vision 2 can also work the other way, brightening content to use more of a TV's available brightness. Most HDR movies are mastered at brightness levels between 1,000 and 4,000 nits, where a nit is a unit of brightness. Modern high-end TVs, particularly those using MiniLED backlighting, can produce brightness higher than that. The new engine can scale content brightness upward rather than only compressing it downward (The Verge).

Dolby Vision 2 also includes an intensity control that lets users adjust how strong the HDR effect looks, based on lighting conditions, personal preference, or how sensitive they are to contrast. This applies to both tiers (The Verge).

Hisense plans to support Dolby Vision 2 on its 2026 RGB MiniLED TVs, including the UX, UR9, and UR8 models, and to bring it to more MiniLED TVs over time (Dolby CES 2026). Hisense will be the first TV brand to introduce Dolby Vision 2 to its lineup (Dolby), with the feature arriving on its RGB-MiniLED TVs via an over-the-air update (Hisense).

The broader context here is that the two-tier approach lets Dolby put the Vision 2 name on a wider range of TV prices. The Max label goes to sets with ambient light sensors and dedicated motion processing, while the standard tier covers more affordable models. Dolby followed a similar path with the original Dolby Vision, which started on premium TVs and gradually reached mid-range models over several years. The difference now is the hardware requirement: without the MediaTek Pentonic 800 chip, no TV gets Dolby Vision 2 in any form, which ties how quickly the format spreads to how many TVs use that specific chip.

The backward-compatibility approach matters for anyone who produces or streams video. Studios and streaming services can create one version of a movie in Dolby Vision 2, and older Dolby Vision TVs will simply play it using the original adjustments while newer TVs use the expanded instructions. That means no separate versions need to be produced, which makes the transition smoother. Existing Dolby Vision content also benefits from the new format's improved brightness adjustments on compatible TVs, so Dolby Vision 2 starts with a large library of content rather than none at all.

The limitation is the chip dependency. Until other chipmakers produce Dolby Vision 2-capable chips, the format's reach depends on how many TVs use the MediaTek Pentonic 800. TCL and Philips joining later in 2026 will help, but the pace depends on how broadly that chip reaches their product lines. For now, Hisense has the format to itself.