Dolby Vision 2: What We've Learned From IFA 2025

Dolby Vision 2 made its debut at IFA 2025. Here’s why you might need it.

FAQS & Tutorials - Updated 9th September 2025

Dolby Vision 2: What We've Learned From IFA 2025

Written By

Elliott Peeters-Vanstone

Dolby Vision 2 is Coming... But Why Does It Matter?

IFA is always packed with new technology, but this year one of the biggest stories from Berlin wasn’t from the likes of Sony or Samsung... it was from Dolby. For the first time, the company showed off Dolby Vision 2, the next generation of its premium HDR format.

We didn’t get to see it first-hand in Berlin, but many of our friends from other publications did. Their takeaway? Dolby Vision 2 isn’t just about squeezing extra detail from the flagships, it could make a real difference on affordable TVs too.

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What is Dolby Vision 2?

Dolby Vision 2 is an evolution of Dolby’s HDR standard. The goal isn’t to change how movies or TV shows are mastered. Instead, the new format delivers more metadata and smarter processing, allowing TVs to do more with the information that creators already encode.

There are two tiers:

Dolby Vision 2 → brings dramatically improved picture quality to mainstream TVs, delivering the core next-generation capabilities made possible through the new Dolby Image Engine and Content Intelligence.

Dolby Vision 2 Max → delivers the best picture on the highest performing TVs, adding additional premium features designed to utilise the full capabilities of these displays.

In both cases, the TV receives better instructions about how to display each scene. Dolby’s new mapping engine can break the image into layers and reconstruct it according to the capabilities of the specific TV. This means that even an entry‑level LCD set can present greater contrast and colour without any changes to the original video.

How Does It Work?

So what makes Dolby Vision 2 different? In short: it is not about inventing a brand-new HDR format. It is about making the one we already know a whole lot smarter.

At the heart of Dolby Vision 2 is a new image engine. Think of it like giving your TV a better brain. This brain can read more information from movies, TV shows, games and even live sports, and then decide how best to show it on your screen in your living room.

Dolby calls this system Content Intelligence. It is a mix of clever tools designed to help TVs balance the creator’s intent with the performance of your setup:

Precision Black: ever watched a film where everything just looked too dark? Precision Black helps avoid that by separating out subtle details in the shadows without making the image look washed out.
Light Sense: adjusts the picture depending on your room lighting, so whether you are watching in daylight or a dim home cinema, colours and brightness look right.
Sports & Gaming Optimisation: tweaks white balance and motion so fast-paced action looks sharper and smoother, from football matches to Call of Duty.

On top of that, Dolby Vision 2 introduces new tone mapping. This is essentially a way for content creators to fine-tune how brightness and colour are displayed on today’s brighter, more colourful TVs. That means flagship sets can push brightness and vibrancy further than before without breaking the director’s creative intent.

For premium TVs, there is also Dolby Vision 2 Max. This unlocks extras like Authentic Motion, a motion-control system designed to make movement feel more cinematic without the dreaded “soap opera” effect.

The big idea? Dolby Vision 2 is not just about adding more to a spec sheet. It is about getting more from the pixels you already have and making sure what you see feels closer to what the creator intended, whether you are watching on a £400 set in the lounge or a £4,000 flagship in a home cinema.

Dolby Vision 2: What Reviewers saw at IFA 2025?

The most interesting thing about Dolby’s first public demo of Dolby Vision 2 is that it didn’t take place on luxury flagships. According to reports, it was shown on entry-level Hisense A5 TVs. That’s what makes the early reactions stand out.

Matt Bolton at TechRadar reported that even on these modest sets, Dolby Vision 2 produced a noticeably more dynamic picture. Colours gained saturation, white tones looked cleaner, and dark areas carried more depth too.

Not every clip was universally better, some reviewers noted Dolby Vision 1 still delivered punchier colours in places but the overall verdict across multiple reports was consistent: Dolby Vision 2 is a meaningful upgrade, even on TVs where you might least expect it.

If you want to dive deeper into the first hands-on impressions, you can check out full reports from TechRadar and Engadget, both of which covered the Dolby Vision 2 announcement in detail.

Which TVs Will Get Dolby Vision 2?

According to Dolby's Announcement, Hisense will be among the first brands to bring Dolby Vision 2 TVs to market,, with Canal+ being one of the first broadcasters to commit. That’s big for Europe, where Hisense already pushes aggressive value in the mid-range.

As for the rest of the industry, we are still waiting on official word. Brands like LG, Sony and Samsung have yet to confirm their plans, and it will be fascinating to see how each of them approaches Dolby’s new format. With adoption still unfolding, we will be keeping a close eye on announcements from all the major players.

Dolby Vision 2: Our Verdict

We’re excited. Dolby Vision 2 looks like it could really change the game for HDR, making even affordable 4K TVs look more cinematic. For home-cinema fans in the UK, that could mean less compromise when you don’t want to spend flagship money.

Will it be an instant revolution? Probably not. Adoption will depend on how quickly TV manufacturers (and streaming platforms) get on board. But if Dolby delivers, in our view, this could be the most important TV upgrade since HDR itself.

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