Samsung’s new HDR10+ Advanced will take on Dolby Vision 2
Powering the latest evolution of home theater picture
📣 Samsung announces a new HDR10+ Advanced video format
🥊 Designed to support brighter TVs and features AI to compete with Dolby Vision 2
📺 New HDR10+ Bright picture mode will support TVs with 4,000-5,000 nits of brightness or more
🧠 HDR10+ Advanced will intelligently adapt to genres, apply motion smoothing, and improve cloud gaming
📅 No release date yet, but expect more HDR10+ Advanced details at CES 2026
Samsung has announced an upgraded version of its HDR10+ Advanced video format just in time to compete with Dolby Vision 2. I got to see an exclusive demo of it at Samsung’s HQ in Suwon, South Korea, and the key improvement HDR10+ Advanced brings is better tone mapping for brighter TVs.
I saw a “simulation” with edited footage to show how HDR10+ Advanced should improve picture quality over HDR10+ on two of Samsung’s latest 115-inch Micro RGB TVs. You can see the biggest difference in how there are more gradations of light on the the characters face and the increased detail on the cave wall.
HDR10+ was first introduced in 2017, when 4K TVs could only reach a peak brightness of 1,000 nits. To better support modern brightness TV standards, Samsung will introduce a new HDR10+ Bright picture mode – HDR10+ Advanced will have an umbrella of different variants – for screens that push upwards of 4,000-5,000-nits.
AI enhancement
HDR10+ Advanced will also utilize AI to enhance tone mapping, genre-based optimization, intelligent frame rate conversion, adaptive gaming features, more precise local tone mapping, and color control.
Out of all the features in that list, HDR10+ Genre or genre-based optimization sounds most interesting, as it allows content creators to add optimized tone-mapping curves and picture processing into the metadata of their videos. It’s not as in-depth as a filmmaker mode, as content creators can only apply a genre to their work, but it’s a deeper solution than the existing, blanket professional picture profile mode available on Samsung TVs today.
Motion Smoothing is something I turn off on any TV I encounter; however, Samsung tells me it has a new HDR10+ Intelligent FRC that will only apply motion smoothing when required. Essentially, HDR10+ Advanced analyzes the video signal to determine whether you’re watching sports, drama, news, or other content, and then decides on the need and strength of motion smoothing to apply.
There’s also a new HDR10+ Intelligent Gaming mode that promises to improve cloud gaming by adapting the tone mapping of the game stream to your ambient lighting in real-time. It’s a bit unusual that it will only apply to cloud gaming, but it’s a welcome addition now that Nvidia GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming have both been enhanced.
Samsung hasn’t announced when HDR10+ Advanced will arrive, but we’re more than likely to see it at CES 2026 alongside Samsung’s new lineup of TVs.
Kevin Lee is The Shortcut’s Creative Director. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam.