Dolby Vision 2 Arrives On Hisense TVs

Hisense’s UX, UR9, UR8 and U7 TVs have become the first in the world to get Dolby Vision 2 support.

Photo: Dolby and Hisense

Since its surprise and seemingly very last minute unveiling at the IFA technology show in Berlin in 2025, Dolby Vision 2 has been a hot and sometimes controversial topic in AV fan circles, all with nothing more than a few tech demos here and there to keep the debate going. Now, though, it’s finally possible to experience Dolby Vision 2 in the real world – provided, at least, that you buy a Hisense TV.

Hisense was the first TV brand to actually showcase Dolby Vision 2; in fact, I was actually looking on as the first DV2 demo firmware was loaded on to a Hisense TV at the aforementioned IFA 2025 show. Now it has become the first brand to run Dolby Vision 2 on TVs you can actually have in your living room. In fact, if you happen to already own one of the brand’s 2026 TVs, depending on where you live the feature may have already been added via firmware update without you realising it.

The first Hisense models to receive the update according to today’s (August 6) Dolby/Hisense announcement are its ultra high-end UX models, plus the more mainstream (though still premium) UR9, UR8 and U7 (U7 Pro in EU, MEA and CSA) sets. Hisense uses different operating systems in different regions for some of these TVs, but happily the new Dolby Vision 2 update will still work regardless of whether your UX, UR9, UR8 or U7 uses the Google TV or Hisense VIDAA smart platform.

I can confirm from first-hand experience that the Dolby Vision 2 update has already started rolling out, as the feature is now available on a Hisense UR9 I have in for testing (I’ll be sharing my thoughts on how the update works in a separate article soon). But Hisense states that the DV2 update rollout will need to continue for weeks before every compatible TV in every region of the world gets it. In other words, if your compatible Hisense set doesn’t have the update yet, be patient.

In terms of what the DV2 update will actually do for compatible Hisense TVs, I’ve covered the full extent of the system in this previous article. But here’s a quick summary of what’s involved.

The first thing to realize is that there are two tiers of Dolby Vision 2, a basic tier that can work on pretty much any TV, and a Max tier that adds extra features for premium TVs powerful enough to handle them.

All Dolby Vision 2 TVs, both basic and Max, will enjoy the following:

1. A powerful new image engine that can deliver an enhanced Dolby Vision experience across all Dolby Vision content, regardless of whether it’s mastered in the original Dolby Vision format or Dolby Vision 2.
2. Content intelligence – a feature driven by content creators that uses new and existing metadata to, as Dolby puts it, “further bridge the creative suite to the viewer’s living room”. This requires precise instructions to be embedded in the video feed so that compatible displays can dynamically adjust the picture to make every scene look the best it can within each display’s specific capabilities.
3. An Intensity Slider – a simple sliding bar adjustment for controlling the depth, vibrancy, brightness and contrast of the TV’s pictures to compensate for viewing angles, onscreen reflections and simply different viewing tastes. This takes into account more than 30 different image parameters in making its adjustments, making it far more sophisticated than normal TV brightness, contrast etc tweaks.

Premium TVs capable of handling the Max version of Dolby Vision 2 can additionally expect the following new features:

4. Authentic Motion – a world first tool that allows creatives to adjust frame rates where they feel it is appropriate for a particular title or specific parts of a particular title to remove excessive judder – or else avoid the soap opera effect TVs’ own motion compensation processing can cause. This feature has been the source of controversy since DV2 was announced, but the crucial point is that it is set by creatives, delivering their intent. If a creative doesn’t want to implement the feature, it won’t be used when their content is played.

5. Light Sense 2. This continually optimizes picture quality for any lighting environment without compromising artistic intent. In fact, Dolby would argue that this feature actually preserves artistic intent in terms of the viewer’s perception rather than altering it in any negative sense. This feature is, as with the Authentic Motion feature, more sophisticated and directly tied to creative intent than the light sensor features provided by different TV brands’ home-grown light-adaptive systems.

6. Pro settings – a suite of extra calibration tools designed to offer users more precise control over their TV’s picture performance.

Some Dolby Vision 2 features depend on support at the content side, yet currently there isn’t any content out there that’s making use of the system’s full suite of enhancements. However, CANAL+, iQIYI and Peacock have already committed to adopting Dolby Vision 2 in the future, with other content makers expected to take it on too as the feature becomes more widely available across the TV market.

Some of Dolby Vision 2’s features CAN work with existing Dolby Vision content, though, since they don’t depend on extra information being mastered into source material. So the system can immediately improve your current DV experience.

“Dolby Vision 2 sets a new standard for what television can look like, and today consumers can experience that difference for themselves,” said John Couling, Senior Vice President, Entertainment at Dolby Laboratories. “With this update, the entertainment you love in Dolby Vision now looks even better, setting the stage for even more incredible experiences to come.”

Meanwhile, Sonny Ming, General Manager of TV Product Marketing Department at Hisense, says this of his company becoming the first to bring Dolby Vision 2 to market: “Hisense customers expect the best, and Dolby Vision 2 delivers on that promise. The moment users turn on their Hisense TV, they’re immersed in lifelike visuals—delivering the vivid, true-to-life viewing experience Hisense displays are designed for.”

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