HDR10 vs HDR10+ vs Dolby Vision: What You Need to Know

Have you ever noticed those little logos on your TV box or streaming service, HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision, and wondered if they actually make a difference? These are HDR formats, and while they might seem confusing, the truth is they all try to do the same thing: give you a better picture by preserving more detail, color, and contrast than standard video can handle. In this article, we’re going to break down what each format means, where you’ll actually encounter them, how much they matter in the real world, and whether you should even care when buying your next TV, projector, or choosing a streaming service.

Let’s start with the basics.

What is HDR?

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. Unlike standard dynamic range video, HDR allows a display to show brighter highlights, deeper shadows, and a wider range of colors. The idea is simple. Real life has far more contrast and brightness than most TVs can reproduce, so HDR formats use metadata to tell your display how to map those values into its capabilities. That means when a movie shows a bright explosion against a starry sky, the details in both the flames and the tiny stars are preserved instead of being blown out or crushed into black.

The most important thing to understand is that HDR is not about resolution. A 4K HDR movie and a 4K standard movie both have the same pixel count. HDR is about picture quality. Done right, it can make your screen look more lifelike and immersive.

Now, let’s examine the three formats.

HDR10

HDR10 is the most common and widely supported HDR format. It is the open standard, and it’s included on virtually every HDR-capable TV, projector, and streaming device. HDR10 uses static metadata, which means the brightness and color mapping are set once for the entire movie or show. If a film has both very dark and very bright scenes, the tone mapping is a compromise. You might lose some detail in either the shadows or the highlights because the TV does not adjust scene by scene.

Tone mapping is the process your display uses to take HDR content, which is mastered for extremely bright reference levels far beyond what consumer TVs and projectors can achieve, and fit it into the actual brightness and contrast range of your screen. Since HDR movies and shows are often graded at 1,000 nits or more while most projectors and many TVs top out much lower, tone mapping decides how to distribute that information. If it leans toward preserving bright highlights, you may lose subtle detail in shadows. If it prioritizes dark scenes, you risk blowing out the brightest areas. The quality of tone mapping varies greatly between displays, and it is a big reason why HDR can look fantastic on some setups but underwhelming on others.

It is worth noting that televisions typically have much higher brightness capabilities than projectors, so they do not have to rely on tone mapping to the same degree. For projectors, tone mapping is absolutely critical because of the limited light output once the image is blown up to 100 inches or more, while TVs can more often deliver HDR with less compromise.

The good news is that HDR10 is compatible with most devices. Every streaming service supports it. Every UHD Blu-ray disc has it. Every modern TV can display it. If you buy HDR content, HDR10 is guaranteed to be included.

HDR10+

HDR10+ was introduced by Samsung and Amazon as an upgrade to HDR10 and, like HDR10, it’s royalty-free. The key difference is dynamic metadata, which allows your display to adjust brightness and color levels on a scene-by-scene or even frame-by-frame basis. This helps preserve detail in dark scenes while keeping highlights under control.

In the past, HDR10+ content was mostly limited to Amazon Prime Video, but today it’s supported by a much wider range of services and devices. You’ll find HDR10+ on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, YouTube, Google TV, Paramount+, and even Netflix on newer TVs. Hulu remains HDR10 for now. Many TV brands support it too, including Samsung, Panasonic, Philips, TCL, Hisense, and Roku models, along with select projectors from JVC, Epson, and BenQ. HDR10+ is also royalty-free, which has helped drive broader adoption across manufacturers.

The main advantage of HDR10+ is that it improves on HDR10 without adding licensing cost. While Dolby Vision still has broader name recognition, HDR10+ continues to expand, giving viewers another excellent dynamic HDR option that delivers outstanding results when well implemented

Dolby Vision

Dolby Vision is the premium HDR format. It supports up to 12 bit color depth and peak brightness levels as high as 10,000 nits, far beyond what today’s TVs can achieve. Like HDR10+, it uses dynamic metadata, but Dolby Vision allows for more granular control. Studios and colorists can actually tweak the metadata by hand during production. This gives content creators more control over how their movies and shows look on a wide variety of displays.

Dolby Vision is licensed by Dolby, so TV makers and content providers pay to use it. That has not stopped wide adoption. Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, and many other services offer most of their HDR content in Dolby Vision. Almost every UHD Blu-ray with premium mastering includes a Dolby Vision layer. LG, Sony, TCL, and many other TV brands support it. Game consoles like the Xbox Series X also support Dolby Vision for both streaming and gaming.

At the end of the day, Dolby Vision often delivers the most polished HDR experience, especially on TVs that are not exceptionally bright. It can bring out shadow detail, keep highlights under control, and make colors look richer without washing out.

Dolby Vision 2

Now Dolby has taken things a step further with Dolby Vision 2. Although it’s still very new, this second-generation format shows where HDR is headed. The idea behind Dolby Vision 2 is to update the standard for today’s TVs, which are brighter, more colorful, and capable of far more contrast than when the original Dolby Vision launched over a decade ago. It brings a new image engine and something Dolby calls Content Intelligence, an AI-powered system that adapts the picture to both the content you’re watching and the environment you’re in. That means dark scenes should stay more visible, highlights can stay controlled, and the overall balance of brightness and contrast is tuned more intelligently.

Dolby Vision 2 also introduces bi-directional tone mapping, which allows premium TVs to use their higher brightness and wider color capabilities without drifting away from the artistic grade. Another major addition is Authentic Motion, a tool that gives filmmakers the ability to adjust motion smoothing on a shot-by-shot basis to reduce judder while keeping the picture cinematic. In other words, instead of your TV deciding how to handle motion, the director can have a say in it.

Like before, not every TV will get the exact same feature set. Dolby Vision 2 comes in two tiers: a standard version aimed at mainstream TVs and a Dolby Vision 2 Max version reserved for the highest-performing displays. The good news is that all existing Dolby Vision content will still play everywhere, but only TVs designed for Dolby Vision 2 will be able to take advantage of the new metadata and features when it’s available.

Right now, adoption is just beginning, with Hisense set to be the first manufacturer to ship Dolby Vision 2 on its premium Mini LED models and Canal+ promising to deliver movies, shows, and sports in the new format. More brands are likely to follow as the ecosystem develops. It will take some time before Dolby Vision 2 becomes mainstream, but the direction is clear. As TVs continue to get brighter and more capable, Dolby Vision 2 is designed to close the gap between the creative suite and your living room, pushing HDR beyond simple brightness and contrast adjustments into something more dynamic and cinematic.

What About Projectors?

Projectors are a different story. HDR standards were originally designed with flat panel TVs in mind. Modern HDR content is typically mastered for peak brightness levels between 1,000 and 4,000 nits, and in some cases up to 10,000 nits. High end TVs can get close to those numbers, but most projectors deliver somewhere between 75 and 150 nits on screen once the image is blown up to 100 inches or more. That is a huge mismatch, and it creates challenges for projection systems.

Almost all HDR capable projectors support HDR10 as a baseline. Since HDR10 uses static metadata, projectors rely on tone mapping to remap the bright signal into their much dimmer output. Early HDR projectors struggled with this, and the result was often a very dark picture where details were lost. Over time, projector makers have made big strides with tone mapping. JVC developed Frame Adapt HDR, which analyzes every frame and dynamically adjusts brightness. Epson has added real time tone mapping to balance highlights and shadows on the fly. Sony made a big leap moving from the X1 processor in earlier models to the XR Cognitive processor with dynamic tone mapping, which allowed highlights to appear punchier without clipping. These advances have made projector HDR far more enjoyable than it was a few years ago.

HDR10+ support on projectors used to be rare, but that’s starting to change. JVC’s NZ series projectors like the DLA-NZ7 and NZ9 can read HDR10+ metadata, and Epson’s laser models such as the Pro Cinema LS12000 and Home Cinema LS11000 also include full HDR10+ support. Sony projectors still focus only on HDR10 and HLG, but even when HDR10+ is supported, most projectors still rely heavily on their own dynamic tone mapping to make HDR look its best.

Dolby Vision is almost nonexistent on projectors. The licensing requirements and extra processing make it impractical for most models. Some players can perform player led Dolby Vision, converting Dolby Vision into a tone mapped HDR10 signal that the projector can display. While this can look good, it is not true Dolby Vision processing happening in the projector.

For projector owners, the most important factor is not which HDR formats are listed on the spec sheet but how good the tone mapping system is. External gear can help here too. Panasonic UHD Blu-ray players with HDR Optimizer can remap content before sending it to the projector. Advanced processors like madVR can analyze every frame and provide the best possible HDR picture quality, regardless of which HDR format is being used.

When evaluating HDR on a projector, reference demo scenes are especially valuable. Space scenes with star fields, candlelit interiors, and bright explosions are good test cases. On a projector with weak tone mapping, those stars might disappear into gray, or the candle flames might look dull. On a well tuned system with dynamic tone mapping, the stars stay visible, highlights have sparkle, and shadow detail is preserved.

Another factor to keep in mind is your signal chain. Every device in the path has to be able to pass HDR metadata correctly. If your TV supports Dolby Vision but your AVR is older and can only pass HDR10, the stream will fall back to HDR10. The same is true for HDR10+. Most modern receivers support all the major HDR formats, but if you have an AVR from a few years ago, it may not.

Where Do You See the Differences?

Now that we have defined the formats, the question is whether you can actually see a difference. The answer depends on both the display you are using and the content you are watching.

On a high end OLED or Mini LED TV with excellent brightness and contrast, the difference between HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision is usually subtle. Dolby Vision might show slightly more pop and vibrancy, while HDR10+ can feel a little more natural. HDR10 on its own might look flatter, but still excellent.

On mid range and budget TVs, Dolby Vision can make a much bigger difference. Because it allows for scene by scene adjustment and often comes with higher bitrate streams, Dolby Vision can fix issues that plague cheaper panels. Details that look crushed in HDR10 can suddenly appear. Colors that look muted can gain life. Black levels can improve. HDR10+ can also help in these cases, but the content availability is not as strong.

It’s also worth noting that some of what you see is not always the format itself, but how the content was mastered. Two movies in the same format can look very different depending on the decisions made in the grading suite, so the format alone does not guarantee a certain “look.”

Streaming Services

Streaming is where most people will notice format differences. As of September, 2025, Netflix and Disney+ offer Dolby Vision on almost everything, but only on premium subscription tiers. Amazon Prime Video supports HDR10+ on many shows, but their biggest titles like Rings of Power or Reacher also include Dolby Vision. Apple TV+ supports both Dolby Vision and HDR10+. Hulu remains HDR10 for now, while Paramount+ and YouTube also include HDR10+ titles. Of course, this all subject to change depending on when you’re reading this article.

The bottom line is if you want the widest access to Dolby Vision, Netflix, Disney+, and Apple TV+ are the major sources. Amazon is the main place for HDR10+. Almost every service has HDR10 as a baseline.

Physical Media

UHD Blu-ray discs almost always include HDR10, and many also carry Dolby Vision. Dolby Vision on disc can even be more advanced than on streaming because of higher bitrates and less compression. If you are serious about movie quality and have a Dolby Vision capable player and display, discs can deliver the best experience. HDR10+ exists on disc too, but it is far less common.

For those building reference-level home theaters, Kaleidescape is another option worth mentioning. Kaleidescape downloads movies in bit-for-bit quality that matches UHD Blu-ray, often with even higher bitrates, full lossless audio, and support for HDR formats including Dolby Vision and HDR10. It eliminates the compression compromises of streaming while offering the convenience of a digital library. Serious enthusiasts often consider Kaleidescape the gold standard for HDR content delivery.

Gaming

HDR gaming is another area where the formats diverge. Xbox Series X and Series S support Dolby Vision gaming in addition to HDR10. PlayStation 5 currently supports HDR10 only. PC gaming is also primarily HDR10. HDR10+ is not really present in gaming yet.

Which Format Matters More?

So which HDR format should you prioritize? The truth is that your display’s HDR performance is far more important than the logo on the box. Peak brightness, contrast ratio, tone mapping accuracy, and color volume all determine how good HDR looks.

For example, a Samsung S95D OLED only supports HDR10 and HDR10+, while an LG G4 OLED only supports Dolby Vision. Put them side by side with high quality content and both look spectacular. The Samsung may feel more faithful to real life, while the LG might look more vibrant with Dolby Vision. But either way, you’re getting a world class HDR experience because of the panels themselves, not just the format.

On the other hand, if you buy a budget TV with 300 or 400 nits of brightness, Dolby Vision can rescue poor HDR performance and make the content look far better than HDR10 alone. That’s where format support really matters.

For projectors, the deciding factor is not the HDR format at all but how good the tone mapping engine is.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, HDR formats are about getting you closer to the director’s intent and making movies, shows, and games feel more real. Buy the best performing display you can for your room, and let format support be the tiebreaker, not the main driver.

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