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Many of the movies available in the Apple Store are encoded in Dolby Vision or HDR10+. But, is there much of a difference between the two formats? Hopefully, this post will explain everything.
Dolby Vision and HDR10+ both use dynamic metadata to adjust brightness and color scene-by-scene for better picture quality than standard HDR10. The primary differences are that Dolby Vision supports higher 12-bit color depth and higher peak brightness (10,000 nits) compared to HDR10+'s 10-bit color, and Dolby is a licensed format, whereas HDR10+ is royalty-free.
Key Differences Between HDR10+ and Dolby Vision
Colour Depth and Brightness: Dolby Vision supports up to 12-bit colour (68 billion colours) and up to 10,000 nits peak brightness, while HDR10+ supports up to 10-bit colour (1 billion colours).
Licensing: Dolby Vision is a proprietary format requiring manufacturers to pay licensing fees. HDR10+ is an open-source, royalty-free standard initiated by Samsung.
Content and Adoption: Dolby Vision is far more common, supported by Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, and most premium TVs (LG, Sony, TCL). HDR10+ is primarily driven by Amazon Prime Video and Samsung.
Implementation: Dolby Vision allows more granular, granular control by content creators. Both are superior to basic HDR10, which uses static metadata (fixed brightness for the entire video).
Which is Better: While Dolby Vision is generally considered the premium standard due to its wider adoption and superior technical specifications, the visual difference is minimal on many TVs. The best choice depends on what your TV supports, with many modern sets, like those from TCL and Hisense, now supporting both formats.
