- Eclipsa Video is a new HDR standard aimed first at phones
- It is backed by experts from Google, Apple and NBC Universal
- For now, it will not directly compete with Dolby Vision or HDR10+
There’s yet another HDR (High Dynamic Range) standard to know about for displays, developed by experts at Apple, Google and NBCUniversal – and it looks set to provide open source (and unlicensed) competition for Dolby Vision, albeit on phones and laptops rather than TVs.
It’s called Eclipsa Video and, as FlatpanelsHD reports, it was announced without much fanfare. Complementing Eclipsa Audio, which you may remember, launched in 2025 and based on the SMPTE 2094-50 technical standard.
One of the main goals is to solve a major problem with HDR: HDR is designed to balance highlights, shadows, and contrast so that nothing is lost, but device screens all have different brightness limits. This means that HDR signaling can be confusing, leading to a less than ideal viewing experience.
This should not happen with Eclipsa Video. The standard includes metadata protocols to signal the limitations of the viewing device to the video, so that HDR can be adapted accordingly. “The video you’re watching looks exactly like the creator intended,” Google’s Roshan Baliga said last month.
The upcoming Dolby Vision 2 standard, meanwhile, aims to solve the exact same problem, while adding many other upgrades. Particularly on cheaper, lower-spec TVs, you should get better results with HDR, provided the TV and content provider support the standard.
Coming First to Phones
Support for Eclipsa Video will be required on both hardware and software levels, with a primary focus on phones, according to the official press release. Approved devices should start showing up this year – and given Apple’s involvement, that leaves us wondering if the iPhone 18 Pro could be first in line.
The press release promises “exceptional video performance on compatible smartphones, laptops, desktops and more”, and it’s perhaps telling that TVs aren’t mentioned – perhaps the intention is not to disrupt the current dominance of Dolby Vision and HDR10+ on larger screens, or at least not right away.
Exactly how this fits into the current landscape is unclear, and as of now we don’t have many details to give. The Eclipsa Video standard is currently under the control of the HDR10+ consortium, which has confirmed that future devices can be certified for both HDR10+ and Eclipsa Video.
This suggests we’re looking for something that complements rather than competes with the HDR10+ standard, at least for smaller screens, although HDR10+ will also remain its own separate entity.
As for Dolby Vision and Dolby Vision 2, given Apple’s historical support for Dolby Vision and the fact that NBCUniversal-owned streaming service Peacock has already announced that it will support the upcoming Dolby Vision 2, Dolby may not have too much to worry about… yet.
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