Samsung is being weirdly cagey about supporting Netflix’s big HDR upgrade that’s basically custom-made for its TVs
Remember last week, when Netflix added HDR10+ support in a move that looked like great news for Samsung TV owners? Well, I assumed that this would be an instant win for the best Samsung TVs across the board, but it seems that’s not the case – and Samsung is surprisingly cagey about which of its existing TVs will see the benefit, and when.
Samsung released a statement saying that all of its 2025 TVs, including the Samsung S95F OLED TV, will support Netflix’s HDR10+ implementation, as will its 2024 and 2025 HDR computer monitors – but no one owns the 2025 TVs yet, so what about current TVs?
Samsung says there will be “support for additional models in the future”, but hasn’t offered any further information so far. I’ve asked Samsung if it’s able to share any more specific information for users of these TVs, and will update if I hear back.
My guess is that Samsung will actually bring support fairly broadly, and fairly quickly – but this cagey announcement feels like dropping the ball just seconds away from a touchdown.
HDR10+ is a more advanced kind of HDR, with scene-by-scene metadata, like Dolby Vision. In theory, it can help TVs better ‘tone map’ the levels of HDR brightness onto the capabilities of the TV’s screen, meaning more detail is retained in the brightest and darkest areas of the image, even if your TV isn’t great at going especially bright or dark.
Samsung’s TVs support HDR10+, and don’t support Dolby Vision – it’s the only maker of the best TVs that has rejected Dolby’s HDR format. And this has been a frustration, because Dolby Vision HDR is the advanced format used by most of the best streaming services.
The lack of Dolby Vision is the big complaint we hear from people when we post about Samsung TVs, and having HDR10+ support on the biggest streamers (Prime Video also supports it) helps mitigate that – so I would’ve expected Samsung to embrace this instantly. In fact, I just assumed Samsung would have everything prepped in advance for it, given how tied the company is to HDR10+ as a format.
But that’s been changing over time, and Netflix supporting HDR10+ felt like a key shift to offer all Samsung TVs an instant boost… but only once Samsung supports it.
When Samsung confirms that it’s supporting the Netflix update on more TVs, we’ll let you know straight away, Samsung TV owners.
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