LG is adding support for Samsung's new Dolby Atmos rival to some of its TVs though don't expect HDR10+ support to follow this new-found detente

Date:
Fri, 13 Mar 2026 20:00:00 +0000

Description:
Eclipsa Audio is coming to LG TVs, and there's a clear reason why this would be included when LG avoided similar alternatives.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get the TechRadar Newsletter Sign up for
breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are
now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter LG is adding support for the Eclipsa Audio format to its 2026 models, as well as to certain 2025 TVs. This is an alternative to Dolby Atmos, delivering
spatial audio over streaming, and was notably developed by Samsung and Google .

According to a report from FlatpanelsHD , all of LG's 2026 TVs will support Eclipsa Audio, and support has been added to the following 2025 TVs via a
free update: the LG G5 , the LG C5 , the LG CS5, and the LG QNED9M. FlatpanelsHD says the format will be supported for playback over the TVs' built-in speakers, or can be passed out to compatible soundbars (such as the Samsung HW-Q990F ). Article continues below You may like Sonos' CEO is cool about Dolby Atmos FlexConnect muscling in on his turf Recent LG OLED TVs are getting a great free Dolby Atmos FlexConnect upgrade Samsung reveals two new Dolby Atmos soundbars ahead of CES Eclipsa Audio is being released by the Alliance for Open Media, much like HDR10+ is, and has no licensing fees or royalties, so companies can choose to support based purely on whether they think the technical development is worth it. All of this is true of HDR10+ as well, but LG has never seen fit to support the rival to Dolby Vision we'll come back to why I think it's different this time, though. We spoke to
Samsung in-depth in the past about why it developed Eclipsa Audio, what it hoped to achieve, and why it believed Dolby Atmos couldn't be the sole future for 3D sound .

Samsung said that it wasn't to expand into areas where Dolby Atmos either isn't widely already used, or is prohibitive. "Dolby is not involved in
gaming seriously, and theyre not involved in in-car audio," said Samsung
Audio Lab VP Allan Devantier (though I should add that Dolby definitely invests a lot in in-car audio see the Cadillac Optiq this year). Samsung is particularly keen for Eclipsa Audio to be used by smaller content creators, which Devantier says "cant make immersive content because to make Atmos content costs too much money." The idea of offering spatial sound to small creators seems to be Google 's goal as well, because it's already integrated the technology into YouTube . Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in
your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. There are ambitions for Eclipsa Audio to be used by movies and TVs as a full rival to Atmos for large-scale productions, though: Samsung said "we're working with Netflix and Amazon " on the format, though no announcements have been made there. Analysis: a surprise, given LG cautiousness with other formats Some TV brands, such as TCL and Hisense ,
like to embrace a ton of formats, which helps to give their TVs a sense of being incredible value. LG is a lot more circumspect about such things, usually.

The company has supported DTS audio formats at times in the past, but that's been on and off it's currently off. LG also told me at a recent event that
it still has no immediate plans to support Dolby Vision 2 , and representatives were unsure if the 2026 TVs could even be updated to support it in the future. What to read next LGs 2026 TVs and soundbars get the Dolby Atmos FlexConnect treatment The best soundbars I heard at CES 2026 LG's new Dolby Atmos soundar is a major threat to Sonos, in two key ways

This decision was based on the lack of Dolby Vision 2 content currently LG said it would consider support when there are things to watch that fully make use of the format.

Now, one might note that both DTS and Dolby Vision 2 require paying a fee to include in a set, so there's a strong reason for a business not to support them if it doesn't think it's a problem to exclude them.

However, HDR10+ doesn't require a fee to support, but LG has always been vehemently against it, instead focusing solely on Dolby Vision HDR . In the past, LG's answer has usually been similar to the Dolby Vision 2 answer: that there wasn't enough content to justify adding support.

More recently, HDR10+ has been added to more streaming services (including Apple TV+ and its movie rentals , Disney+ in some countries, including some Hulu content, and Paramount+ on some content ), so last year I asked LG about adding support, given that it's now more widely available.

The company said that it still doesn't see the point, claiming pretty much anything available in HDR10+ will be available in Dolby Vision too. It also said that it believes its own tone mapping processing is superior to HDR10+, removing the need for it, and that it was simply likely never to support it.

So, why is Eclipsa different? Well, I suspect it's to do with something I mentioned above: YouTube. YouTube doesn't, and I suspect never will, support Dolby Atmos. YouTube is also more popular on TVs than even the likes of Netflix and Disney+ . And TVs have become the most popular way to watch YouTube, surpassing even phones .

If people start expecting and enjoying things on YouTube with more immersive Eclipsa Audio, then LG doesn't want to be left as a platform where you're not getting the best sound from the most popular streaming app. Especially since Samsung already supports Eclipsa Audio, and Google TV supporting Eclipsa
means TCL, Hisense, and Sony will surely all include the format. And if Samsung's been working with Amazon, we can assume Fire TV sets may support it at some point.

LG could afford to be 'left out' of HDR10+ because, as it rightly said, Dolby Vision was the only game in town for so long in practice, and is still the bigger player. But Eclipsa Audio will make its impact in places that Atmos will likely never reach, so it makes sense for LG to actually join Samsung in an upstart format, for once. Thinking of buying a new TV? Try our TV size and model finder! You tell it how far you sit from your TV, we'll tell you what size to buy based on viewing angle advice from image quality experts, and we'll recommend our three top TVs at that size for different prices. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

And of course, you can also follow TechRadar on YouTube and TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp too.



======================================================================
Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/televisions/lg-is-adding-support-for-samsungs-new-do lby-atmos-rival-to-some-of-its-tvs-though-dont-expect-hdr10-support-to-follow- this-new-found-detente


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)