The Apple TV app on Samsung Smart TVs has quietly added support for the HDR10+ format pushed by Samsung and other TV manufacturers (via Forbes). Apple had initially announced HDR10+ support on its Apple TV app at its WWDC 2022 conference in June, but the company later removed that information from its public websites.

HDR10+ is the premium alternative to the proprietary Dolby Vision format pushed by Samsung and other Smart TV manufacturers. Just like Dolby Vision, HDR10+ uses dynamic metadata to improve picture quality scene by scene, and it does so without the license and special hardware required by Dolby.

Many smart TVs today support both Dolby Vision and HDR10+. However, Samsung Smart TVs only support HDR10+, which is somewhat less popular than Dolby Vision. On the other hand, LG’s popular OLED TVs don’t support HDR10+, and Apple also waited until this year to add HDR10+ support to its 3rd-gen Apple TV 4K which will start shipping next week November.

If you own a recent Samsung Smart TV, you can now enjoy Apple TV+ and iTunes content in HDR10+, assuming you can find it. As pointed out by Forbes, the Apple TV app does a good job of showing Dolby Vision labels on films and TV shows that support this format, but it doesn’t do the same for content available in HDR10+. There’s also no way to use the app’s search function to find HDR10+ content.

Samsung Smart TVs users have already spotted that Top Gun: Maverick and the Apple TV+ exclusive show Ted Lasso are both available in HDR10+. This is encouraging news, and let’s hope the Apple TV app will soon better surface HDR10+ content on devices that support this format.

Tagged with Apple TV, Apple TV app, Samsung Smart TVs