At CES 2020, Dolby took its Dolby Vision HDR system up a notch with Dolby Vision IQ, which ensures its HDR settings work for a variety of content, including action sports, feature films and documentaries, and different viewing environments. TV shows and films in 4K HDR are often calibrated for a darkened theater (or living room). But viewers watching video at home in brighter settings found the images were too dark. With Dolby Vision IQ, the Dolby Vision HDR system is automatically adjusted to the room’s brightness.

Engadget honored Dolby Vision IQ as one of its “Best of CES 2020” winners. “It’s tech that should make everyone’s home theater experience better and more accurate,” it says.

CNET reports that Dolby Vision IQ “uses light sensors and metadata to adjust the picture on Dolby Vision content automatically … [and is] coming to select LG televisions.” It adds that, “LG will be the first and only U.S. TV maker to support the feature this year, where it will appear on select 2020 TVs.” In Europe, consumers will be able to purchase Panasonic TVs with Dolby Vision IQ.

At a demonstration in Dolby’s CES suite, the Dolby Vision IQ system was set up with two LG OLED TVs side-by-side, one “with IQ engaged and showing standard Dolby Vision.”

“In the dark the two looked basically identical,” says the reporter. “But when an engineer turned up the lights the TV with IQ looked markedly better. Shadow details were clearly visible in the equipped model, while the non-IQ set showed an invisible mass of darkness, its details obscured by the glare of the room lighting on the TV screen.”

Dolby Vision IQ will “be automatically engaged in the standard Dolby Vision setting,” although those who “don’t want the image to react to room lighting … can disable the LG’s ambient light sensor manually.” The UHD Alliance offers a separate Filmmaker Mode to “maintain the creative intent” by disabling the so-called soap opera effect; it says that “its mode will also work with Dolby Vision.”

At CES, Dolby also demonstrated its Dolby Atmos Music format for more “immersive” music for home theaters and mobile phones.

[Editor’s Note: The screen grabs above are taken from Dolby’s Vision IQ short promotional demo available on YouTube.]