Google Play Movies starts adding films w/ Dolby Vision HDR support

Ben Schoon | May 20 2020 - 2:48 pm PT

Google Play Movies is a solid marketplace for digital movies and TV shows, but it does lack support for some newer standards. After hints in the app and teasing support earlier this year, Google appears to now be rolling out Dolby Vision HDR support on Google Play Movies.

Spotted by FlatPanelsHD, Play Movies has started showing Dolby Vision support on a limited collection of movies — specifically, two films. Joker and A Simple Favor have both been listed with Dolby Vision HDR support. It’s unclear if support is available more widely yet, but searching for “dolby” in the Play Store only brings up those two results in a dedicated section for the standard.

They appear on compatible Android TV devices with the Dolby Vision logo appearing on the movie’s listing. Technically, this HDR standard should be supported on other platforms such as Roku, but it’s hard to verify that because the app doesn’t list what standards or resolution a film supports.

With Dolby Vision support, Google Play Movies has a long way to go to catch up with competing platforms. Vudu, Apple iTunes, and other services offer many other films with Dolby support, and that’s not even to mention the very limited support Google has for Dolby Atmos as well. Hopefully, that will all change in the near future.