LG Electronics is adding support for the Immersive Audio Model & Format, which allows its 2026 TVs and a select number of 2025 models to indirectly support Eclipsa Audio 3D surround sound.
Eclipsa Audio is a royalty-free 3D sound format that was designed by Google and Samsung and released through the Alliance for Open Media. It’s considered to be a rival to Dolby Atmos, which is a proprietary offering that requires licensing fees to be paid.
LG stressed that it's not embracing Eclipsa Audio officially, but instead adding support for IAMF -- the open audio technology on which Eclipsa Audio certification is based. By adding support for IAMF, LG's TVs can essentially understand and replicate the Eclipsa Audio format. Because IAMF is an open-source technology, any company is allowed to implement it on its TVs without paying royalty fees, so long as they follow the rules of its licensing terms.
The reason LG is not officially supporting Eclipsa Audio is because Samsung and Google own the rights to the name, even though the underlying tech is free to use. Those companies run some kind of "certification and brand licensing" program for brands that want to support Eclipsa Audio and offer quality assurance for consumers, which basically means they need to get a stamp of approval before they can use the official name. But doing so would mean LG has to give its rival early access to upcoming televisions, and it probably doesn't want to do that.
It's likely that this is the reason LG has opted not to go through the official certification program, which means it cannot use the Eclipsa Audio name on its TVs, even though they'll still play nice with compatible content. If a YouTube video supports Eclipsa Audio, LG TVs should be able to deliver that experience, but that can't say so explicitly.
IAMF support will be added to all of LG's 2026 TVs, including the LG G6, W6 and C6. In addition, the company told FlatpanelsHD it is rolling out a firmware update that will add IAMF support to the LG G5, C5 and QNED9M, the company said.
Samsung has said in the past that it’s planning to encourage smaller content creators to adopt Eclipsa Audio. Many creators – such as YouTubers – can’t add immersive sound to their content because Dolby’s fees for licensing Dolby Atmos are too expensive. Google has similar ambitions, having added support for Eclipsa Audio on YouTube.
It’s believed the companies are targeting much bigger players, too. While no major Hollywood studios have voiced their support for the tech yet, Samsung has previously stated it’s working with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video to support the format on their streaming platforms.
LG and Samsung have always been choosy about the technologies they support. For instance, Samsung has been steadfast in its refusal to adopt Dolby Vision, although it did adopt Dolby Atmos a couple of years back. But it’s 100% committed to HDR10+. LG, on the other hand, rejects HDR10+ in favor of Dolby Vision. LG has previously justified its stance, saying that HDR10+ doesn’t have a big enough content base. That has begun to change with Apple TV+ and Disney+ adding support for HDR10+, but LG has insisted it’s still not worth bothering with, because whatever HDR10+ content can be found will also be available in Dolby Vision. It also believes it has superior tone mapping processing technology compared to what’s used in HDR10+.
In terms of audio, LG has had an on-and-off relationship with DTS:X, which is an alternative to Dolby Atmos. It twice added support, only to remove that support in 2020 and again in 2025, and hasn’t indicated any plans to use the format again in its 2026 or future TVs. It's reasoning is similar to HDR10+, in that it believes there's not enough content around to justify supporting the tech.
But it seems IAMF has more appeal for LG. The company hasn’t really said why, but it’s likely because of YouTube, which lacks support for Dolby Vision and seemingly has no intention of adding it in future. YouTube is, perhaps surprisingly, viewed on TVs even more than Netflix is. So there’s a huge audience for this technology.
If Eclipsa Audio becomes the standard for YouTube creators wanting to offer more immersive experiences, then LG needs to support it, even if it's doing so indirectly through IAMF. Otherwise, its TVs would have an inferior sound experience for one of the world’s most popular sources of TV content. It seems likely that Sony, TCL, Hisense and others will go down this path in future too, because they all use the Google TV platform, which is actively promoting the technology.
UPDATE: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated LG had added support for the official Eclipsa Audio standard, but the company clarified to HDTVTest it's only embracing IAMF. The article has been updated accordingly to reflect that.
