LG clarifies that the new Dolby Atmos rival Eclipsa Audio should work on its TVs, but LG is not supporting Eclipsa Audio — got that?

• Eclipsa Audio is a new rival to Dolby Atmos from Samsung and Google
• LG TVs will support the audio format involved, but not the name
• It's all down to which bit is open source, and which bit needs a license

Recently, I covered news of a report that LG is adding Eclipsa Audio support to its 2026 TVs, and some 2025 TVs. However, LG has now clarified to TechRadar that while Eclipsa Audio sources should work on its TVs technologically, the company isn't supporting the name Eclipsa Audio.

What exactly is going on? There are four layers to this onion, so let's peel through them one by one.

1. What is Eclipsa Audio in broad terms?

Eclipsa Audio is the name of a new 3D audio format to rival Dolby Atmos. It's built on a free and open new technology. The idea with it is to reduce the cost barriers of entry to spatial audio for small creators in particular, and allow the great use of spatial audio on all kinds of video and audio.

Samsung was one of the companies majorly involved in its creation, and you can read more about the logic behind it in our interview with the VP of Samsung Audio Labs.

2. What is the technology behind Eclipsa Audio?

The audio technology behind Eclipsa Audio is called IAMF (Immersive Audio Model & Format), and it's an open-source audio data container to add 3D-feeling positional information to audio formats, including height information. The development of it was led by Samsung and Google.

As a free and open format, anyone can implement it without paying a fee or royalties for its use, as long as they follow the rules of the open-source license it's available under.

3. What's going on with the name Eclipsa Audio?

Eclipsa Audio is the name that Google and Samsung have chosen as a consumer-friendly brand for the IAMF 3D format. However, while IAMF is free for anyone to use, the name Eclipsa Audio is not.

It's part of "a certification and brand licensing program" run by Google and Samsung, in order "to provide quality assurance to manufacturers and consumers for products that support Eclipsa Audio".

So if companies want to say they support Eclipsa Audio, they need approval from Google and Samsung, presumably including providing access to upcoming products for certification.

4. So what's LG supporting?

LG is fully supporting the IAMF technology, but it has chosen not to participate in the Google and Samsung certification and licensing program, so the name Eclipsa Audio will not be found on its products.

This is confusing, but it makes sense. If you were LG's TV team, would you want to send your latest new products to Samsung ahead of their launch for approval?

As things stand, anything with IAMF support should fully work with LG's compatible TVs – meaning that if a video on YouTube says it supports Eclipsa Audio, it should deliver the full experience on an LG TV. It's just that LG can't call it Eclipsa Audio in its settings or information screens when it's playing.

5. Which LG TVs support Eclipsa Audio?

According to the original report from FlatpanelsHD, all of LG's 2026 TVs will support IAMF audio, and it will also be added to select 2025 TVs: the LG G5, the LG C5, the LG CS5, and the LG QNED9M.

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