IMAX has a certification for content you view at home as well as in the cinema.
IMAX has become somewhat of a household name of late, thanks to the virality of 70mm presentations like The Odyssey and Dune: Part Three. But you may have noticed that the company has expanded its footprint beyond giant cinema screens with a designation for at home-viewing, as well. On Disney+, for instance, a growing number of movies now carry the IMAX Enhanced label.
Confusingly, however, IMAX Enhanced doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting the absolute best in image or sound quality. Streaming services intentionally limit the bitrate at which content is delivered to prevent buffering, and this applies to IMAX Enhanced streams too. 4K or Ultra HD Blu-ray offers the highest bitrate, but not every movie gets the IMAX Enhanced label.
What’s more, you don’t need an IMAX Enhanced-certified TV or sound system (yes, those exist) to realize its benefits. This may seem confusing as many other standards like Dolby Vision actually need compatible hardware too.
So what’s the deal with IMAX Enhanced and does the certification really bring anything meaningful to the table?
What does IMAX Enhanced mean?
IMAX Enhanced is a certification for content and hardware devices in your home (rather than the cinema) that promises to deliver a more premium media-watching experience. A movie with the IMAX Enhanced label indicates it has gone through a Digital Media Remastering process to improve the overall quality of the image. But more importantly, IMAX Enhanced movies appear taller than their regular counterparts.
This is because most movies have historically been presented in the wide 2.39:1 aspect ratio. Regular theater screens are designed with this wide aspect ratio in mind (pictured above), but most screens in our lives are actually much taller. TVs almost universally have a 16:9 or 1.78:1 aspect ratio, often resulting in black bars when watching movies at home.
Films shot for IMAX typically have a taller aspect ratio, though, at least for a handful of scenes. An IMAX Enhanced movie will therefore appear taller than a regular, widescreen version. You may still see small black bars since IMAX Enhanced movies on Disney+ are presented in 1.90:1, but you’ll still see more of the image.
The other major image-quality component is high dynamic range, or HDR, although some movies may also receive additional remastering from IMAX. HDR significantly improves the color volume, contrast and brightness, but it’s not unique to IMAX by any means.
IMAX Enhanced also claims to offer a “theater-quality” digital soundtrack. In practical terms, however, this will greatly vary depending on your audio setup. Turning on IMAX Enhanced requires your setup to support DTS:X spatial audio.
Where can I watch IMAX Enhanced content and how do I enable it?
Many movies released in 4K Blu-ray disc form offer the expanded aspect ratio we’ve come to associate with IMAX. The Dune series, Interstellar, and the upcoming physical release of The Odyssey use the 1.78:1 aspect ratio to fill modern TVs without any black bars. The back of some 4K Blu-ray cases, like The Dark Knight, explicitly call out “1.78:1 (IMAX sequences)”, but others like Interstellar omit the IMAX mention while still acknowledging the 16:9 aspect ratio.
Disney is one of the few holdouts in this regard, though, where its physical releases typically don’t get the expanded aspect ratio at all.
For example, the 4K Blu-ray copy of Avengers: Endgame lacks the IMAX label and only offers a 2:39:1 image, even though it’s otherwise the highest quality version available on the market. This means you realistically have to choose between the expanded aspect ratio that’s available exclusively through the IMAX Enhanced stream on Disney+ versus the excellent detail that a 4K Blu-ray disc offers.
However, few people truly care about the admittedly minimal image quality improvement that you get going from a high-bitrate 4K internet stream to a 4K Blu-ray. My family would immediately notice and appreciate the expanded aspect ratio, making the streaming version superior for them, even if I would personally prefer the Blu-ray.
Disney+ currently has the largest catalog of IMAX Enhanced films in one place. You can also find some IMAX Enhanced content on the Sony Pictures Core app, but you’ll need a PS5, Xperia phone or Sony smart TV.
Do I need an IMAX Enhanced TV or sound system?
IMAX Enhanced also exists as a certification for hardware makers, and you’ll see TVs and speakers with the label from brands like Sony and TCL. The logo is meant to signal that the hardware in question meets the performance standards outlined by IMAX. However, you don’t actually need certified hardware to play back IMAX Enhanced content.
Most modern TVs with support for HDR standards like HDR10 and HDR10+ will be able to play IMAX Enhanced movies on Disney+ as intended. If you’re shopping for a new TV, make your choice based on the display technology (like OLED or mini LED) rather than an IMAX Enhanced certification. The latter doesn’t always improve your viewing experience, while an OLED display will give you excellent black levels no matter what you watch.
IMAX Enhanced certification is also not required for the expanded aspect ratio on Disney+. All supported devices can display it, even an iPhone. And if you don’t want to spend hundreds of dollars on a DTS:X-capable sound system, IMAX Enhanced sound is a separate setting within Disney+ that you can disable entirely.