One of the promised features of the Xbox Series X and Series S at launch was Dolby Vision gaming - something not available on any prior console.

Now it seems the picture format is being tested by Xbox Alpha Ring users, although it doesn't seem to work quite how we'd imagined.

Previously, we thought that Dolby Vision would be available for selected supported games, with the extended HDR format part of the title's offering. However, according to John Archer at Forbes, the testers with Dolby Vision TVs or monitors have reported that all HDR games are now being flagged as Dolby Vision instead.

This means that the more extensive picture information is actually being applied virtually by the Xbox system itself, rather than at development level.

Archer also states that the test build also only works with 4:2:2 60Hz signals, not 4:4:4 at 120Hz.

To be fair to Xbox though, this is an early test of the feature that is available to a small number of Alpha testers. It could change when it is made universally available:

"As we announced last year, we're excited to be bringing Dolby Vision support for gaming to our new Xbox consoles in 2021. The feature is currently in testing and we’ll have more to announce on general availability timing and functionality soon," the company said in a statement.

Dolby Vision is currently only available through streaming services, such as Netflix and Disney+. Hopefully, the issue that caused Xbox to remove support from Xbox One S and X 4K Blu-ray playback will finally be fixed sooner rather than later. It continues to seem an odd ommission from the Xbox Series X considering.