Buzzword HDR - just around the corner? Thoughts?

The iPhone X features "HDR" (whatever that means) and H.265 (in which HDR metadata can be embedded). The new Apple TV advertizes "4k HDR now!". The 2017 iMacs deliver 800 nits. High Sierra officially supports H.265.

What's going on? Will there be an easy way to export HDR from FCPX? Don't know much about that, to be honest. But all these informations combined look somewhat ominous to me. What do you think?

Axel wrote: … "HDR" (whatever that means)…

High Dynamic Range - buzzword, because there's no final 'standard' defining it. It asks for darker blacks and whiter whites … so, some say, (permanent) backlit LED can not display that; others say, the display has to offer at last 1.000 nits - which the iMac2017 doesn't offer.

At last, FCPX offers in its Projects settings rec2020/wide gamut, which is a broadcast standard which allows HDR … so, scopes are adjusted.

… but wether an iMac or IPhone delivers 'real' HDR… Apple says yes, others say no

Most tellies on display at Mediamarkt are meanwhile 'HDR', mostly demonstrated with Nasa Pics, or night flight over Dubai and like that...... on pure eye-sight you notice differences in brightness …

Rec2020 is beyond broadcast spec at present, but will be spec when 4K HDR becomes the norm, about two more years.

HDR was originally when you took a minimum of 3 photos of the same shot. The first one was set normally, the next would be a tad darker, the next a tad lighter, and then in post, specialty software would combine them to give you the wideness range of darks and lights (dynamic range).

Then photo cams started to have this built in to do this automatically with one shutter button push.

Now it's made its way into video. And of course like with all things video (film or broadcast or streaming) a lot of self-appointed experts yell at each other and curse a lot at each other over exactly what HDR is. Like the clashes I've witnessed first hand over the terms HD vs UDH vs 4K. Do the new iPhones and Apple TV support HDR? Absolutely. But then, put 6 videographers in a room and ask for a solid, specific, technical definition of what HDR is, and, well, please do that when I'm not around, it gets very irritating all that unproductive fussing at each other. One reason I left the IT field, too much self-appointed expert ego from too many people. Not everyone has traveled the world, but everyone is an expert on the world.

Combined with 4K you see an amazing image style. So with the new Apple TV, Netflix, etc, are going to produce their new stuff in 4K HDR. Beware cheaper TV sets don't really do it justice at present.

But question now is, will it catch on and be adopted by consumers, or fall on its face like 3D did? 4K TV sets are not selling nearly as much as HD TV sets currently, but we'll have to wait and see what happens.

Personally, I don't care, if it entertains me, I'm happy.

FCPX.guru wrote: Rec2020 is beyond broadcast spec at present, but will be spec when 4K HDR becomes the norm, about two more years.….

<cough> with all respect
…Netflix 'broadcasts' rec2020, 4k, HDR since 2015
sky Germany, selected content, since 2016 …

okay: is streaming broadcasting, let's get philosophically
at last:
it's all on that 50" display in my living room.
and for John Doe, everything on that panel is 'television', he doesn't care for live or streamed or terrestrial or internet....

fun fact: the plug in my wall is from 1983, meant for terrestrial analog radio, it has a tiny print 'radio'; that same plug actually offers, via several boxes/routers/splitters, telephone, radio, tv, internet with 60mbps, which includes YouTube, Netflix, DAZN, www ....... tbc.

The HDR in question has little to do with the PS HDR tone mapping, where you combine different exposures to a new picture, in which dramatically brighter areas are made darker and very deep shadows made brighter to fit into a Low Dynamic Range 8-bit jpeg.

The idea is that the monitor/TV itself has deep blacks and very bright whites and can depict the whole range. If played back on a system not fit for HDR, the image will look flat, but usually it should look more vivid, life-like. It's much more about quality than sheer resolution. A 4k TV will upscale 1080p so well that no one will be able to tell the difference. Watch this .

Right now, it's quite difficult to export HDR. Few can see it anyway. My hope is that Apple pushes it and that it may become an easy-to-use standard soon. Like, grade LOG in 2020 color space and export an H.265 file with a correctly flagged Compressor preset for Youtube.

Another question is, how will our current SDR (standard dynamic range) videos look in comparison, i.e. on iPhone X? Will they look old and faded soon?

Over air and cable are "broadcasters". Netflix and Hulu are "streamers". They work on very different network types. I work in broadcast, and I can tell you a streaming service is not a broadcaster. Do they "broadcast a signal"? Yes, but they are not "broadcasters" in the industry terminology, they do something VERY different. Two very different, competing entities.

You won't find Rec2020 being transmitted from any cable or over air broadcast station at this time. But give it about two years...

The HDR in question is in fact tone mapping, at the origin of the media. It is a two part question, how do you create it, second how to you deliver it? Streaming can deliver it now. Traditional OTA and cable can't.

I'm just saying, as someone inside of a TV broadcast station right now...

FCPX.guru wrote: Over air and cable are "broadcasters". Netflix and Hulu are "streamers". ...

as mentioned before - the discussion gets academic quick - Netflix is distributed by cable too, watched on the same device as ABC, BBC et al.

So, I've seen the differentiation 'live' vs. 'on demand' . which is academic too, due to all those 'media libraries' of broadcasters, online recording services and Tivo and hdd recorders at home....

4k is common, here, for example Bundesliga = sports. Transmitted live. By cable & satellite … technically, in h265.

Again: from a consumer perspective, all those sources are 'same'. And as an editor, you have to fulfil specs of 'distributor' (to avoid the word broadcaster, could be cinema too, to mention that) - which is mostly NOT the final delivery format but some higher codec/standard.

… conc. standards:
BBC/EBU and Netflix have published their norms, years ago …

back2topic:
'HDR' is in use, FCPX supports it, … all fine.

… if not, how is all that Arri Alexa, RED, etc stuff editable with its 14, 15 f-stops of high dynamic range…

I do broadcast daily for a living, what would I know? Carry on...