Issue with iPhone ProRes Log (HDR) footage. My XDR display shows the footage correctly when scrubbed in the Browser (i.e. it looks like HDR), but when played from the timeline it looks wrong (i.e. like a clipped, non-tone mapped SDR)

Question

Level 2

351 points

Issue with iPhone ProRes Log (HDR) footage. My XDR display shows the footage correctly when scrubbed in the Browser (i.e. it looks like HDR), but when played from the timeline it looks wrong (i.e. like a clipped, non-tone mapped SDR)

My XDR display shows the footage correctly when scrubbed in the Browser (i.e. it looks like HDR), but when played from the timeline it looks wrong (i.e. like a clipped, non-tone mapped SDR)

MY SETUP

I'm running macOS Sequoia 15.0.1 and Final Cut Pro 10.8.1 on a Mac Studio M2 Ultra.

My main monitor is the non-XDR Apple Studio Display, which is of course not HDR compatible, so for XDR I'm using my 12.9" M2 iPad Pro in Sidecar mode (set to Reference Mode in the iPad Settings).

I have set Final Cut Pro Secondary Display mode to Viewer, which puts the viewer on the iPad screen. My Library is set to Wide Gamut HDR.

BROWSER VIEW ON XDR – CORRECT

I've imported a bunch of ProRes Log shot on my iPhone 15 Pro Max. On import, the LUT has been set automatically to Apple Log. When I scrub over these clips in the Browser, they are displayed correctly on the viewer on the iPad. The clips really pop! They jump out from the dimmed Reference Mode with what appears to be HDR tonal range, with a higher level of brightness and highlights than standard SDR footage. It looks fantastic. So far, so good!

TIMELINE VIEW ON XDR – INCORRECT

The problem is playing back this footage from the timeline. It just looks wrong. It has the appearance of clipped SDR. Not even a tone mapped SDR.

Again to clarify, it looks correct on the iPad in the browser, but not on the timeline. This makes me think that the Project (timeline) setting is wrong?

I created the project by dragging one of these ProRes Log clips down to the timeline area to create a project using the settings from the clip, which set the Color Space to "Wide Gamut - Rec 2020". I even tried setting this to "Wide Gamut HDR - Rec 2020 PQ" and "Wide Gamut HDR - Rec 2020 HLG" but this made no difference. It still looks like clipped SDR footage.

The color conform for the clip on the timeline is set to Automatic, but again, no other manual setting looks correct either.

I'm stumped. Any help is appreciated!

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Mac Studio, macOS 15.0

Posted on Oct 21, 2024 2:34 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 21, 2024 11:25 PM in response to Mark Paterson

1) Is the library set to HDR?

Select the library in the browser sidebar and see what shows in the Inspector.

If the library is set to SDR, click the Modify button and change it to HDR:

2) Is the project set to HDR?

Press Command-J to open the Project Inspector. If it says "Rec 709", as in the example below, click the Modify button and change the Color Space to Wide Gamut (sorry, I don't recall which of the three options is the correct one):

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Answer 2

Mark Paterson Author

Level 2

351 points

Oct 22, 2024 1:25 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Yes. That was the problem!

The library was already set to HDR, but the project was set to "Wide Gamut - Rec 2020", which I thought was a HDR color space, but for some reason that I don't understand, this is a SDR version of it?

Once I set it to either "Wide Gamut HDR - Rec 2020 PQ" or "Wide Gamut HDR - Rec 2020 HLG" the problem was resolved.

It was incorrectly set to "Wide Gamut - Rec 2020" automatically when a clip was dragged to create a new project. Strange that Apple doesn't select one of the HDR variants if the Library is already set to HDR, but anyway, I'm more confused by the fact that I tried this very thing yesterday, as you can see from the bold section below…

TIMELINE VIEW ON XDR – INCORRECT

…

I created the project by dragging one of these ProRes Log clips down to the timeline area to create a project using the settings from the clip, which set the Color Space to "Wide Gamut - Rec 2020". I even tried setting this to "Wide Gamut HDR - Rec 2020 PQ" and "Wide Gamut HDR - Rec 2020 HLG" but this made no difference. It still looks like clipped SDR footage.

Anyway, thank you for helping me out!

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