Editing HDR Video
Videos editing software has varying support for editing in HDR colorspace. Due to the relative infancy of the HDR ecosystem, some video editors require external hardware video players to properly preview and playback HDR video. We expect this will change as HDR editing becomes more common.
Below we've put together resources for the most popular video editing software that will help you get started editing, grading and delivering HDR video.
HDR videos captured with 4K Capture Utility have these attributes:
- HDR format: HDR10
- Bit depth: 10-bit
- Transfer function/characteristics: PQ ST.2084
- Color space: Wide Color Gamut (WCG) Rec.2020
- Nits: 1,000
These values will be needed when configuring the video editor for the specific type of HDR video.
These values may differ if the source is not an Xbox One S/X or PlayStation 4/Pro. The aforementioned consoles do not output some HDR metadata such as mastering display information, maxFALL or maxCLL. However, this can change on a per-game or per-source basis.
To see in-depth technical details about the recorded video, a tool such as Mediainfo can be used to analyze the video - https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo
To learn more about what these HDR terms mean, here is a great article with explanations - https://www.mysterybox.us/blog/2016/10/19/hdr-video-part-3-hdr-video-terms-explained
VEGAS Pro 17
A tutorial video made by the VEGAS Pro team shows what settings need to be enabled to properly work with, edit, preview and delivery HDR video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6qm5EUX52c
At the time of writing this guide in March, 2020, VEGAS Pro 17 has the most complete end to end HDR support with easy setup.
Apple Final Cut Pro X
Apple put together a comprehensive guide on working with HDR video - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208229
Adobe Premiere Pro
A community member created this guide for working with HDR video in Premiere Pro - https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro/faq-setting-up-for-hdr-work-in-premiere-2020/td-p/10646406?page=1
YouTuber EposVox made a video going into detail about editing and rendering HDR with Premiere Pro - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmYbdMnJNF8
Black Magic DaVinci Resolve Studio
There is a fantastic blog post by Mystery Box which is very thorough and covers everything needed to know about editing, grading and delivering HDR using DaVinci Resolve, more than is needed to edit a gameplay video - https://www.mysterybox.us/blog/2016/10/27/hdr-video-part-5-grading-mastering-and-delivering-hdr
This video shows step by step how to setup a project, set the correct scopes (for color grading) and how to export HDR video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymzrF8M2lA8
YouTube HDR video upload requirements
These are the requirements for uploading HDR video set by YouTube - https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7126552?hl=en