HDR not working on YouTube

Brandon-Masterson wrote on 6/23/2025, 6:12 PM

Hello all, I'm sure this has probably been addressed before, but I'm having a tough time getting YouTube to recognize my uploads as HDR certified. One of the main reasons I upgraded to 22 from 18 is the HDR capabilities. Below, I'm attaching screenshots of my project and render settings. I've tried with everything set to 1k, 2k and 4k nits on the Rec.2020 ST2084 and it YouTube still shows it as very bland, SDR content. It's also worth mentioning that my windows video players display them as HDR as well. Please let me know if I'm doing anything wrong. Any and all tips would be appreciated. Thanks!

-Brandon

Comments

RogerS wrote on 6/24/2025, 12:11 AM

Did you wait a while for YouTube to process them?

Brandon-Masterson wrote on 6/24/2025, 2:54 PM

Did you wait a while for YouTube to process them?

Hello, yes, it's been about 2 days and it's still showing bt709 for the color details when I toggle stats for nerds on the video.

Howard-Vigorita wrote on 6/25/2025, 10:11 AM

YouTube suggests that for apps that do not generate specific YouTube HDR metadata, that you try a stream copy into an mkv container and then add the specific YouTube hdr metadata with a YouTube-developed utility here:
https://github.com/youtubehdr/hdr_metadata

There may also be a way to do it with ffmpeg. The user below mentions doing it with ffmpeg when the YouTube utility didn't work for him... but that it works out of the box with Adobe:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48524993/encode-hevc-h-265-hdr-video-for-youtube-from-10bit-pro-res-using-ffmpeg

Brandon-Masterson wrote on 6/26/2025, 9:05 PM

YouTube suggests that for apps that do not generate specific YouTube HDR metadata, that you try a stream copy into an mkv container and then add the specific YouTube hdr metadata with a YouTube-developed utility here:
https://github.com/youtubehdr/hdr_metadata

There may also be a way to do it with ffmpeg. The user below mentions doing it with ffmpeg when the YouTube utility didn't work for him... but that it works out of the box with Adobe:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48524993/encode-hevc-h-265-hdr-video-for-youtube-from-10bit-pro-res-using-ffmpeg

 

I noticed this while I was looking at the video on YouTube's editor. It says it's in HDR, but the video itself is not reflecting that on playback. I guess it still isn't done processing a week later?

EricLNZ wrote on 6/26/2025, 9:21 PM

@Brandon-Masterson Is it a video you can post the YouTube link for so others can see what happens when they view?

Brandon-Masterson wrote on 6/26/2025, 9:23 PM

@Brandon-Masterson Is it a video you can post the YouTube link for so others can see what happens when they view?

Certainly, there you go. I uploaded it last Thursday, but kept it unlisted until Monday, that's why it will say uploaded 3 days ago.

 

Brandon-Masterson wrote on 6/26/2025, 9:25 PM

It doesn't look terrible in SDR, but nowhere near as good as the finished render looks. The raw file has tremendously bright brights and dark darks and is very vibrant.

EricLNZ wrote on 6/26/2025, 9:49 PM

Thanks. Unfortunately after digging around I discover my AIO PC screen doesn't do HDR so I'm unable to check whether YouTube is streaming HDR to me.

But as you say it doesn't look terrible in SDR.

Alan-Smithee wrote on 6/27/2025, 1:48 AM

@Brandon-Masterson Is it a video you can post the YouTube link for so others can see what happens when they view?

Certainly, there you go. I uploaded it last Thursday, but kept it unlisted until Monday, that's why it will say uploaded 3 days ago.

 

It's HDR - Do you have a HDR monitor?

Watch video on phone should see HDR