You can also download the V18 demo.

That said, it's highly unlikely the iphone 12 camera is capturing anywhere near enough dynamic range to really take advantage of dolby vision.

You can also download the V18 demo.

+1
Testing it yourself makes you smart - especially when it's that easy and informative.

Upload a short sample that we can test!

Thought I would provide an update. I went ahead and upgraded to Vegas 18.0. When I loaded the clip I got a message that said that the HEVC codec was successiful installed. However when I went to play it back it won't display. Same as before. I'm guessing the reason for this is that Magix would need the cooperation from Apple in order to get this to work which may not be forthcoming which I think is unfortunate. The image quality is really nice and I would like to be able to use it natively.

From where I sit, the future of cinematography is phones which rely increasingly on computational photography. It seems like Magix is already vested in AI with their deep learning module and that maybe they would be well positioned to support codecs that rely on computation for image quality. Obviously this isn't going to work without the cooperation of the phone manufacturers. The relentless promotion of Vegas upgrades, including the popup that loaded to buy Vegas 18 from a fresh Vegas 18 install, makes me worry about their financial health.

Happy holidays.

Can you share Media Info for this file? Vegas does work in general with HEVC taken on phones. If this is a brand new format, don't expect it to be supported already.

Is legacy HEVC decoding checked on File I/O if so, uncheck it.

Does this format require the NLE to take part in the computation? Otherwise if the processing happens in phone, it's just another file.

This seems to have some info about the format, and that support in Apple's own FinalCut was forthcoming.
https://www.newsshooter.com/2020/10/14/apple-iphone-12-pro-4k-10-bit-hdr/

Thanks for the info.

Format: HEVC, Attributes: 3840 x 2160 x32, Color Space Rec 2020 HLG (1000 Nites), Color Range: Limited

I was thinking the reason it wasn't working is that I need a new codec for Apple's version of 10 bit color. One other data point that seems worth mentioning: the audio works fine.

HEVC legacy coding is unchecked.

I don't know whether the NLE is required to take part in the computation. I was assuming that it wasn't.

I was kind of expecting it wasn't going to work because it's so new. It would be helpful to know whether there are any plans to support it.

Best

Can you make a couple second sample available (link to Dropbox, Google Drive, etc., etc.?)

Dolby Vision appears to be its own HDR format, with dynamic metadata, and I don't think it's one that Vegas supports. Support looks like a mess, even within the Apple ecosystem. Magix says they have a backlog of formats to support including popular raw ones.

 

I was kind of expecting it wasn't going to work because it's so new. It would be helpful to know whether there are any plans to support it.

Best

 

It should still play even if it can't decode the HDR. The videos playback fine on the usual quality editors like Premiere and Resolve. It even plays back sluggishly on Windows movie maker, and effortlessly using Filmora9, which I haven't updated for a year as I don't use it.

I downloaded this sample video a month ago and no longer have link, but I have direct link from my download manager which might work for others if original poster can't supply a video sample https://eidsaw.am.files.1drv.com/y4mMlBp4DZNShCQ2PCR4EJZTNCRK1b7AGhjouXqyxXlyrFBwcoFnHttkorpXz11yZPWB6cQBv8fg1nJgNF8Kfnxl2fqcvdYgB4pJu9aYyijSpsbsJwToqeIQI-hH9zanDTuTmySI_YxObon4tiT6vdUsMDlstMHke5FabztFAlhZG3S0maXKF5b5qDAVHlGzeJXJl9pNYVTrl6wT9frwbhJfQ

I want to confirm that the clip you posted was shot in Filmic Pro 4k with HEVC/Dolby Vision selected. I can't get Windows Media Player to play my clip.

Here's a link to a test file. It's only a two second clip, but it should work for test purposes.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/13foM9OADo0Xd_xxLIN5LPeaRzWHZreSQ/view?usp=sharing

Best,

Scott

Nothing I tried could make the files work in Vegas Pro. Although it does playback (without gpu decode) in Windows Video Editor and pauses every few seconds on my slower computer it's video doesn't look right, maybe the way HDR output would appear if played on a non HDR monitor (don't have HDR monitor)

This is another situation where everything will playback a video codec including my 1year old $70 budget NLE, but not Vegas.

I think I'm going to give up on this. Thanks for your time.

I wonder what the future holds for Magix. They are kind of at the whim of the companies making cameras, some of whom have no incentive to make life easy for competitors. It may be that in a couple years the only companies left are the ones that can afford vertical integration of cameras and video editing software. (Maybe even including workstations.) Which kind of sucks. I have better things to do than to learn another video editor.

Yea, good points. Thanks.

This file plays back in Resolve but doesn't seem to be HDR (though I don't really know how to do HDR in Resolve). If it doesn't actually support the features of DolbyHDR, just playing back doesn't mean much.

 

You have to turn on dolbyvision, but when you say if it didn't support dolbyhdr that doesn't mean much, the other editors that don't support dolbyvision will still playback the video but not in HDR which is better then what vegas is doing currently which is playing back a black screen.

It doesn't appear that Resolve can export in DolbyVision without a licence, and to get a licence you need to prove to Dolby that you have all the right equipment to do it properly + give them money. This it the HDR export output

Writing application                      : Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve Studio

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : HEVC
Format/Info                              : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile                           : Main 10@L4.1@Main
HDR format                               : SMPTE ST 2086, HDR10 compatible
Codec ID                                 : hvc1
Codec ID/Info                            : High Efficiency Video Coding
Duration                                 : 32 s 150 ms
Bit rate                                 : 12.8 Mb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 60.000 FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 10 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.103
Stream size                              : 49.2 MiB (89%)
Language                                 : English
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.2020
Transfer characteristics                 : PQ
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primaries        : BT.2020
Mastering display luminance              : min: 0.0001 cd/m2, max: 4000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level              : 1000 cd/m2
MaxCLL_Original                          : 65535 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Level        : 400 cd/m2
MaxFALL_Original                         : 65535 cd/m2
SEI_rbsp_stop_one_bit                    : Missing
Codec configuration box                  : hvcC

Looking at the file format metadata my guess is Vegas will support basic playback. Still, what's the point if it doesn't have the full Dolby functionality? Just shoot a normal format.

I wanted to experiment with 10 bit color depth. I'm not aware of an alternative from an iPhone.

Looking at the file format metadata my guess is Vegas will support basic playback. Still, what's the point if it doesn't have the full Dolby functionality? Just shoot a normal format.

You always want to record in highest quality format, where there are no negatives to choosing that option. Iphone12 records 1min 4k60 to 400mb, and 1min 4k60 dolbyvision HDR to 440mb, file size is fine, it's recorded in HEVC but because the file is 420 10bit regular GPU's will decode it fine. The other option is 4K60 AVC which is about 800mb, there is no AVC option for DolbyVision.

So you might suggest he records in AVC, non HDR, for easiest playback and compatibility with Vegas, but he shouldn't have to throw away added detail in his master, Vegas should be able to read the file and play it back in SDR the way Filmora9 does, and they way Resolve does when HDR settings are turned off.

Your thinking reminds me of people that uploaded to youtube in 2006 in 240p because what's the point of choosing a higher resolution, as only 240p exisits on youtube. Maybe Vegas will read dolbyvision files in the future, or the poster changes to another NLE that does. To actively choose a lower quality format for the sole reason your current editor doesn't support it is regressive. At minimum make a transcode that works in vegas, 10bit contains so much more detail for an editor to work with

Looking at the file format metadata my guess is Vegas will support basic playback. Still, what's the point if it doesn't have the full Dolby functionality? Just shoot a normal format.

You always want to record in highest quality format, where there are no negatives to choosing that option. Iphone12 records 1min 4k60 to 400mb, and 1min 4k60 dolbyvision HDR to 440mb, file size is fine, it's recorded in HEVC but because the file is 420 10bit regular GPU's will decode it fine. The other option is 4K60 AVC which is about 800mb, there is no AVC option for DolbyVision.

So you might suggest he records in AVC, non HDR, for easiest playback and compatibility with Vegas, but he shouldn't have to throw away added detail in his master, Vegas should be able to read the file and play it back in SDR the way Filmora9 does, and they way Resolve does when HDR settings are turned off.

Your thinking reminds me of people that uploaded to youtube in 2006 in 240p because what's the point of choosing a higher resolution, as only 240p exisits on youtube. Maybe Vegas will read dolbyvision files in the future, or the poster changes to another NLE that does. To actively choose a lower quality format for the sole reason your current editor doesn't support it is regressive. At minimum make a transcode that works in vegas, 10bit contains so much more detail for an editor to work with

Actually, that isn't what I'm saying. I'm not against higher quality capture, but rather not a fan of proprietary or bleeding-edge formats that aren't well supported. HDR is already too full of standards wars and incompatibilities.

It looks like the answer today for this footage is to go with IPhone apps, Final Cut X or Resolve 17 (I can't find DolbyHDR in 16 so it must have been added recently). Hopefully Vegas will at least be able to play this format back, but for the full benefit of 10-bit and DolbyHDR (which appears to have license fees), who knows. Might need a plan B.

Thanks all for input and time.

@SDavis: Can you describe your system configuration (CPU/GPU)?

We downloaded and tested the couple of clips posted in this thread, and could preview them fine on our Intel systems, but did see problems on a Ryzen system, which points to an issue with the software Intel decoder we use. We are planning to update that, so I would consider this a bug, and not a feature deficiency: we should be able to read in the iPhone12 HEVC files, even if we don't support Dolby Vision HDR processing.

Intel Core i9-10850K (5.2ghz Turbo) (20 thread) (10 core)

Motherboard: ASUS Prime Z490-P /MSI Z490-A Pro (Intel Z490 Chipset)

Graphics Card: 1 x PNY Quadro P2200

A couple other data points:

1. I loaded the beach clip into DaVinci Resolve and got essentially same behavior. The audio plays but not the video. The only difference is the clip shows up as "Media Offline." I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean in this context. The video is offline, but the audio isn't?

Scott