Not few people are very confused about HDR, and hence, take every wrong steps to set the ACES editing environment for performance.
There are even people who don't know what's between ACES and 32-bit floating point full-range-space.
Here we try understanding HDR, firstly!
1,
High Dynamic Range is merely an added metadata by rendering videos based on WCG (wide color gamut).
Traditional standard videos, as you know, show their picture in 16-235 levels (8bit color depth).
Poor brightness and rough/narrow colorspectrum is the result as you watch your video on TV or in computer.
WCG-videos obtain more than 1 billion colors (10bit depth with 64-940 levels) so that their picture provides very delicate/fine gray scale even in 8k or bigger resolutions.
But the brightness, or the dynamic range of the luminance, is not much better than the standard ones.
The reason: limitation of the display production.
In recent years, Japanese/Korean engineers have made a big breakthrough in technology. You must be shocked at watching HDR-videos on OLed-screen or what else it's called.
And all these screens have one parameter: xxxxCD/m2 (how many candles light intensity in one squaremeter).
Nit is its official name.
The new panel displays thunderbolt and moonlight so natural as your eyes see in the nature.
Yes, it can give the lightning up to or even above 1000nits!
And in pure darkness you still can hunt details.
Because the video signal trans-codes the HDR-metadata to realize the nit-strength just as your eye pupils deal with your surroundings.
This render method is called Perceptual Quantizer and often showed as SMPTE ST 2084(PQ) under the WCG.
**HDR requires hardware at least with 300cd/m2.
**RENDER is not only process you put your timeline out to file.
**Trancode/translate a signal onto the display panel is also rendering.
If a WCG-display does not understand HDR-metadata, it treats the WCG-videosignal in simplest way, say, in the 64-940 levels of the 10bit color.
You get fine picture with "standard dynamic range".
So, at purchasing your new WCG equipment be sure it supports HDR.
Abbildung: 2 screens with/without HDR support (see Panel)
2,
Wide Color Gamut is just an expression.
As hardware definition, every monitor that has 10bit depth (8+2 FRC is OK, too), and covers at least the P3-DCI area, is a WCG-monitor.
Abbildung basic knowledge: the horseshoe-shaped spectrum is the color area human eyes can see, various hardware can only present part of it, and every PART is called A colorspace.
3,
Windows 10 default color space is sRGB, which is also the standard color space for network communication/exchange and programs if not specially indicated.
Windows 10 supports seamlessly WCG and HDR as long as your graphic card is not an old scum.
If you own a WCG monitor with HDR, just a few clicks lead you enjoying many wonderful videofilms at Y-Tube.
And you will notice that those unreal richcolored image-icons come back to normal all at a sudden.
This is because the default sRGB management does not understand WCG-monitor.
Illustration: System color settings with HDR-monitor
4,
SMPTE ST2084 (PQ): Elements of HDR-Videos
Please check the picture parameter --
Color: smpte2084 (PQ)/bt2020
If you don't understand, doesn't matter.
It means: you are looking high dynamic range motion pictures with xxx format in xxx colorspace.
5.
I'd like to make a short entry about 32bit floating point full range environment and ACES in Vegaspro18.
If you have interest.
But don't know what time.
Thankyou!