**Replacing Human Attention to Detail with Technology**

We're trying to replace a human's job in a human's attention to detail. So, it may not always be perfect, but it will get better with time and with software updates. For example, the iPhone does this for you with the power of the A14 Bionic chip. Now remember, although this footage can look really good, it's still happening automatically with the computer.

The Dolby Vision mode is on by default, but you can toggle it off in the settings. However, there's some exciting stuff coming. This is a relatively new thing, and I'm guessing it won't be fully supported yet. We're seeing a lot of compatibility issues when it comes to playing back HDR footage.

**Compatibility Issues with HDR Footage**

For the most part, we were just cramming more pixels into screens and videos, and the numbers were solid, and it was pretty easy to keep the standards simple. But in this case, we have different HDR standards competing, and there's a lot of factors to consider. Different hardware and software solutions are going to play back HDR footage differently.

To watch HDR footage, you need two key components: first, your display needs to be able to display brighter pixels. You don't necessarily need an HDR display, but anything that can display more than 100-nit brightness level will give you some benefits in most cases. Second, your playback software needs to be able to read the HDR transfer function and any additional HDR metadata.

**Display Capabilities**

For example, my iPhone 12 Pro can shoot and view HDR footage, no problem. But if I upload the clip to Twitter, it will display in standard dynamic range. Simply because Twitter's media player is not equipped to handle HDR footage yet. And I'm not a hundred percent sure what the Twitter app is doing behind the scenes, but I'm guessing it's using some sort of H.264 preset, which conforms the video into SDR and maximizes backward compatibility.

However, with time, more apps, social media platforms, and everything will integrate HDR support. So we'll see that more going forward. The same goes for editing. Right now on the iPhone, if you shoot the Dolby Vision, you can edit it in iMovie on your iPhone or in the Photos app. But you can't truly edit it in many other places than that.

**Final Cut Pro and Apple's Pro Software**

Final Cut Pro, Apple's pro software on the Mac, is gaining support for it soon, but it's not here just yet. For now, we're limited to editing HDR footage in iMovie or the Photos app. iPhone 12 Pro HDR footage will play properly in Quick Time and in the Photos app, and the software will do its best to tone map the video to the display's abilities.

However, if I open the file in VLC, for example, the video plays a really dark. I'm not a hundred percent sure why these particular issues happen yet, but I'm guessing it's because iPhone 12 Dolby Vision footage simply doesn't work in everything yet. This is still a relatively new thing, and I'm guessing some of these compatibility issues will be resolved over time.

**Learning More About HDR**

If you know anything else about these compatibility issues, feel free to let me know in the comments. The one I really recommend is the Dolby Institute link because that gives you a really good breakdown on how Dolby Vision works behind the scenes. So I hope you'll learn something today. I know that was kind of a lot, trust me, it confused me at first when I was learning about it. So no worries, feel free to re-watch the episode if you need to relearn some things and get it under your belt.

**Patreon Support**

Hey, if you wanna see more cool camera stuff in action with the iPhone 12 versus the iPhone 11 Pro, check out my camera comparison episode because that is really good too. And if you'd like to help fund the future of the Computer Clan, plus get some awesome perks along the way, feel free to pledge to our Patreon, thank you very much for your support.

**Conclusion**

And if you liked this episode, you know what to do. Thanks for sticking with me, catch the crazy and pass it on.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en(robotic music)- Hey guys, how you all doing?If you're new here, welcome.My name is Krazy Ken andsorry about being overexposed.Hang on, let me just adjust that.There we go.Okay, in a way, I actuallywasn't overexposedat least relative to the colorspace I'm being recorded in.The problem is the color spacethat you're watching me in,can't register these reallyhigh luminance values.So it looks like I'm being overexposed.Don't worry, it relates towhat we're talking about today.With the iPhone 12 highdynamic range and Dolby Vision.Dolby Vision is a big new featureon the already very popular iPhone camera.So the iPhone 12 has justtaken it to the next level.There's lots of questions going aroundand people are talking about it.So today I'd like to helpanswer those questions.In short, Dolby Vision is an HDR standardand it helps your video just look better.It helps it look better,more realistic with brighter pixels.And that's kinda the quick and dryversion of the explanation,and for most people,that's probably all they need to know.But hey, I know why you're here.You're curious right?You wanna know more than that.So here's the stuff we'regonna be talking about today.What is dynamic range and what are nits?What is Rec.709 color space?What actually is high dynamicrange and how is it useful?What is 10-bit color versus 8-bit color?What is Dolby Vision?How do I film Dolby Visionand HDR on my iPhone?And how do I watch thehigh dynamic range footage?So what is dynamic range?Well, all of your photos and videoshave some sort of dynamic range.The dynamic range of a photo or a videois the range in brightnessfrom the darkest pixelsto the brightest pixels.What are we using tomeasure this brightness?Generally phone displays, TVs,computer monitors, et cetera,the brightness of those thingsis measured in nits or cd/m2which is candelas per square meter.A nit is approximately the amount of lightthat a candle emits ina square meter surface.So 50 candles is 50 nits,approximately give or take.In a real-world application,an iPhone 12 has a 1200-nit display.A 2020 iMac has 500nits, so on and so forth.But here's the problem.Most video is encoded with a standardthat doesn't understandanything more than 100 nits.So even if you have a crazyexpensive beautiful TV,and you're watching that limited videoin that limited color space,you're not gonna get the benefitsof that high dynamic range experience.This color space is part of Rec.709.Rec.709 is a series of recommendationsassembled by the InternationalTelecommunication Union.It dates back to thenineties and back then,people were not prioritizinghigher brightness video.This explains what happened to meat the beginning of this episode.I was filming with muchmore brightness informationthat couldn't be displayed in Rec.709.Causing my highlights to clipand appear as solid white.But the world is movingforward and Rec.2020 and 2100have specificationsfor high dynamic range.So now dive into that some more,but let me just clear up some confusionbecause it even confused me at one time.When I'm talking abouthigh dynamic range or HDRin this country text,I'm not talking about,those photos you seewhere there's multipleexposures combined together.Generally speaking that's referredto as photographic HDR or HDRi.In this context thatwe're talking about today,we're not talking aboutmultiple exposures,we're just talking about a single exposurethat is capable of showinghigher luminance values.So instead of being limitedby that 100 nit limitgenerally HDR video is 1000+ nits.So why is that useful?Well, it's brighter right?Especially when you compare itto standard dynamic rangevideo, it's so much brighter.Okay, it's brighter great,what exactly does that mean?Let's take a look at this example.The shot is exposure balance for the skyso we can see all the detail no problem,but the shadows are now crushed so bad,they're nearing a big black splotch.So to get those shadows brighterlet's just turn up theheat exposure right?Well, just like we talked about earlier,now that we brighten up those shadowsthe sky is now way toobright and it's blowing out,but that's at the 100-nit limit.Imagine this is an HDRvideo on an HDR display.I can increase the exposure,bringing out the details in the shadows,but the sky details are preservedand everything looks great.This is a big benefit thatHDR video accomplishes.But now we run into anotherproblem, color limitations.So most videos that you watchare encoded in 8-bit color,which allocates 256 luminance valuesper color channel, red, green, and blue.Combined together that'snot enough to give HDRthe wiggle room it needsto create the pretty picture you see.So that's why HDRstandards use 10-bit color.And in some cases, 12-bit color.10 bit color offers 1024luminance values per channel.And when you multiply all that together,that gives it was high dynamic range videoenough wiggle room to be able to makethe pretty pictures you seeand preserve all of the brightnessand show all those colors.So we know what HDR is, howit works, why it's useful,and we know about 10-bit color, perfect.So where does Dolby Vision come into play?Well, Dolby Vision inshort is an HDR standard.There is actually a bunchof standards for HDRwhich is one reason why it'sso fricking complicated.But that aside, Dolby Visionis a proprietary formatby Dolby Laboratories, andit offers one big benefitthat many other standards don't have.It's more dynamic.In a way it's kind of likedynamic high dynamic range.Typically, in HDR video has aconstant set of instructionsor static metadata that tell the displayhow it should present the video.This set of instructionsapplies to the whole videoand the instructions don't changethroughout the durationof the video program.However, there are cases wherecertain attributes of HDRmay need to be tailoredfor specific scenes.That's where Dolby Vision comes in.Dolby Vision providesadditional instructions,dynamic metadata, that workalongside the video playback.And these additional instructionshelp adjust the picturefor different scenes,brightness and contrast for example.Dolby Vision breaks down themetadata into eight levels.These levels have different parameterswhich can be adjusted on a scene by sceneor even a frame-by-frame basis,to truly leverage thecapabilities of the HDR displayand make the picture look stunning.So at this time, ifyou're using an iPhone 12,you can film Dolby Vision video.The phone applies the color adjustmentsand other metadata automagically.Normally this is done by professionalswith specialized equipment,but in this case,the iPhone does it for youwith the power of the A14 Bionic chip.Now remember, although thisfootage can look really goodit's still happeningautomatically with the computer.We're trying to replace a human's jobin a human's attention to detail.So it may not always be perfectbut it will get better withtime and with software updates.So there's some exciting stuff coming.This Dolby Vision mode is on by default,but you can toggle it off in the settings.So here's where things kindabecome a pain in the butt.How do you watch this amazing footage?Well, to keep it simple, if you shootwith the built-in cameraapp on an iPhone 12,you can easily watch that stuffin the built-in Photos appon an iPhone 12 and someother models, no problem.The compatibility is thereand it's all built in.But let's expand on that.The reason why this is alittle more complicatedis because it's not likewhen we went from HD to 4K.For the most part, we werejust cramming more pixelsinto screens and videosand the numbers were solidand it was pretty easy tokeep the standards simple.But in this case we havedifferent HDR standards competingand there's a lot of factors to consider.Different hardware and software solutionsare gonna play back HDRfootage differently.And it's just a little bit complicated.But back to that question,how do you watch it?Well, you need two key components.First, you need a displaywhich has the physical capabilitiesto display brighter pixels.You don't necessarily need an HDR display,but anything that can displaymore than that 100-nitbrightness level will give yousome benefits in most cases.And two, your playback softwareneeds to be able to readthe HDR transfer functionand if necessary theadditional HDR metadata.For example, my iPhone 12 Procan shoot and view HDRfootage, no problem.But if I upload the clip to Twitter,it will display in standard dynamic range.Simply because Twitter's media playeris not equipped to handle HDR footage yet.And I'm not a hundred percentsure what the Twitter appis doing behind the scenes,but I'm guessing it's usingsome sort of H.264 preset, whichconforms the video into SDRand maximizes backward compatibility.However, with time moreapps, social media platformsand everything will integrate HDR support.So we'll see that more going forward.The same goes for editing,right now on the iPhoneif you shoot the Dolby Vision,you can edit that stuffin iMovie on your iPhoneor in the Photos appbut you can't truly edit it inmany other places than that.Final Cut Pro, Apple'spro software on the Macis gaining support for it soon,but it's not here just yet.Here's another example.iPhone 12 pro HDR footagewill play properlyin quick time and in the Photos app,and the software will do itsbest to tone map the videoto the displays abilities.If you look closely,you'll actually see theadjustments happening.But if I open the filein VLC, for example,the video plays a really dark.I'm not a hundred percent surewhy these particular issueshappen yet, but I'm guessingit's because iPhone 12Dolby Vision footagesimply doesn't work in everything yet.This is a relatively new thing.And I'm guessing VLCwon't support Dolby Visionanytime soon, becauseit's not an open format.But that's just a guess.If you know anything else aboutthese compatibility issues,feel free to let me know in the comments.Check out the links in the descriptionbecause I do have someother resources down there.And the one I really recommendis the Dolby Institute linkbecause that gives youa really good breakdownas to how Dolby Visionworks behind the scenes.So I hope you'll learn something today.I know that was kind of a lot.Trust me, it confused me at first toowhen I was learning about it.So no worries, feel freeto re-watch the episodeif you need to relearn some thingsand get it under your beltbut also if you have anyquestions, hey, I'm all ears.Leave something in the commentsand I'll do my best to answer.And hey, if you wanna see morecool camera stuff in actionwith the iPhone 12versus the iPhone 11 Pro,check out my camera comparison episodebecause that is really good too.And if you'd like to help fund the futureof the Computer Clan,plus get some awesome perks along the way,feel free to pledge to our Patreon,thank you very much for your support.And if you liked thisepisode, you know what to do.Thanks for sticking with me,catch the crazy and pass it on.(upbeat music)\n"