HDR vs SDR Video: What's the Difference, and Why Your HDR Clips Look Washed Out

Q: What is the difference between HDR and SDR video?

SDR (standard dynamic range) video is graded for a reference brightness of about 100 nits, uses the Rec. 709 color space, and is usually 8-bit. HDR (high dynamic range) video uses the much wider Rec. 2020 color space, a PQ or HLG transfer function that can describe highlights far brighter than SDR, and at least 10-bit color. HDR looks better on an HDR display; SDR looks the same almost everywhere.

Q: Why does my HDR video look washed out?

Because something in the chain treated it as SDR. When an app, editor, or platform reads HLG or PQ video as if it were Rec. 709 and skips tone mapping, the picture comes out gray, flat, and desaturated. The opposite problem, blown-out highlights, happens when HDR is clipped instead of tone mapped, or when a bright HDR clip plays next to SDR content on an HDR phone screen.

Q: Should I turn off HDR video on my iPhone?

Turn it off if you mostly edit in apps that don't handle HDR, or share to places that show your clips badly. Go to Settings > Camera > Record Video and switch off HDR Video. Leave it on if you edit in Final Cut Pro, iMovie, or another HDR-aware editor and publish to YouTube, Vimeo, or Instagram on iOS, which all accept iPhone HDR.

Q: How do I convert HDR to SDR?

Tone map it. In iMovie, turn HDR off in the share Options. In HandBrake, set Filters > Color Space to BT.709. In FFmpeg, linearize with zscale, apply the tonemap filter (hable or mobius), then convert to Rec. 709. Simply relabeling HDR as SDR without tone mapping is what causes the washed-out look.

Q: Does HDR video take up more space than SDR?

Not much by itself. A 10-bit HEVC file at the same resolution and frame rate is roughly the same size as an 8-bit one. The bigger effect is the codec: iPhone HDR is always HEVC, and converting it to SDR H.264 for compatibility usually makes the file larger at the same quality.

Q: Is 10-bit video the same as HDR?

No. HDR requires 10-bit or more, but 10-bit video can also be SDR. Plenty of cameras record 10-bit Rec. 709 or log footage to get smoother gradients and more room for color grading. HDR is defined by the color space and transfer function, not bit depth alone.

By Hieu DinhPublished November 4, 2026

HDR vs SDR in One Paragraph

HDR vs SDR is the difference between video that can show bright highlights and deep shadows at the same time, and video built around the limits of old TVs. SDR (standard dynamic range) has been the default for decades and looks the same almost everywhere. HDR (high dynamic range) stores more brightness, more color, and more bit depth, so it looks noticeably better on an HDR screen, and noticeably worse anywhere that doesn't understand it.

That matters to creators because iPhone 12 and later models record HDR video by default. Plenty of people shoot HDR without knowing it, then wonder why their clips look gray in an editor or flat on a client's laptop. Here's what HDR and SDR actually are, and how to turn HDR off or convert HDR to SDR when you need to.

What Is HDR Video?

If you're asking what is HDR video, it's a signal that changes four things compared with SDR:

1. Dynamic range and nits

Dynamic range is the span between the darkest and brightest parts of an image. Brightness on displays is measured in nits (candelas per square meter).

SDR video is graded for a reference display of about 100 nits. Anything brighter than that, like a sunlit sky or a lamp in frame, gets compressed into the same small range as everything else. HDR formats can describe highlights far above that: the PQ curve used by HDR10 and Dolby Vision goes up to 10,000 nits on paper, and HDR content is commonly mastered at 1,000 nits or more.

2. Color gamut: Rec. 709 vs Rec. 2020

SDR video uses the Rec. 709 (BT.709) color space, the standard for HD television. HDR uses Rec. 2020 (BT.2020), which covers a much larger range of colors, especially saturated greens, cyans, and reds that Rec. 709 simply can't represent.

3. Transfer function: gamma vs PQ vs HLG

The transfer function (or EOTF) is the curve that maps code values in the file to brightness on screen. SDR uses a gamma curve (BT.1886). HDR uses one of two curves defined in Rec. 2100:

PQ (Perceptual Quantizer, SMPTE ST 2084): maps each code value to an absolute brightness in nits. It's the basis of HDR10, HDR10+, and most Dolby Vision streaming content. Precise, but it needs metadata so a dimmer display knows how to scale it down.
HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma): developed by the BBC and NHK for broadcast. It's relative rather than absolute, needs no metadata, and the lower part of its curve resembles SDR gamma, so an SDR display shows something watchable, if a bit flat. This is the one your iPhone uses.

4. Bit depth: 8-bit vs 10-bit video

8-bit video has 256 levels per color channel (about 16.7 million colors). 10-bit video has 1,024 levels per channel (about 1.07 billion colors). Stretching a wider brightness and color range across only 256 steps causes visible banding in skies and gradients, so HDR requires at least 10-bit. YouTube, for example, accepts HDR uploads only at 10 or 12 bits.

10-bit doesn't automatically mean HDR, though: many cameras record 10-bit SDR or log footage just for smoother gradients.

HDR vs SDR: Comparison Table

	SDR	HDR
Reference brightness	~100 nits	Highlights mastered at 1,000+ nits (PQ goes up to 10,000)
Color space	Rec. 709	Rec. 2020
Transfer function	Gamma (BT.1886)	PQ (ST 2084) or HLG
Bit depth	Usually 8-bit	10-bit minimum, sometimes 12-bit
Common codecs	H.264, HEVC, VP9, AV1	HEVC, VP9 Profile 2, AV1
Looks right on	Virtually every screen	HDR displays, or SDR screens after proper tone mapping
Editing	Any editor	Needs an HDR-aware editor and project settings
Best for	Maximum compatibility, client deliverables, most social posts	High-contrast scenes, YouTube and Vimeo, Apple devices

The short version of HDR vs SDR: HDR is the better master, SDR is the safer delivery format.

HDR Formats: HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and HLG

You'll see four HDR labels on phones, TVs, and streaming services:

HDR10: the open baseline. PQ, Rec. 2020, 10-bit, plus static metadata (SMPTE ST 2086 mastering display info and MaxCLL/MaxFALL brightness values) that describes the whole video once.
HDR10+: Samsung's royalty-free extension of HDR10 that adds dynamic metadata, so brightness mapping can change scene by scene.
Dolby Vision: Dolby's licensed format, also with dynamic metadata, and support for up to 12-bit. It comes in several "profiles." The one iPhones record is Profile 8.4, a single 10-bit HEVC stream with an HLG base layer plus Dolby Vision metadata on top.
HLG: the broadcast format described above. No metadata, and partially backward compatible with SDR screens.

For creators, Dolby Vision vs HDR10 is mostly about metadata and playback support. Because iPhone Dolby Vision files are HLG underneath, any HLG-capable player or editor can open them as plain HLG.

iPhone HDR Video: What Your Phone Is Actually Recording

On iPhone 12 and later, the Camera app records Dolby Vision HDR by default. Under the hood, an iPhone HDR video is:

HEVC (H.265), 10-bit. HDR clips are always HEVC; the setting appears as "HDR Video (High Efficiency)" in recent iOS versions. If you want the background on the codec, see HEVC codec explained.
HLG transfer, Rec. 2020 color.
Dolby Vision Profile 8.4 metadata layered on top.

On the iPhone and on Apple devices with HDR screens, these clips look great. The trouble starts when the file meets software that treats it as ordinary video.

Why Does My HDR Video Look Washed Out?

If you're searching why does my HDR video look washed out, the cause is almost always a missing or wrong conversion step, not your camera.

Washed out, gray, or flat

An HDR clip has to be tone mapped to look right on an SDR screen: its brightness range compressed and its Rec. 2020 colors mapped into Rec. 709. When a player, editor, or upload pipeline skips that step and reads HLG or PQ as if it were Rec. 709, you get lifted blacks, low contrast, and muted color. This is the classic "my iPhone video looks washed out in Premiere / on Windows / after upload" complaint.

It also happens when a converter strips the color tags that say "this is HLG, Rec. 2020," so the next app doesn't know it's HDR.

Blown out or too bright

The opposite problem shows up two ways:

Clipping instead of tone mapping. Cut off everything above SDR white and skies turn into flat white patches.
HDR next to SDR on an HDR phone. In a feed full of SDR posts, an HDR clip played at full HDR brightness can look painfully bright compared with everything around it. Instagram on iPhone drew plenty of complaints about this, and Meta's 2025 Dolby Vision update was aimed at making HDR playback there look right.

Banding after compression

Re-encoding HDR to 8-bit without tone mapping, or squeezing it to a very low bitrate, shows up as stepped bands in skies and gradients. If you need to cut file size, keep enough bitrate for the resolution; our guide to video bitrate explains how much is enough.

How to Turn Off HDR Video on iPhone

If you share most of your clips to apps that don't handle HDR well, or hand footage to editors who work in SDR, the simplest fix is to record SDR in the first place:

Open Settings.
Tap Camera, then Record Video.
Turn off HDR Video (labeled HDR Video (High Efficiency) on recent iOS versions).

New recordings will be SDR. Existing HDR clips stay HDR, so convert those separately. If you also want maximum compatibility with older Windows PCs and apps, setting Settings > Camera > Formats to Most Compatible switches recording to H.264; HEVC vs H.264 covers what you give up in file size.

The cost: in high-contrast scenes, SDR clips highlights sooner. If you edit in an HDR-aware app and publish to YouTube, keeping HDR on is reasonable.

How to Convert HDR to SDR

Converting HDR to SDR properly means tone mapping, not just relabeling. Here are three ways to do it, from easiest to most control.

iMovie (and Final Cut Pro for HDR masters)

Apple's own editors handle iPhone HDR natively. In iMovie on iPhone or iPad, tap Options when you share and turn HDR off to export an SDR version. iMovie for Mac (10.2 or later) imports iPhone HDR and can share in SDR. If you want to keep HDR instead, Apple's workflow is Final Cut Pro with a project set to Wide Gamut HDR - Rec. 2020 HLG, exported as an HLG master or as HEVC 10-bit.

HandBrake

HandBrake has a color space conversion filter. Open your clip, choose a preset, then go to the Filters tab and set Color Space to BT.709. HandBrake then converts the HDR source to standard Rec. 709 SDR. For the rest of the encode, our HandBrake settings guide covers presets and quality values.

FFmpeg (zscale + tonemap)

FFmpeg's tonemap filter only works on linear-light, floating-point data, so the conversion is a chain: linearize with zscale, tone map, then convert back to Rec. 709. This follows the pattern in the FFmpeg filter documentation:

ffmpeg -i input.mov \
  -vf "zscale=t=linear:npl=100,format=gbrpf32le,zscale=p=709,tonemap=tonemap=hable:desat=0,zscale=t=709:m=709:r=tv,format=yuv420p" \
  -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -preset slow \
  -color_primaries bt709 -color_trc bt709 -colorspace bt709 \
  -c:a copy output.mp4

What each step does:

zscale=t=linear:npl=100 converts the HLG or PQ signal to linear light, with 100 nits as SDR reference white.
format=gbrpf32le switches to 32-bit float, which tonemap requires.
zscale=p=709 converts Rec. 2020 primaries to Rec. 709.
tonemap=tonemap=hable:desat=0 compresses the highlights. Hable preserves detail in shadows and highlights at the cost of slightly darker overall brightness; mobius keeps colors more accurate. Try both on your footage.
zscale=t=709:m=709:r=tv,format=yuv420p converts back to standard 8-bit Rec. 709 video.
The -color_* flags tag the output so players know it's SDR.

The zscale filter requires an FFmpeg build compiled with --enable-libzimg, and not every build includes it. Run ffmpeg -filters | grep zscale to check. For more on the encoding side, see compressing video with FFmpeg.

Which Platforms Support HDR Uploads?

Support has improved since the iPhone 12 launched, but it still varies:

Platform	HDR upload support	Notes
YouTube	Yes, PQ or HLG	Needs Rec. 2020 primaries and matrix, 10-bit or 12-bit; HEVC, VP9 Profile 2, or AV1 recommended. YouTube creates an SDR version automatically for non-HDR viewers.
Vimeo	Yes, HDR10, HLG, and Dolby Vision	Dolby Vision must be Profile 8.4 (what iPhones record). HDR must be 10-bit or more. Viewers without HDR get SDR.
Instagram (iOS)	Yes	Since 2025, Instagram keeps Dolby Vision metadata from iPhone HDR uploads through to playback on iOS. Android handling is less consistent.
Facebook Reels	Yes, from the camera roll	Meta added HDR Reels uploads in 2023.
TikTok	Not documented	TikTok doesn't publish an HDR spec. Results with HDR uploads are inconsistent, so many creators upload SDR.

YouTube shows an "HDR" label next to each quality option (for example, "1080p HDR") when it recognizes your file as HDR. If it doesn't appear, the color metadata was probably lost during export. The best video format for YouTube covers the rest of the upload spec.

When you don't know how a destination treats HDR (a client portal, a messaging app, a website player), deliver SDR.

HDR vs SDR File Size

Does HDR make files bigger? Less than you'd think:

Bit depth alone adds little. A 10-bit HEVC encode at the same resolution, frame rate, and quality target lands in the same ballpark as an 8-bit one.
The codec matters more. iPhone HDR is always HEVC, which is already efficient. Converting HDR to SDR and switching to H.264 for compatibility usually makes the file larger at the same visual quality. If the destination supports HEVC, convert to SDR HEVC instead; our guide to converting HEVC to H.264 explains when H.264 is really necessary.
Platforms re-encode anyway. YouTube, Instagram, and Vimeo all transcode uploads, so a bloated source file gains you nothing.

Shrinking HDR and SDR Clips on a Mac

Once you've picked HDR or SDR, the remaining problem is usually size: a few minutes of 4K iPhone footage can run into gigabytes. Compresto compresses video locally on your Mac, in batches, with H.264 or H.265 output: H.265 for the smallest files, H.264 when the file has to play everywhere. For phone-specific tips, see how to compress video on iPhone.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between HDR and SDR video?

SDR is graded for about 100 nits, uses Rec. 709 color, and is usually 8-bit. HDR uses Rec. 2020 color, a PQ or HLG transfer function for much brighter highlights, and at least 10-bit. HDR looks better on HDR screens; SDR looks consistent everywhere.

Why does my HDR video look washed out?

Something treated it as SDR without tone mapping, or stripped its color tags. The result is gray, low-contrast, desaturated video. Blown-out highlights come from clipping instead of tone mapping.

Should I turn off HDR video on my iPhone?

Turn it off in Settings > Camera > Record Video if your editor or destination doesn't handle HDR. Keep it on if you edit in an HDR-aware app and publish to YouTube, Vimeo, or Instagram on iOS.

How do I convert HDR to SDR?

Tone map it: turn HDR off in iMovie's share options, set HandBrake's Color Space filter to BT.709, or use FFmpeg's zscale and tonemap filters.

Does HDR video take up more space than SDR?

Only slightly. The codec matters more than the bit depth, and converting HEVC HDR to H.264 SDR often makes files bigger.

Is 10-bit video the same as HDR?

No. HDR needs 10-bit, but 10-bit can also be SDR. The color space and transfer function are what make video HDR.

The Short Version

HDR vs SDR comes down to range versus reach. HDR stores more brightness, color, and bit depth; SDR plays correctly everywhere. Your iPhone shoots HDR by default. Turn it off in Settings > Camera > Record Video if it causes trouble, and when you need SDR from an HDR clip, tone map it instead of just re-exporting.

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