Any way to convert HDR Dolby Vision iPhone footage for regular FCPX projects?

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Level 1

52 points

Any way to convert HDR Dolby Vision iPhone footage for regular FCPX projects?

Hi guys, I could really use your help.

I mistakenly recorded a bunch of important footage on my new iPhone 12 in HDR/Dolby Vision format. I realize I can import it into FCPX by creating a new library that's compatible... but other clips that I need to add to the finished movie are not compatible and appear very dark. I don't really want to go that route.

However, what I see in the Viewer looks perfect. I "simply" want that visual converted into my non-HDR Library's project. In other words, I don't need the HDR, I just want it to look how it looks in the viewer.

Sadly if I do that, the brightness blows up. The HDR Tools effect doesn't produce any satisfactory conversion.

I have even tried creating and HDR library, exporting the movie to a non-HDR format, with the hope of importing that render into a non-HDR library/project. Sadly the colour still looks wrong and fairly washed out with different contrast to how beautiful things look in the Viewer.

Now, I could do a screen record of the Viewer with audio, and it would look perfect, then use that .mov but that really seems like a bizarre way around.

So, how can I get my HDR video to look how it looks in the Viewer, only in the non-HDR project?

Thank you!

iMac 27″, macOS 11.1

Posted on Feb 1, 2021 7:42 PM

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Answer 1

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AppleIIme Author

Level 1

52 points

Feb 2, 2021 1:26 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Thanks guys. None of the third party converters out there actually did what they claimed, but although HDR Tools in FCPX looks terrible when first applied, I found that the main fix was to then bring the Highlights right down in Colour settings. That was a great starting point. I then applied Match Colour to the original HDR clip in the Viewer, which helped even more. And then played with the Colours pane itself, particularly the Highlights Colours for my face (though all clips will vary). Finally I used Hue vs Luma to fix my face a little more.

I now have a great looking SDR version. So I'm out of the hole!

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Answer 2

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,777 points

Feb 2, 2021 2:48 AM in response to AppleIIme

Unfortunately HDR can’t look like HDR in a Rec 709 library. The HDR Tools aren’t a magic bullet when changing HLG to Rec 709, but they’re your starting point. The color correction tools will help to improve the look. That said if there is a lot of detail in the highlights in HDR it might be difficult or impossible to recover in SDR.

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