Using Atomos Ninja Inferno to monitor HDR

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Using Atomos Ninja Inferno to monitor HDR

I'm using FCPX 10.4 on a MBP 10.3.3 and my external monitor is the same as I use for shooting, an Atomos Ninja Inferno, connected by HDMI 2.0. All well and good till I try to work with HDR High Dynamic Range video (specifically, Rec.2020 HLG) that was originally shot on a Panasonic GH5 and recorded to the Atomos as V-LOG 10bit ProRes.

I've set up the HDR project according to this good little tutorial Final Cut Pro 10.4: Working in HDR - YouTube

except that I'm working in HLG not PQ so it will be backwards compatible with Rec.709

It's an HDR-capable monitor yet I can't for the life of me get it to behave as one; everything looks completely blown out unless I choose "Show HDR as raw values" in FCP's preferences. Then it looks fine ... but that's not now monitoring in Rec.2020 HLG is it!?

In short: is it possible to use the Atomos as a true HDR monitor for Rec.2020 HLG colour grading?

Thanks for any advice.

MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS High Sierra (10.13.3)

Posted on Feb 10, 2018 1:12 PM

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Answer 1

Adam Sebire Author

Level 1

45 points

Feb 22, 2018 11:57 AM in response to jlinaschke

Hello Joseph, no: no reply from Atomos.

They did reply to this fellow as detailed in his blog entry Light at the End of the Tunnel?to the effect that there were a small number of (expensive) hardware solutions that would allow a properly colour-managed signal out of a Mac to the Atomos. Some will only work with specific software. A MacBookPro's HDMI out directly connected to the Atomos might be okay for grading SDR but definitely is no solution for HDR, I can say from trial and a lot of errors.

If you hear anything from Atomos please post back. As you say, HDR monitoring for editing purposes was a selling point — but there was suspiciously little word as to how to do it...

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Answer 2

Feb 21, 2018 2:08 PM in response to Adam Sebire

Have you resolved this? (I realize you just posted this a couple weeks ago). I'm trying to do the exact same thing. I've sent a support email to Atomos and will report back here whatever they say if you don't have an answer yet.

This is supposed to work. It's one of the selling points of the Ninja. And I did see this working at NAB last year, albeit connected through a G-Tech drive with an HDMI port.

cheers

-Joseph

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Using Atomos Ninja Inferno to monitor HDR

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