4K Display with HDR Recommendations

[Marc Wielage]

No, my opinion is there is no affordable HDR display that’s good enough to calibrate and use for color-correcting HDR material. Not yet.

My advice would be to get a decent display that works for Rec709, then once that’s done, book some time in a room with a Sony BVM-X300, set it up for true HDR, and do a trim pass for a day or two and “massage” the project for that specific release format. Anything else will be a gross compromise.

[Ole Kristiansen]

“No, my opinion is there is no affordable HDR display that’s good enough to calibrate and use for color-correcting HDR material. Not yet.”

I just want to use my Atomos Ninja Flame ! he he

[Chris Wright]

>93% P3 and >1000 nits is minimum for HDR specs. ironically, how they expect to work everything in rec 2020, when most Tv’s can’t handle 100% P3 is beyond me.

[Jonathon Lee]

Hey Elliot,

For doing an HDR grade pass the only, actually available option, is the Sony BVM-X300 (not to be confused with the PVM-X300). This display will go up to 1000nits and supports ST 2084. SMPTE 2084-PQ covers up to 10000nits, which no current, commercially available display can emit. There is the Dolby Pulsar that can go up to 4000nits, however, those are not available through normal channels.

With regard to gamut the BVM-X300 has a BT.2020 (rec2020) “compatibility mode” and will display a percentage of BT.2020. No commercially available wide gamut displays can show 100% of the range.

The gamut and light level limitations are technology related. Eventually we will get there, but the manufacturers will need some time to catch up. For HDR10, short of the Sony X300, the highest-end of the Sony consumer displays will get you the closest at this time… check out the Z9D 75″.

With regard to Dolby Vision vs HDR 10… Dolby Vision is a great technology, however, grading for it involves some very specific equipment. You’ll need a grading app that supports Dolby Vision — Resolve is one of them, A Dolby CMU and a “supported” mastering display. Sony BVM-X300, Dolby Maui or Dolby Pulsar. Different displays will allow you to visualize at different light levels.

HDR 10 is simpler to work with, although, there is less control of the user experience and less display-side optimization.

Then there is Hyper Log Gamma (HLG) which you will see used in live sporting events. This is another can of worms and I won’t get into that now.

Hope this helps.

– Jonathon

[John Treffer]

I think the Eizo monitors are an interesting option for Grading monitors below top-end. I’ve got an CG248-4K but the CG318-4K is a more useful size for 4K. Reproduces 98% of DCI-P3. Got very nice internal calibration system. Saves the cost of a spider, buts also the hassle of applying it.

Downside is that there is no SDI, only HDMI/Display Port, but it works as well. In my research last year this ended up having the best price/quality rate. Eizo has a long history in making high-end displays for photography and print, so they have experience in manufactering.

I believe they have a rec.2020 mode where the monitor indicates what pixels are out of the range, but I never tried that.

Good luck, John

[Jonathon Lee]

The Ezio is good for wide gamut and it also coves a limited range of rec2020. It is also not an HDR display. What most folks will be working with as far as HDR goes will be wither based on PQ tone mapping of some sort HDR10 or Dolby Vision or the non-PQ HLG. Having the PQ EOTF in an HDR display is absolutely essential. “Most” of the studios are going with PQ based HDR formats.