<p>You can do HDR with almost any modern codec. All it means <em>in practice</em> is that the boundary between the highest and lowest intensities in the image goes beyond what a non-HDR image could portray; if the colors linearly mapped to your monitor on a computer went from 0.0-1.0, then HDR could go above 1.0 (and potentially below 0.0) and be rendered in a convincing way with the right software.</p>
<p>H.265/HEVC (and its royalty-free competitor AV1/VP9) are more about encoding efficiency; H.265 can create files which are roughly half the size of H.264, but due to its licensing fees, the web and world-at-large has been very slow to adopt it.</p>
<p>The chief differences between H.264 and H.265 (the new stuff) are that H.265 supports up to 8K UHD as a resolution, which I don't believe H.264 did (and almost no one will use for the foreseeable future, if I'm reading the video market right); and has a more advanced compression scheme at the same quality level. This doesn't mean that the video will come through higher-quality, but that it will take less space to provide it with the same quality. It's a disk thing.</p>
<p>On the other hand, while H.264 is widely supported, H.265 is proprietary and supporting it requires paying a reasonably hefty licensing fee, which is part of why everyone isn't using it already. (It is quality, it's just proprietary.) For this reason, H.264 is still a very popular standard. While H.264 is generally 8-bit, either one can support a wide range of bit depths in theory.</p>
<p>H.264 can theoretically support up to 12-bit planar, which is usually plenty; unfortunately a lot of decoders (x264 included) have packed that into ten bits and sacrificed fidelity. I've seen people do 14-bit, I'm just not convinced that it mattered. This is still usually more than enough; but bit depth has little to do with HDR, as any range of bits can be HDR if it's just mapped to the appropriate intensities. If you need 14-bit, you will probably want to go with the more modern H.265, just on the basis of the reasons why you might need 14-bit... I <em>think</em> VP9 also supports this, but I'm not sure. The only drawback of VP9 that comes to mind is that you would have a marginally slower stream speed, but it's good enough for Netflix.</p>
<p>That said, a trained human eye can still only distinguish up to about 12 bits; for the everyman it's actually a lot lower. So, unless you're doing medical imaging or radio astronomy, this may be academic.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-06-07T13:49:13.297Z
2022-06-07T13:49:13.297Z
Michael Macha
<p>No, HDR has nothing to do with 10 bit, 8 bit can also be HDR, in both files and in displays, Nvidia/Windows supports that.</p>
<p>HDR is PQ or HLG transfer and those transfers are HDR.</p>
<p>H.264 supports even 14 bit. That is not a problem.</p>
<p>You should see that PQ transfer the file tagged with in Mediainfo. That means HDR is in use. Same about AVIF images.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-09-10T06:06:04.790Z
2021-09-10T06:06:04.790Z
Валерий Заподовников
<p><strong>Yes</strong>, it has to do with the codec. If you want to compress HDR10/10+ content, in H264 or HEVC, there are SPS &amp; PPS markers that indicate what the HDR10 settings are within the elemental bitstream.</p>
<p>The metadata merely indicates standard being used : HDR10, HDR10+. While the video is simply 10-bit YUV 4:2:0 or YUV 4:2:2 typically.</p>
<p>After being received over the network, a decoder can extract this HDR metadata and pass it to the display for actual rendering (with full HDR effects).</p>
<p>The HDR10 is a specification that acts like an umbrella for the metadata coming from various properties like HLG/PQ, Brightness Nit Values, Color Primaries etc. etc. However, HDR10 is static metadata, while HDR10+ or Dolby Vision are dynamic in their metadata meaning it can change from one frame to another.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-06-30T06:11:17.650Z
2022-06-30T06:11:17.650Z
hit.at.ro
<p>I am new to video codec(encoding/decoding) stuff. I am trying to understand the difference between H.264(AVC) and H.265(HEVC) HDR video content. I thought HDR video 'means' it has 10 bit color depth and H.264 does not support 10 bit HDR content. I would appreciate any clarification on this matter. Thank you.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-10T07:13:16.180Z
10 bits is necessary, but not sufficient for HDR.
Jason Conrad
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-07T12:37:23.357Z
h.264 does support 10 bit content, as of 2005. In fact the High 4:4:4 Predictive Profile goes up to 14 bits. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Feature_support_in_particular_profiles
stib
<h.264><h.265><hevc><hdr>
Does HDR content have anything to do with codecs?
user3001078
# Does HDR content have anything to do with codecs?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-02-06)

I am new to video codec(encoding/decoding) stuff. I am trying to understand the difference between H.264(AVC) and H.265(HEVC) HDR video content. I thought HDR video 'means' it has 10 bit color depth and H.264 does not support 10 bit HDR content. I would appreciate any clarification on this matter. Thank you.

**Tags:** h.264, h.265, hevc, hdr

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: h.264 does support 10 bit content, as of 2005. In fact the High 4:4:4 Predictive Profile goes up to 14 bits. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Feature_support_in_particular_profiles  
> **username_1**: 10 bits is necessary, but not sufficient for HDR.  

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## 3 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2022-06-07. Score: 3

You can do HDR with almost any modern codec. All it means *in practice* is that the boundary between the highest and lowest intensities in the image goes beyond what a non-HDR image could portray; if the colors linearly mapped to your monitor on a computer went from 0.0-1.0, then HDR could go above 1.0 (and potentially below 0.0) and be rendered in a convincing way with the right software.

H.265/HEVC (and its royalty-free competitor AV1/VP9) are more about encoding efficiency; H.265 can create files which are roughly half the size of H.264, but due to its licensing fees, the web and world-at-large has been very slow to adopt it.

The chief differences between H.264 and H.265 (the new stuff) are that H.265 supports up to 8K UHD as a resolution, which I don't believe H.264 did (and almost no one will use for the foreseeable future, if I'm reading the video market right); and has a more advanced compression scheme at the same quality level. This doesn't mean that the video will come through higher-quality, but that it will take less space to provide it with the same quality. It's a disk thing.

On the other hand, while H.264 is widely supported, H.265 is proprietary and supporting it requires paying a reasonably hefty licensing fee, which is part of why everyone isn't using it already. (It is quality, it's just proprietary.) For this reason, H.264 is still a very popular standard. While H.264 is generally 8-bit, either one can support a wide range of bit depths in theory.

H.264 can theoretically support up to 12-bit planar, which is usually plenty; unfortunately a lot of decoders (x264 included) have packed that into ten bits and sacrificed fidelity. I've seen people do 14-bit, I'm just not convinced that it mattered. This is still usually more than enough; but bit depth has little to do with HDR, as any range of bits can be HDR if it's just mapped to the appropriate intensities. If you need 14-bit, you will probably want to go with the more modern H.265, just on the basis of the reasons why you might need 14-bit... I *think* VP9 also supports this, but I'm not sure. The only drawback of VP9 that comes to mind is that you would have a marginally slower stream speed, but it's good enough for Netflix.

That said, a trained human eye can still only distinguish up to about 12 bits; for the everyman it's actually a lot lower. So, unless you're doing medical imaging or radio astronomy, this may be academic.


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### Answer by username_4 on 2021-09-10. Score: 0

No, HDR has nothing to do with 10 bit, 8 bit can also be HDR, in both files and in displays, Nvidia/Windows supports that.

HDR is PQ or HLG transfer and those transfers are HDR.

H.264 supports even 14 bit. That is not a problem.

You should see that PQ transfer the file tagged with in Mediainfo. That means HDR is in use. Same about AVIF images.


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### Answer by username_5 on 2022-06-30. Score: 0

**Yes**, it has to do with the codec. If you want to compress HDR10/10+ content, in H264 or HEVC, there are SPS & PPS markers that indicate what the HDR10 settings are within the elemental bitstream.

The metadata merely indicates standard being used : HDR10, HDR10+. While the video is simply 10-bit YUV 4:2:0 or YUV 4:2:2 typically.

After being received over the network, a decoder can extract this HDR metadata and pass it to the display for actual rendering (with full HDR effects).

The HDR10 is a specification that acts like an umbrella for the metadata coming from various properties like HLG/PQ, Brightness Nit Values, Color Primaries etc. etc. However, HDR10 is static metadata, while HDR10+ or Dolby Vision are dynamic in their metadata meaning it can change from one frame to another.


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