Playback HDR Video

Various programs can be used to play back HDR videos.

To view videos in HDR, a HDR capable monitor/TV must be connected to the PC, and a 3rd party video player must be used.

4K Capture Utility Library

The library player will automatically tonemap HDR videos to SDR. HDR playback is not possible at this time.

Windows Movies and TV app

Requirements:

• HEVC codec installed from the Windows store: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/hevc-video-extensions-from-device-manufacturer/9n4wgh0z6vhq

VLC

Requirements:

• HDR-compatible monitor/TV connected to your PC.
• Play HDR games and Apps enabled in Windows displays settings

To enable system wide HDR, right click on the Windows desktop and open the Display Settings:

Select the HDR compatible monitor and activate Play HDR games and Apps:

Now open VLC on the monitor with HDR enabled

Drag the video file into VLC or select the file by clicking on File > Open and navigating to the 4K Capture Utility library

Editing HDR Video

Videos editing software has varying support for editing in HDR Colorspace. Due to the relative infancy of the HDR ecosystem, some video editors require external hardware video players to properly preview and playback HDR video. We expect this will change as HDR editing becomes more common.

Below we’ve put together resources for the most popular video editing software that will help you get started editing, grading and delivering HDR video.

HDR videos captured with Elgato Game Capture 4K60 S+ have these attributes:

• HDR format: HDR10
• Bit depth: 10-bit
• Transfer function: PQ ST.2084
• Color space: Rec.2020
• Nits: 1,000

These values will be needed when configuring the video editor for the specific type of HDR video.

VEGAS Pro 17

A tutorial video made by the VEGAS Pro team shows what settings need to be enabled to properly work with, edit, preview and delivery HDR video:

At the time of writing this guide in March, 2020, VEGAS Pro 17 has the most complete end to end HDR support with easy setup. 

Apple Final Cut Pro X

Apple put together a comprehensive guide on working with HDR video – https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208229

Adobe Premiere Pro

A community member created this guide for working with HDR video in Premiere Pro: https://community.adobe.com/t5/premiere-pro/faq-setting-up-for-hdr-work-in-premiere-2020/td-p/10646406?page=1

YouTuber EposVox made a video going into detail about editing and rendering HDR with Premiere Pro:

Black Magic DaVinci Resolve Studio

There is a fantastic blog post by Mystery Box which is very thorough and covers everything needed to know about editing, grading and delivering HDR using DaVinci Resolve, more than is needed to edit a gameplay video – https://www.mysterybox.us/blog/2016/10/27/hdr-video-part-5-grading-mastering-and-delivering-hdr

This video shows step by step how to setup a project, set the correct scopes (for color grading) and how to export HDR video:

YouTube HDR video upload requirements

These are the requirements for uploading HDR video set by YouTube – https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7126552?hl=en

Why Are My Videos Split Into 4GB Segments?

Elgato Game Capture 4K60 S+ records to different file types depending on the format of the SD card that is being used.

If the SD card is formatted in FAT32, the recording will be split in 4GB segments. This is a limitation of the FAT32 file system.

If the SD card is formatted as exFAT, the recording will be one continuous file.

Formatting an SD card to exFAT using Windows 10 can be done by inserting the SD card into an SD card reader, right click on the SD card and select Format.