HDR Editing Preview Doesn't Work on MacBook Pro 16" 2019

[Philip Race]

I have a MacBook Pro 16" 2019. It has a HDR display, but for some reason, Lightroom thinks it is SDR. The small white bar below the histogram goes grey beyond SDR, which means HDR isnt supported. On Adobes HDR artcile, it doesnt say what displays are compatible, but it says some recommended displays. It just says compatible HDR display required. 

My question is - if my display is compatible with HDR, why doesnt it work with this feature. Is there a way to just make it work as theoratically, I have compatible hardware. 

I have all of the GPU hardware acceleration enabled.

[Conrad_C · Accepted solution]

If you mean the Adobe article High Dynamic Range Explained, posted last month to go with the release of HDR editing, it is actually very clear about the recommendations, in the third paragraph:

…a High Dynamic Range display that supports 1000 nits or brighter…Recommended displays include Apple XDR displays, such as a MacBook Pro with an XDR display (2021 or later)

For Apple users, the most important word in that paragraph is XDR. Those three letters must be in the Apple display name for HDR to be fully supported. I do not think any Intel Mac ever had an XDR display. Note that Adobe says 2021 or later.

When you specifically look for “XDR” the displays fully supported for Adobe HDR editing stand out easily. For example:

The 27" Apple Studio Display, released in 2022, does not have XDR in the name, so it isn’t recommended. Technically, the reason is that it can’t achieve more than 600 nits luminance.

The 32" Apple Pro Display XDR from 2019 does qualify. It can achieve 1000 nits sustained/1600 peak, so Apple put XDR in the name.

For Mac laptops, no display had XDR in the name until the 14"/16" Apple Silicon M1 MacBook Pro released in 2021. Those have the Liquid Retina XDR name, because they can sustain 1000 nits, so they qualify. (To decode the rest of the name, I think Liquid refers to the high/adaptable refresh rate capability, and Retina definitely refers to the pixel density.)

For iPads, again “XDR” is the key. Some say it has to be an iPad Pro, but that is not enough. For example, my 11" iPad Pro does not reach 1000 nits, but the 12.9" iPad Pro from the same year does, because it has a Liquid Retina XDR display and mine only has a Liquid Retina display.

iPhone 15? All models have a Super Retina XDR display. XDR is in the name, so all models qualify.

For the 2019 Intel MacBook Pro, the display has a maximum luminance of 500 nits, which is better than most laptops and a little beyond SDR, but unfortunately well below the 1000 nits for full Adobe HDR editing support and Apple XDR branding.

So I’m just wanting to make it clear for all the Apple users, if you want your Mac/iPad/iPhone/desktop display to be fully supported for HDR editing in Lightroom/Camera Raw, the display must have XDR in the name.

[Philip Race]

I realised the issue was to do with the brihgtness, but you're still correct. What was causing my Lightroom to treat my display as SDR was because of my brightness. I turned it down 3 nothces and it would do 1 stop of HDR, but it wouldn't go further. That means the display works with HDR, but not as well as HDR10 or HDR10+ compliant displays, or apples XDR displays. Pretty much what you said. 

Thanks for the response; it helped me put the pieces together. 

[Conrad_C]

(Edit: Our replies apparently crossed at about the same time. Yes, it looks like you already figured out what I just wrote below. 🙂 )

I spent a little more time looking at this because you said the white bar does extend past SDR. I think your 2019 MacBook Pro might be partially supported for HDR display, because even though it doesn’t reach 1000 nits, its 500 nits maximum (better than most laptops) does extend beyond SDR.

If the display could not extend past SDR at all, you would see red beyond SDR, and clicking the red “i” info circle would open the alert shown below. When I enable HDR on my desktop display that doesn’t quite reach 400 nits, this is what I see:

You will probably find that how far the white bar extends depends on the display brightness setting. The brighter it is, the shorter the bar, because a brighter overall luminance leaves less headroom for the peaks. On your display, when you lower display brightness, you can probably get the white bar to go about one stop beyond SDR, but no further. On an Apple XDR display (or another brand that can sustain 1000 nits), reducing display brightness can get that white bar much further across the 4-stops-beyond-SDR maximum of the HDR histogram.

Because you are not seeing a red histogram, when you enable HDR you probably can see a difference in the highlights of the Develop module image preview, is that what you see?