14.0.1 new feature - “Extended Dynamic Range Monitoring"

Here's a bit more information on this feature ... and clearly they separate the "extended dynamic range" of 500 nits from full HDR. As I've said, with the Mac Retina monitors running apparently around up to 500 nits, and all the grief they've recieved from Mac users, they've added this.

It's an option for those running such monitors and wishing to edit at a brighter than Rec.709 level. Fine, it's a user choice. Here's a bit more engineer-speak I managed to get:

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"Useful for Editing HDR:
1. With DCM on & EDR off the display clips HDR content at SDR 100 IRE, nominally 100 nits (but usually shown at 200-300 nits at home). Not desirable for editing HDR.
2. Some editors turn off DCM to see the full content. You can clearly see if a clip was clipped badly in the camera, but HDR WCG colors then look washed out. Great pairing with an external HDR reference monitor.
3. DCM+EDR gives you better colors and EDR preview. It now clips at a higher level, 500 nits. It requires that the display "graphics white" brightness be set reasonably correct for the SDR 100 IRE level. There's no nit scale on the brightness slider in iMac Pro. And your target export may aim for a peak higher than the iMacPro.

Limited usefulness for Grading HDR:
Only for EDR content < 500 nits.
DCM+EDR lets you grade EDR content, but it's not enough for final-grade of full-range HDR content above 500 nits.
DCM+EDR gives you accurate colors up to 500 nits, but

• 500 nits is dim compared to many target HDR TVs.
• signals > 500 nits are clipped in the display in ways that don't match HDR reference monitors. (On the other hand, HDR TVs don't respond like HDR reference monitors either)
• dynamic range and black level are not at par with HDR OLED TVs."

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And again, if you want full HDR, you need the proper kit to get the HDR signal out of Premiere and into a full HDR monitor, 1,000 nits minimum. With BlackMagic finally coming out with the firmware changes so that their Decklink can 'see' the Premiere HDR stream, there's more options for working Premiere in full HDR. I updated my HDR FAQ to fit the new information.

The AJA rigs are around $1700+ USD, the BlackMagic rigs can be as low as around $800 USD. Compared to the minimum for a grading monitor for HDR at near $30,000, they're cheap. Ha.

FAQ: HDR in Premier 2020

Neil

As I noted, it's apparently designed for those using Mac Retina monitors with their up to 500 nits brightness. I know we've had some users here complain about images in Premiere being darker than outside on their Mac. Maybe this is to make it easier to see media on one of those?

But yea, it's kind of a puzzling option.

Neil

That has been added in an attempt to work with the Mac Retina monitors primarily, it seems.

One of the things I saw in a review of the new Mac XDR monitor was the data line for the Bt.709 setting in the OS for that monitor ... which listed it as "SDR Bt.709 (500 nits)". Which is ... um ... wow.

I've been trying to find documentation for the assumed nit level for the Apple Display-P3 color space, and that is apparently ... it.

So, their SDR monitor comes with P3 primaries, applies only the camera transform function of the Bt.(Rec)709 standard and not the required accompanying display transform function, uses a different and unique gamma ... and is assumed to be on a 500 nit screen.

(Yea, that's a mis-application of nearly every part of the Bt.(Rec.709) standard. Which is sRGB primaries, Rec.709 (both camera and display transform functions), gamma 2.4, and 100 nits brightness.)

So for Retina monitors using the Display-P3 setting, the brightness of the monitor is way past what any expectation from working within Rec.709 standards would put it. And it seems Adobe is trying to get around the Mac OS/ColorSync and monitor issues. Though it still seems odd the Extended Dynamic Range monitoring option wasn't an "announced" addition to Premiere.

I got this from an engineer:

DCM+EDR mode shows content up to peak display such as iMac Pro.
(This is for iMac Pro, not Apple XDR monitor.)
It's useful for EDR, but not for full-range HDR, which is > 500 nits.
It won't replace an HDR reference monitor, but it's a step up from having only an SDR monitor for HDR content.

"DCM" is the option to enable Display Color Management.

"EDR" is the option to turn on Extended Dynamic Range monitoring.

This is primarily a tool it seems for editing "extended dynamic range media" on Retina monitors ... which is stuff that is running above 100 nits (SDR) but not above 500 nits. Technically, HDR starts at around (roughly) 1,000 nits.

It's not for grading of course ... but would allow seeing the image within the brightness range of the Retina monitors.

Now ... that XDR monitor has major dimming issues that prevent it from coming even close to full HDR Grade 1 reference monitor standards for any major service. If you have any bright areas mixed into your darks, local dimming is turned off ... and there aren't nearly enough local dimming areas for the size of the screen. With a typical "star field" test, it turns off dimming ... and cannot sustain above a 1,000:1 brightness ratio. Though ... for generally bright scenes, it's not bad.

From the testing, it can actually perform better as an SDR reference monitor than any Retina monitor ... and well, the cost would be about the same as an SDR reference monitor. Except ... those would allow user-added LUT calibration to the monitor.

So ... for Mac Retina users, with wider-range media, this may be of help in editing. I wouldn't consider "grading" anything in this fashion though. Either for SDR or HDR.

Neil

others have reports it doesn't affect renders so it appears to be a temporary 'viewer' of legal/full only. Until adobe responds directly, we will have to infer its usefullness by trial and error.