Is iPhone video HDR?
On supported models, yes by default: iPhones record Dolby Vision HDR, stored as 10-bit HEVC in HLG with Dolby Vision metadata. Open a clip here and HDR & colour will show Dolby Vision with its profile.
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Check if a video is HDR, and which kind
Find out whether a file is SDR, HDR10, HDR10+, HLG or Dolby Vision, and what its colour and brightness values mean, without uploading it.
To check whether a video is HDR, open it here and look at the top of the HDR & colour section: it says SDR, HDR10, HDR10+, HLG or Dolby Vision (with its profile and level), based on the transfer function, colour primaries, bit depth and HDR metadata stored in the file. iPhone videos recorded with HDR Video on, for example, show up as Dolby Vision Profile 8.4, which is HLG underneath.
HDR video is video encoded for screens that can show far brighter highlights and a wider range of colours than standard dynamic range (SDR). Whether a clip is HDR is decided by how it was encoded, not by how bright it looks, so the only reliable answer comes from the file’s own colour data, which this page reads and explains in plain English.
The file stays on your device. The section draws a gamut diagram and a transfer-curve chart for your file, and lists mastering display and MaxCLL/MaxFALL values when present. It reads and explains colour; it does not convert it.
How to check if a video is HDR
Open the video
Press Open a file (Ctrl/Cmd+O) or drop it on Drop a video or photo here. The page opens on HDR & colour once the file is read.
Read the HDR type
The top line says SDR, HDR10, HDR10+, HLG or Dolby Vision. For Dolby Vision it adds the profile and level, such as 8.4.
Check the colour values
Below it are the colour primaries, transfer, matrix, range and bit depth, each with an ⓘ that says what it means. The gamut diagram and transfer-curve chart show the same values as pictures.
Look for brightness metadata
HDR10 and Dolby Vision files often carry mastering display values and MaxCLL/MaxFALL. When present they are listed at the end of the section.
What makes a video file HDR
An HDR file differs from an SDR one in three ways, all of them written into the video stream:
- Transfer function. This curve maps stored values to brightness. SDR uses the BT.709 / BT.1886 curve designed for screens of about 100 nits. HDR uses either PQ (Perceptual Quantizer, SMPTE ST 2084), which encodes absolute brightness up to 10,000 nits, or HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma), which is relative and designed to look acceptable on SDR screens too.
- Colour primaries. HDR video is normally mastered in the BT.2020 colour space, which reaches much deeper greens, reds and blues than the BT.709 space of SDR.
- Bit depth. HDR needs at least 10 bits per channel (1,024 levels) to stretch over its range without visible banding; 8-bit (256 levels) is the SDR norm.
| Format | Transfer | Metadata | Typical bit depth and codec | Where you meet it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SDR | BT.709 / BT.1886 | None | 8-bit H.264 or HEVC | Most video |
| HDR10 | PQ | Static: mastering display and MaxCLL/MaxFALL | 10-bit HEVC or AV1 | Streaming, UHD Blu-ray, cameras, games |
| HDR10+ | PQ | Dynamic, scene by scene | 10-bit HEVC | Some streaming services, some Android phones |
| HLG | HLG | None needed | 10-bit HEVC | Broadcast TV, cameras, Android phones |
| Dolby Vision | PQ or HLG, depending on profile | Dynamic, in a separate metadata layer | 10-bit HEVC (AV1 in profile 10) | Streaming, iPhones, some Android phones |
Android requires phones that support HDR to handle at least HDR10 and HLG, and lists Dolby Vision 8.4 with an HLG transfer among the formats makers may add. iPhones record Dolby Vision HDR on supported models. The codec underneath all of these is usually HEVC, which the video codec checker confirms.
Dolby Vision profiles you will meet
Dolby Vision is not a single format but a family of profiles. The profile says how the picture is built and what a player without Dolby Vision support will fall back to; the level caps resolution and frame rate.
| Profile | Built on | Fallback without Dolby Vision | Where you meet it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Single layer in Dolby’s own IPT colour encoding | None: colours look wrong (often purple and green) | Streaming services |
| 7 | Two layers on top of HDR10 | HDR10 | UHD Blu-ray discs and copies of them |
| 8.1 | Single layer, HDR10 base | HDR10 | Streaming and some cameras |
| 8.4 | Single layer, HLG base | HLG, and SDR on screens that tone-map HLG | iPhones and some Android phones |
| 10 | AV1 instead of HEVC | Depends on the variant | Some AV1 streaming |
Why iPhone video is Dolby Vision 8.4
An iPhone’s HDR recording is a 10-bit HEVC video in HLG, with Dolby Vision metadata added. Apple devices and Dolby Vision screens use that metadata; everything else sees an ordinary HLG file, which is why the same clip can look different from one app or screen to the next. Apple says the iPhone shares HDR versions with devices running iOS 13.4, iPadOS 13.4, macOS 10.15.4 or later, and sends an SDR version to other devices.
Colour primaries, transfer and matrix in plain English
These three values, plus range and bit depth, come from the video stream and are what players use to show colours correctly. The section lists them exactly as stored, with an explanation beside each.
| Field | Values you will see | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Primaries | BT.709, BT.2020, Display P3 | Which red, green and blue the numbers refer to: how wide the range of colours is. |
| Transfer | BT.709, PQ (SMPTE ST 2084), HLG (ARIB STD-B67) | The brightness curve. PQ or HLG means HDR. |
| Matrix | BT.709, BT.2020 non-constant | How brightness and colour-difference values were derived from RGB. |
| Range | Limited (TV), Full (PC) | Whether black and white sit at 16–235 (8-bit) or use every value. Most video is limited range. |
| Bit depth | 8, 10, 12 | Shades per channel: 256, 1,024 or 4,096. |
| Mastering display | e.g. P3 primaries, 0.0001–1000 nits | The screen the video was graded on, so a TV knows what it was aiming for. |
| MaxCLL / MaxFALL | e.g. 1000 / 400 nits | The brightest single pixel in the video, and the brightest average frame. |
A file can claim BT.2020 primaries and still be SDR, and a 10-bit file is not automatically HDR. The HDR verdict depends on the transfer function first, then the metadata.
HDR10 vs Dolby Vision in a file
Both usually use the PQ curve and 10-bit HEVC. The difference is the metadata. HDR10 carries one set of values for the whole video (the mastering display and MaxCLL/MaxFALL), so a TV that can’t reach the mastered brightness tone-maps the entire film the same way. Dolby Vision, like HDR10+, adds dynamic metadata that can change scene by scene or even frame by frame, giving the screen better instructions for dark and bright scenes alike.
For your own files the practical points are simpler: HDR10 and HLG play on the widest range of HDR screens, Dolby Vision needs a player and screen that support it to get the benefit, and profile 5 files look wrong anywhere else. Checking the profile before you hand a file over saves surprises.
Why the same HDR clip looks different from app to app
An HDR file only looks as intended on an HDR-capable screen in an app that passes the HDR signal through. Apps that don’t understand the transfer function show the raw values as if they were SDR, which tends to look flat and greyish, while HDR-aware apps on bright phone screens can make the same clip look much more vivid than the photos around it. Messaging apps and social platforms may also convert HDR to SDR on the way. Knowing whether a file is HLG, HDR10 or Dolby Vision explains most of these differences.
To stop an iPhone recording HDR in the first place, go to Settings > Camera > Record Video and turn off HDR Video (on some models the switch is called HDR). Existing videos stay as they are.
Other ways to check for HDR
- Mac: QuickTime Player’s Window > Show Movie Inspector (Command-I) shows the HDR format and bit depth.
- VLC: Tools > Codec Information (Ctrl+J) lists the colour primaries and transfer function of the video stream.
- ffprobe: prints the colour fields of the stream, and the side data of the first frame holds the mastering display and content light level values.
ffprobe -v error -select_streams v:0 -show_entries stream=pix_fmt,color_range,color_space,color_transfer,color_primaries -of default=nw=1 file.mov
ffprobe -v error -select_streams v:0 -read_intervals "%+#1" -show_entries frame=side_data_list -of json file.mov
In the first command, color_transfer=smpte2084 means PQ and arib-std-b67 means HLG. The ffprobe guide and the video file info report cover the remaining fields.
HDR video: common questions
How do I turn off HDR video on an iPhone?
Go to Settings > Camera > Record Video and turn off HDR Video (called HDR on some models). New videos will be SDR; videos you already recorded stay HDR.
What is HLG?
Hybrid Log-Gamma is an HDR transfer curve developed for broadcasting. It follows the normal SDR curve in the shadows and mid-tones and compresses highlights logarithmically, so an HLG picture still looks reasonable on an SDR screen and needs no extra metadata.
What is 10-bit video?
Video that stores 1,024 shades per colour channel instead of 256. It reduces banding in skies and gradients and is required for HDR, though a 10-bit file can also be SDR.
Is HDR10 or Dolby Vision better?
Dolby Vision’s scene-by-scene metadata can give better results on screens that support it, but HDR10 plays on more HDR devices. For files you share, compatibility often matters more than the format’s ceiling.
What do MaxCLL and MaxFALL mean?
MaxCLL is the brightness of the brightest single pixel anywhere in the video, and MaxFALL is the highest average brightness of any single frame, both in nits. Screens use them to decide how to fit the video to their own brightness.
Can this tool convert HDR to SDR?
No. It reads and explains HDR and colour information but does not change the picture. Viewing the details never alters your file.