HDR challenges

Hey all.

I'm on an i7 7700
16gb ram
GPU is GTX 1070 (until I get lucky with finding a 3080)
Windows 10 home

I shoot in D-log, HLG, and HDR10+.. I'm playing with the former 2 just to find what I prefer to work with and what results I can achieve.

My current project is D-log drone footage.

I've played with SEVERAL color management settings.
I though my best bet was:
DaVinci color managed
DaVinci Wide Gamut
And output rec.2020 ST2084 1000 nits
HDR Mastering for 1000
ENABLE HDR10+ checked

On deliver page:
Mp4
H.265
Quality automatic best
Encoding profile Main 10
VBR high quality

Data levels FULL
RETAIN SUB BLACK WHITE checked

Color space tag rec.2020
Gamma tag rec.2100HLG
DATA BURN IN same as project

Force sizing the highest quality checked
Force debayer to highest quality checked

Tone mapping HDR 10+

I've changed the color space to several different recommendations dating back to maybe 2016 in the forums. After a couple days of doing that I realized they were totally outdated.
Nevertheless, I've continued applying solutions offered by people in the past to render an HDR tagged video.

I've also read enough of these to know that there's a couple of you who like to consistently ask about our monitoring.
I'm a starving artist and I'm doing my best using my feaux HDR TV.
I completely understand that the colors I see on my monitor will look different in the output file. I couldn't care less for right now.
My goal is simply to have my deliverable appropriately tagged with the HDR metadata or whatever it needs.

I use the Media Info PC app to read the metadata and compare results.
I transfer rendered files to my HDR GALAXY NOTE 20 ULTRA which has a 1500 nit display AND I upload them to YouTube to see if it registers.

After rendering this same one minute test video a couple dozen times with different settings both in the project settings and in the deliver page settings, I have gotten zero results that are recognized as HDR by either YouTube or my HDR handheld device.

I definitely appreciate those of you who are color elitists and would like to point out to me that what I see on my display isn't going to look the same. Again, I'm clear on that.
I've been producing music for a couple decades and it doesn't matter how s***** my speakers are, if I render a file in 24 bit it's 24 bit. If I render a file in 16 bit it is 16 bit.

I'm high functioning ASD. I learn super fast and I'm able to make connections that are missed by others. (I also have eidactic memory.) So while I understand editing audio is not the same as editing video, there are so many principles that translate.

In summary, my goal to be accomplished ASAP is to render out my footage so it is properly coded to be recognized by the appropriate devices and programs (YouTube) as HDR.

Of course I have the goal of getting a better GPU and maybe a Ryzen processor and OF COURSE an HDR monitor. So again, before anybody mentions it's not going to look the same, I'm clear on that.

My current goal is not to produce the best looking HDR.
I'll get there eventually.
For now, I'm extremely grateful for any support anyone can offer to help me get the settings correct so my rendered deliverable has the appropriate HDR metadata.

(And without the Scopes limiting me to 768, which often happens depending on which settings I've chosen.. I have yet to understand the rhyme or reason.. rest assured, I have the full 1023 in my scopes on every project I have rendered out.)

Thanks mucho.
Hunter Wade Music

So glad someone else is trying to edit HDR. I'm adding a section on editing Sony HLG to my book. One can create an HGL and STD versions for UT. HGL doesn't require any flags for HGL videos.

But getting nowhere with HDR10+ which the S21 Ultra shoots. (It's the only way to get 10-bit footage from the camera.)

If you are exporting HDR10+ you need to pass it through another program that adds the required metadata to the video export. Painfully complex! Goggle "Creating HDR."

I suggest exporting HGL from DR. Questions, ask me.

Anyway for you to post a sample of HDR10+?

I just noticed this:
I thought my best bet was:
DaVinci color managed
Are you using Studio?

DaVinci Wide Gamut
Not sure this option is needed

And output rec.2020 ST2084 1000 nits
HDR Mastering for 1000
ENABLE HDR10+ checked


On deliver page:
Mp4
H.265
Quality automatic best

Encoding profile Main10

VBR high quality

Data levels FULL
RETAIN SUB BLACK WHITE checked
Why?

Color space tag rec.2020

Gamma tag rec.2100HLG
You are exporting HGL not HD10+.

DATA BURN IN same as project

Force sizing the highest quality checked
Force debayer to highest quality checked

Tone mapping HDR 10+
You are exporting HGL not HD10+.

YT will simply play the HGL file.

Thanks so much for the support, Steve.

I had tried numerous configurations of settings.
I only posted the details of the last one I attempted.

If I'm importing hdr10+ video and want to render/deliver in HDR, do you have screenshots of the appropriate settings for such?

And ditto for importing D-log and deliver HDR.

Much obliged.


I'm currently stick with ANOTHER challenge..
Who's have thought installing an update from 17.2.1 to 17.2.2 would be a challenge?
Not this guy.

My opinion: I don't think you can do HDR unless you have a calibrated HDR display. And those are not cheap. In fact, they're really, really expensive.

I think you're much better off keeping it simple and just work on creating the best Rec709 2.4 gamma grade you can, which everybody can watch on pretty much every TV and computer display in the mode. HDR is dangerous and (to me) only really works if you can really control the environment and displays in which they're used.

Remember your first time up to bat, perhaps in the backyard, and you've seen other people knock it over the fence; maybe a big brother maybe a big sister, but all you want is to have that bat make contact with the ball just for once.

And when you finally do, you get that goal and hit the ball with the bat, do you knock it out of the park?
Nah, sometimes it shows up as a bunt, sometimes it's a foul ball, sometimes it rolls right into the hands of the pitcher.
But the quality of the hit isn't what's important.
It's that you got the goal.
It's the feeling of impact sending shock waves through the bat into your hands and arms.
It is Progress.
How satisfying is it the first time that bat makes contact with a baseball?


I'm importing HDR 10+ for my current project and all I want to do is edit it and add some titles and then deliver an HDR10+ or any HDR format video.

If there's some kind of limitation that says it's impossible, because perhaps resolve simply won't let you render a file in HDR if you don't have an HDR monitor, then I'd love to have that explained clearly.

However, as for people's personal opinion about whether or not I should continue to work towards my goal, I'm not really interested.

None of that is to be rude.
I'm just Crystal clear what I want to achieve and I'm grateful for anyone who is willing to support me in this endeavor.


Rest assured, I have continued reading, watching tutorial videos, and getting more experience with the software.
I'm clear that I will be served by getting a better computer and a deck Link card and a monitor more suited for HDR grading.


I'm also grateful to be able to work on SDR projects and learn the software.


And that does not prevent me from wanting to see the results of an HDR video that I have edited.
I have been working towards this goal for over 6 months now.
And while I could see the argument that others worked towards that goal for years and have only just recently realized it, that's not a good gauge for one's personal success, especially when in consideration of the structural change of technology.
That would be like saying that someone new to filmmaking ought not be able to work in color because people who worked with black and white worked for years and years and years before they accomplished their aspirations with a color palette in film.

I'm starting at a different point A than people who have been grading since before HDR came on the scene or people who started grading before the technology to record HDR was so readily accessible.

And as the technology improves, this format is going to be even more accessible by the average consumer.
Buy black magic designs own words, they want to be a part of facilitating the process of making this available to people like me and even people who aren't professional media purveyors.

I'm not the average consumer and so I want to stay ahead of the curve.
It will be a huge win to be able to see that it's possible to export an HDR file. Regardless of the quality, the win is seeing that damn tag.
At this point, I have no personal experience verifying that the software can do what it promised me it could do when I bought it.

It's seeming to me that I may have been better off with Adobe. Though I'm not a fan of that subscription model and haven't historically found their programs to be intuitive either. (Though I'm getting the free trial today to test it, unless or until I get actual support from someone who likes to see others succeed with Resolve.)


Here's the best render I've gotten from Resolve.
Yes yes, I have lots of growth available to me.
Yet it was somewhat satisfying to deliver a product I thought was shareable, finally, even as it is SDR.

So to simplify my initial question,

What are the appropriate settings to import HDR10+, make some cuts, add music, text, and perhaps a fade, and render it in HDR10+ while working with an
I7 7700 with 16gb ram and an Nvidia GTX 1070?

I've read this entire section of the manual to no avail and I believe I've read every pertinent article in the forum.
I've now tried to do exactly as stated in the manual, in tutorials, in the forum, and more, with no success.

If it is legitimately because the software is preventing me from delivering in HDR as a result of me only having a 500 nit tv as monitor, it would be awesome to have that stated clearly and directly.
My tv says it is receiving st2084 24hz HDR when I am monitoring.


I'm going to accomplish my goal, and I'm sure it will be because somebody empowered me to accomplish it by working through solutions on how I can.
It definitely won't be achieved from people telling me why I can't.



Sincerely,
Hunter Wade

I'm going to accomplish my goal, and I'm sure it will be because somebody empowered me to accomplish it by working through solutions on how I can. It definitely won't be achieved from people telling me why I can't.

If you get on a Harley-Davidson forum, and proclaim, "I just bought a Harley-Davidson V-Twin motorcycle, the most powerful bike they make, and I plan to jump over a quarter-mile section of the the Grand Canyon next week! Won't that be great?" People are going to jump up and say, "dude! You're going to die! Don't try it! The motorcycle is powerful, but not good enough to make a jump that huge!"

But if you want to try to make that jump, that's your decision.

HDR is hard. Don't take my word for it: go and watch the free Dolby Vision tutorials at this link:

https://professional.dolby.com/content- ... al-series/

These will give you a sense of how difficult HDR is to do, particularly when you're trying to do it on a consumer-grade HDR display. It's going to tone map every time you try to exceed the monitor's real-world levels (which are probably closer to 300 nits), so everything you see will be inaccurate and not believable. A pro monitor will have the range to show an "honest" depiction of what 1000 nits will really be without altering or distorting it.

MixingLight has done some very good tutorials on the challenges of HDR grading, and one of them is here:

https://mixinglight.com/color-grading-t ... r-grading/

Note this is a pay site, but I agree in general with all of their conclusions. Kevin Shaw over on FinalColor.com has some good thoughts as well:

https://www.finalcolor.com/colorblog/hd ... troduction

Kevin also has an excellent (paid) FXPHD tutorial on color grading in HDR. Mr. Shaw is an extremely experienced colorist with decades of experience, and he gives you hours of advice and warnings that I can't possibly cover in a simple forum message:

https://www.fxphd.com/product/introduction-to-hdr/

He explains in detail why trying to judge HDR on a cheap monitor (meaning, below $5000) will give you very misleading results. I agree with all his conclusions.

This is something that frustrates so many of us ... the freaking cost of working with any sense of reliability in HDR.

Marc is right, MixingLight has some great HDR materials. Founder Robbie Carman had the first boutique colorists shop on the east coast, and only the second total, to be fully certified in DolbyVision.

And Dolby Labs hired "team MixingLight" to produce much of their in-house tutorials on DolbyVision.

I'm an author over there dealing with color work when ya gotta use Premiere Pro. Which is finally getting some of the internal work for handling HDR media moved out to us users in shipping versions. Even if the monitor situation isn't perfect yet.

But I REALLY want to get some practice in HDR down. So I've also been looking for monitors i could sort of justify for the cost.

And keep coming back to what Marc referred to. In anything like the LG C9 or CX, or even most anything under $5G, the TV will be applying some tone mapping while you're working, meaning you don't know exactly what you're doing compared to what the blame TV is doing to "help" you.

And that's with all the stuff turned off that you can even with the technicians remote.

There's a couple monitors in the general $5G area that might mostly sort of handle HDR work as long as it's web or practice only. And I'm waiting for further reviews of them by expert users.

I'd still have to look a looooong time before shelling out that much cash.

Yea, it's frustrating.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

I'm quite happy with my HDR workflow working using a combination of a Dell UP3221Q and a LG CX for final proofing on a real world display paneI- about a $6,500. investment not counting cameras, computers, etc. I generally try to grade to a maximum of 600-700 nits, as this is realistic for most OLED displays.

Yes, an initial investment is required in both time and money, but for me anyway, working with HDR is nothing short of intoxicating, and it's hard to want to do anything else, once you start doing it. Plan on putting out a bit of money- though not as much as some on this forum might lead you to believe. But, you will have no regrets, once you start working with HDR! Go for it!!

I accomplished my goal.

I went back to the beginning and rendered my file multiple times, using settings I at least THOUGHT I'd used before.

Rather than trying more NEW things, I went back to the beginning.

Project color settings= DaVinci color managed
Science= DaVinci Wide Gamut
Output= rec.2020 st2084 4000 nits
Mastering is set for 1000

Hdr10+ active (but so far I'm not getting the window still)

Delivery page
h.265

Encoding profile= MAIN10

whether necessary or not I also got the result I wanted selecting
Color space Tag= rec.2020
Gamma tag= st2084
(That may be redundant because
data burn in is set to "same as project." I'm also testing it changing this tag to st2084 1000nit and 4000nit to see what yields the best result.)

Check for sizing the highest quality
Check Force debayer to highest quality



Tone mapping none

(I'm still not able to get the HDR 10 plus modification window to activate and let me use it so tone mapping HR 10 plus seemed silly and, I got my goal. The rendered deliverable shows up in my Galaxy Note 20 as HDR.)


As for my workflow,
Using DaVinci color managed
And DaVinci wide color gamut
I set the output to Rec.709 scene

I then graded it to where I wanted it.
I went into the project settings and then changed the output to rec.2020 St2084 4,000 nits
Mastering for 1000 nits


Using the waveform Scopes, I made some minor adjustments so that I could see the distribution of color and light across the scope compressed and expanded similarly to how it looked in the SDR grade.

When I rendered my file, of course it didn't look the same as the SDR version.
As was predicted by innumerable people all over the interwebs, the discrepancy of how my GPU and OS communicate with the television was noticeable. Within the program before render, it looks really good. After the render, playing it back in Windows video and TV as well as on my Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, the contrast has expanded from how it looks during monitoring.

So with my 2x2=4, I went back to the grade and made some minor adjustments, noting what theory tells me about what needed adjusting and ignoring that it no longer looked as good in the monitor.

rNeil, thank you for relating.

Marc, despite your desire to crab my goal, I accomplished it.
Do you let other people tell you that you can't do something you want?
If so, why?
Leadership is living from your own true essence, no matter who tells you not to.

For others coming along and reading this in the future, feel free to reach out to me and I'll do what I can to help you troubleshoot and find a solution that works for you.

I have ASD, which was a hell of a deficiency in my emotional and social abilities growing up. I worked very hard through my 20s and 30s to improve my SQ and EQ.
However, my savant is idactic memory and pattern recognition.
I'm able to make connections between things where the connection is elusive to many others.
I'm able to read the waveform, and I suspect that there are many others who can as well.

Just like I don't need the best speakers in the world to be able to tell if the audio I am producing is clipping because I read the waveform, I don't need the best monitor in the world to tell if my video signal is clipping.

So is it still a pain?
Heck yeah.
I have numerous extra steps to take...
Neither is this the ideal or professional method.
My results for sure do not match the results of people with more experience than me who are working on better gear than me.

Still, until I can afford to upgrade my video production gear to be as HQ as my audio production gear, I remain willing to do whatever it takes to get the desired result (and grateful too).

Again, to anyone who isn't looking for HDR results that they are selling to a client and just wants to be able to say they did it, check out what I did and see how it works for you.

I learned a lot from this guy in this video..

Mostly because he was willing to think outside of the box and be solution oriented rather than defeatist.
His solution is not my solution.
Though it influenced my learning curve.

I'm so grateful to have hit the ball.

And now, I'm likely to grade and deliver in SDR, continue learning the multiple other features of the software, continue working on my videography skills, and occasionally apply this workflow to see if I can get a result good enough to attract a little extra YouTube attention with a fancy tag and bright shinies.

When one is learning color grading, grading HDR that doesn't look good will always come before grading HDR that looks great.
I've only been using resolve for a couple weeks and I've already delivered my first not so good looking HDR.
But if we wait on circumstances in order to get that first bad grade, then all the more elusive and far off the good grades.

Another thing leaders do is allow their commitment to dictate their outcome rather than circumstances. (Growing up poor white trash taught me that I wouldn't have the life I wanted if I waited for circumstances to be aligned or perfect. I would have to be committed, resourceful, and solution oriented.)

Best wishes in your video editing, color grading, and other life adventures.

Have a safe and fun INTERdependence day.

Marc is a working professional with a very long list of feature films under his belt, and he gave you very good advice. If you refuse to listen to the masters, your journey will be long and painful, and perhaps fruitless.

Advice to stop is advice that Oprah Winfrey didn't take, Charlie Chaplin didn't take, the Wright Brothers didn't take... And good thing.

As for mentors, you're absolutely right that it serves someone committed to a goal to listen to others who have what they want.
However, when that person's advice is to just give up now until you have $40,000 to spare, they aren't the right mentor for me.

I'm a big learner, I rush at the chance to sit in the learner's seat.
I've had some of the best mentors in curriculum development, facilitation, public speaking, performing, and more.
Not everybody who has those results will be a mesh for every student.

Nowhere did I say that I wanted to color grade for major Hollywood Productions.
I'm an independent media purveyor, minister, personal development facilitator, and inspirational entertainer.

I have an award-winning photography and videography mentor right now who is a professor at a local University. When I showed up for our first lesson together with a Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, she looked at her thousands of dollars worth of cameras and said, "well awesome, it looks like we get to learn how to do it this way."

That's just my style. That's solution oriented thinking.
That's a can-do attitude.

I've seen many many other people Express similar sentiment that we can't do it. And often it's to people in a similar situation as me where they don't care if it looks like crap. They just want the bat to hit the ball.

What IS true is I'm not able to do what Marc does.
I definitely AM able to do what I wanted to do, and again I got there from the supportive people who were solution-oriented, not from the people who told me why I can't.

Which mentor would you choose?

Not only do I have ASD, I'm also Dutch.
I mean absolutely no insults to anyone, I'm simply sharing that I did not find his advice supportive.

If he doesn't care if I find his advice supportive, then he has no need to listen to my feedback just as I didn't allow his feedback to influence me.

Though, by the same argument, someone would do well to listen to a man who has been facilitating personal development, goal attainment, and leadership for nearly a decade and was trained by the same person who trained Tony Robbins and Robert Kiyosaki.
If they don't want what I have (a can do attitude, an ability to sit in perturbation as it expands me, a willingness to give negative feedback and positive feedback without being judgmental, and an ability to accomplish things that other people say aren't possible) then it would be silly for them to pay any attention to me whatsoever.
(I'm thinking of all the things I wouldn't have accomplished if I listened to the people that told me I was going about it the wrong way. My favorite thing I accomplished that I was told was impossible was I got to play four different roles FOUR in the final season of ABC's LOST and work on the show for more episodes than even the casting directors told me I could.. (they wound up losing another actor who just disappeared and I was the only person they had available that looked enough like him to take his place. Good thing I didn't fly off the island the first, second, or third time they told me I was done. Even better that I didn't listen to the people who told me I couldn't get cast in a TV show without headshots, a resume, and better acting credits than high school musicals.)

Marc, I can say that I appreciate your willingness to take the time to share your experience with me. You didn't have to read my post or offer your thoughts. So thank you for your time.
I can both appreciate your willingness to share your experience, and not care to let myself be limited by it.

By the way, I'll be sure to share my s***** HDR rendition when I get it uploaded to YouTube. (A ******* result is better than no result. It puts me a step closer to the great result than anyone else who is waiting on circumstances to align.)

I thank you all for your time.

Marc is a working professional with a very long list of feature films under his belt, and he gave you very good advice. If you refuse to listen to the masters, your journey will be long and painful, and perhaps fruitless.

I've also actually delivered 5 features in 4K Dolby Vision, and it was very much a learning process. We basically just rent a day or two at another facility that has a Sony BVM-300 and a Dolby Vision room, and we do a trim pass with all our files. End of story. I was relieved to see that my initial Rec709 100-nit pass actually held up pretty well, and it was not as onerous or painful as I had feared to make it look reasonable on the 1000-nit BVM. We also checked it on a 65" Sony consumer A90 (I think that's what it was) consumer display and mapped it to 300 nits, and it looked OK. The 4K Blu-rays went on to get very good reviews and sold pretty well, and at least one of them is available for HDR streaming on Netflix. On the first project, we had two glitches with the delivery files (2 bad frames total), which were just a render problem, but from a QC standpoint it sailed through without a problem. I was lucky to have engineering support to check the signal path and an assistant to babysit the files to make sure that what we were delivering was technically correct.

If the o.p. were to watch the HDR instructional videos I referenced, he'd understand very quickly that this is a big subject. It's also not just my opinion -- it's the opinion of everybody who made the videos (including Dolby). Bear in mind it was pretty much impossible in the early 2000s to even do HD color-correction on a modest (under $100K) budget. With the release of Panasonic's flat screen plasma sets around 2007, it became possible to calibrate those and get reasonable Rec709 pictures for a fraction of the price of the $20,000 CRT monitors we used to have in post color rooms. And then the price of Resolve dropped to $995 in 2010, and we were off to the races.

People kind of get caught up in this stuff and start to believe, "well, if I can color-correct in HD at home for a few thousand dollars, then in 2021, now I should be able to do HDR at home, too!" Not so fast. It's an order of magnitude harder. I think new "high-end prosumer" monitors like the Asus PA32UCG and the LG 32EP950 illustrate that there are under-$5000 screens out there that are borderine-OK for modest HDR, say at 300 nits. But calibration is really critical and not fast, simple, or easy, and these are relatively small monitors -- only 31" -- and they still cost more than twice as much as an ordinary consumer set. Making a real 55" reference display still isn't possible. But I know it's being worked on, and maybe it'll happen someday. And one hopes it'll be more affordable than it is now.

My favorite thing I accomplished that I was told was impossible was I got to play four different roles FOUR in the final season of ABC's LOST and work on the show for more episodes than even the casting directors told me I could..

BTW, I did final color on 13 episodes of Lost for Disney/ABC, season 4 (2008). Very tough show to work on, demanding people, but it was a good experience. Those were not HDR, but they were all shot on film, and our post at Technicolor was done on HD videotape. I would bet Disney has quietly remastered them all in 4K HDR, but they're a bit of a moving target.

I created an HDR10 (not +) video from 12bit RAW clips using a Mac Mini m1. I relied on scopes and an SDR rendering in SDR and then testing the HDR version (1000 nits) on an OLED TV.

Mark (yes with a "k")
That looks really great.
From this independent Media purveyor whose lack of experience keeps him from making distinctions of a trained eye, I'm amazed.
Well done.

Marc (yes with a "c")
We should play six degrees of Kevin Bacon.
That was my favorite thing to joke with my friends about after I was featured on Lost. Cool that we both got to work on one of the more successful shows of the last 20 years.

Also, you've inspired me to research my area and see if there might be a studio around that I can rent so I have use of a proper grading environment until I can afford all the goods for my home.
I love love love gear. I also have used a lack of gear as an excuse to hide behind. I have been prone to think that I cannot accomplish what I want because I don't have this that or the other thing. When I identified that part of my thinking, I worked to change my relationship with it.

I live in Marquette Michigan, so finding professional grading studio available for rent doesn't seem extremely likely. Though I now have a leaf for better solutions and I can reach out to the few media companies in the area this next week.

As you point out, the technology has been out of reach for most people.
Yet the accessibility of these technologies is going to continue to improve.

I don't want to be a low budget independent creator who jumps on the bandwagon too late by waiting for all of the circumstances to align.

Ideas and technologies pass through a few identifiable consistent stages.

First is, "fringe,": it's on the outskirts of culture, accessibility, availability etc. For an idea, this is when the crazies (and or visionaries) have embraced it.

Next is, "Realm of the cool,": here, an influencer or several influencers have noticed something on The Fringe, think it's cool, and then adapt to it. Then the idea or technology or fashion gets spread among that culture of influencers. When on the fringe, we don't necessarily consider them elite, even as by the technical definition of elite, a few crazies adopting an idea are indeed an elite group. However at this level, the technology is adapted by what we generally consider an elite group.

Next, "The next big thing,": this is when the idea, technology, fashion becomes readily accessible and affordable to a larger collection of the population. For instance, the last 2 years an enormous number of people have raced into the cryptocurrency trading game. That's the next big thing tipping point. Once something is that accessible and at the level of the next big thing, this is when one of my mentors, Marshall Thurber shares that it's already too late. Getting involved here, you're already behind the curve.

Finally we land in, "social convention,": where the idea, technology, or fashion has been adopted at large and is simply part of the status quo. As if we can't imagine a time before that existed.


To be a leader in an industry within any certain demographic, one is served well by being able to assess risk and reward and use predictive thinking to discern what Fringe or realm of the cool ideas will fizzle out and not take hold versus the ones that actually provide solutions to a need the general population has.
Early adopters will always be in the lead, ahead of people who wait for it to be the next big thing.
From an investment standpoint, finding those businesses on The Fringe is simultaneously the highest risk and the potential for the highest reward.
At the realm of the cool, your investment still has a lot of potential, though not quite as much and that makes sense because you aren't taking quite as much risk. It's already a verified model that's been adopted by some elite part of a culture.
By the time it is the next big thing, it is too late to invest. Returns will be moderate at best. And here we also face the risk of bubbles and oversaturation. The people who got in at the previous stage will win much bigger than the people who get involved here.
And finally, once it's social convention, we're at low risk low reward for investments.

For my demographic; Independent Media, social media, low budget, HDR editing and delivery is still in the realm of the cool. Perhaps even at the edge of Fringe tipping over into the realm of the cool.
By the time it is the next big thing, the monitors will be accessible to the average Joe or Sally. So the people who weren't willing to have the headaches of dealing with HDR like me, will find it much more easily accessible. However, they will still forever be behind me in their growth curve. (Related to first mover advantage.)

By the time it is social convention, and people can get a true reference monitor in HDR for the price of a 55" 4K TV, I will be positioned as an, "expert."
Sure, they'll have it easier.
But I'll have more experience in that mode of production, and as long as I continue working in it, anyone who starts 3 years later will never have more years working in the field than me.

Relative to HDR work in general, regardless of the demographic, you are much higher positioned than I am and no matter what I do, you will always have pertinent experience that transcends my own.

Me being primarily an educator and entertainer, I will leverage my knowledge of HDR to deliver cool products that other Independent artists aren't quite getting yet.. and, in 3-4 years when 300 million people download DaVinci to edit their iPhone and Samsung shot video, their search for information about grading and codecs will pull me up in the tube of you's and in forums where I've spoken about my journey.
They will see that I've been there, done that, and that will position me to be able to leverage my talents in a way that empowers them while empowering me with a bigger budget for better projects.

Cell phone camera explainer videos get millions and millions of views.
Just imagine what it will be like when the average consumer laptop can be configured for HDR monitoring that is the equivalent of the new Asus displays today. (350-400 nit, color space settings, etc.)

I think the breakdown in the communication that occurs a lot in these forums is from a cultural mismatch. People who work in different demographics of the industry.
What works for professional colorists to appease high-level clients is not going to be what is necessary for an independent media purveyor or a 17 year old kid grading his skateboarding videos for his YouTube channel.

Yet in the pipeline of knowledge, there will be people that speak to amateurs and newcomers, and some of those amateurs and newcomers will discover a passion and interest sparked and flamed and soon outgrow the basic information and discover they want to learn from you.
The three most important questions to ask oneself when addressing any audience are;
Who is my audience?
What do they expect of me?
How much time do I have?

So if I'm invited to a high school to speak on leadership principles, my presentation is going to be quite different from when I'm invited to an insurance agency to speak to their salespeople.

Okay so back to business..
While the settings I used last night encoded the proper metadata to flag hdr on my Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, it didn't flag on YouTube.
So there is still a disconnect in my settings someplace where I haven't told the resolve the appropriate info for the metadata to export that corresponds to the metadata YouTube wants.

The struggle is real.
Within it, I thrive.

I have a video called baby steps.
I measure my improvement in tiny increments and celebrate them all.
Before I took videography seriously, I still released videos and for several years I've used CyberLink PowerDirector for editing.
They're most recent version claimed support for HDR.
As I said in an earlier Post in this thread, that support is grossly overstated. After their announcement of HDR support, I invested a lot of money into their desktop version. My early results produced lots of banding and noise. I thought it was from my shooting exposures.
That's when I started working with a photography and videography mentor.
In general, I'm not a person who decides to learn something and then fails. So when I went out for subsequent shoots, applying the knowledge from my mentor and intense self study, only to produce another video in PowerDirector that had lots of noise and banding, I felt incredibly defeated, thinking that I wasn't learning anything.
It turned out, in fact, that although you can import 10-bit h.265 and render out the deliverable encoded in h.265, PowerDirector converts all clips to rec.709 and then encodes the 8-Bit information into a 10-bit container.
It wasn't that I was failing to learn proper exposure and shooting.
It was the limitation of the software.
Having spent precious money and tons of precious time working towards a goal that was literally physically impossible with that software, it was a Paramount importance to me to ensure I wasn't doing the same thing now with Resolve.

This video, baby steps, was edited with PowerDirector.. though I did it all start to finish with the knowledge that I was actually working in 8-bit.

When I get my new 4k render from resolve appropriately uploaded to YouTube, I will share it as well and accompany it with one of my terrible "HDR" renders from PowerDirector that literally perturbed me so much, I cried. (I was afraid the pandemic had diminished my IQ and ability to learn. Haha)

All of the music in my videos is original with a very few exceptions.

Baby Steps. 4k SDR delivery shot in d-log and hdr10+.

Okay my latest render is done now I get to upload it to YouTube and see if it recognizes the HDR. Peace y'all.

Update 8pm eastern July 3.

Oh I guess that information will be in the post.

When I shoot HDR 10 plus on my phone and upload directly from my gallery to YouTube, voila, HDR tagged.

When I edit in resolve and transfer to my cell phone gallery, my cell phone recognizes it as HDR, but YouTube still doesn't.

I also commented on another post from April where they mentioned YouTube wasn't recognizing the HDR from their resolve deliver.

Another commenter posted his solution, emphasizing that it does work.
Nevertheless, I did it again even though I'd already done it and double checked everything. Once again, shows up as HDR on my Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. YouTube says it's SDR.

I think that a really great idea, considering my progress yesterday, is to just cut it out with the youtube, and work on my next project.

It reminds me of being in a social situation where YouTube refuses to address me as my middle name. Haha.

On the plus side, in between tests, I watched some really cool news episodes about tourists trapped on a volcanic island in New Zealand during and after an eruption..

Oh, and I also, like a dum bass, finally realized I don't need to render the whole project for a test and started saving Time by just rendering the first 20 seconds. *Facepalm

I created an HDR10 (not +) video from 12bit RAW clips using a Mac Mini m1. I relied on scopes and an SDR rendering in SDR and then testing the HDR version (1000 nits) on an OLED TV.

One big challenge with HDR -- which is echoed in the references I listed above from Mixing Light, FXPHD, and Dolby -- is that color changes when the consumer set starts tone mapping. So the problem is that specific hues and saturation amounts will change the moment you get beyond the range that the set can really reproduce. I have to say, I played it safe in my HDR projects and generally didn't slam a lot of scenes all the way up to 1000 nits, and left that primarily for specular highlights. But there was a significant difference between the SDR grade and the HDR grade, and much to my surprise, some viewers actually compared our HD Blu-ray releases with the 4K HDR Blu-ray releases and posted side-by-side photos... and came to the conclusion that the 4K was better and they liked the way it looked.

Keeping the shadows deep is another challenge: I found I was chasing that part of the signal, particularly in night scenes, quite a bit.

BTW, if you check the specs on mastering grade 4K displays, you'll notice that the sets are extremely heavy and often several times thicker than a consumer set. One of the things you pay for is beefier power supplies, and the HDR grading displays do take a lot more current than a consumer set. And they also have loud fans to cool off the set, because they get very hot over time. As I said, not simple, not cheap, not easy.

Update 8pm eastern July 3.

Oh I guess that information will be in the post.

When I shoot HDR 10 plus on my phone and upload directly from my gallery to YouTube, voila, HDR tagged.

When I edit in resolve and transfer to my cell phone gallery, my cell phone recognizes it as HDR, but YouTube still doesn't.

I also commented on another post from April where they mentioned YouTube wasn't recognizing the HDR from their resolve deliver.

Another commenter posted his solution, emphasizing that it does work.
Nevertheless, I did it again even though I'd already done it and double checked everything. Once again, shows up as HDR on my Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. YouTube says it's SDR.

I think that a really great idea, considering my progress yesterday, is to just cut it out with the youtube, and work on my next project.

It reminds me of being in a social situation where YouTube refuses to address me as my middle name. Haha.

On the plus side, in between tests, I watched some really cool news episodes about tourists trapped on a volcanic island in New Zealand during and after an eruption..

Oh, and I also, like a dum bass, finally realized I don't need to render the whole project for a test and started saving Time by just rendering the first 20 seconds. *Facepalm

For YouTube HDR content, on the Deliver page, select the YouTube tab on the upper left corner of the page. It will then give you some options. You can use QuickTime H265 if that's what you really want to do, but personally I think the quality of that one is not very good. I would suggest you try QuickTime, DNxHR 444 10-bit. Upload that, one and you will find that YouTube will recognize it as HDR, no problem.

Cheers.

For YouTube HDR content, on the Deliver page, select the YouTube tab on the upper left corner of the page. It will then give you some options. You can use QuickTime H265 if that's what you really want to do, but personally I think the quality of that one is not very good. I would suggest you try QuickTime, DNxHR 444 10-bit. Upload that, one and you will find that YouTube will recognize it as HDR, no problem.

Cheers.

Thanks for the suggestion. That's a negative for me.
First your precise selection (damn that file is big.)
And Nope. Couldn't test on note 20 ultra due to the format.
YouTube says it's SDR.

Also tried with h.265 as you suggested that would work too.
Nope. (Works on note 20 ultra. YouTube still says SDR.)

Use MediaInfo or similar apps and check the metada of your file. Make sure you have the proper tags.

Use MediaInfo or similar apps and check the metada of your file. Make sure you have the proper tags.

When I did this:

2D3D4K wrote:

For YouTube HDR content, on the Deliver page, select the YouTube tab on the upper left corner of the page. It will then give you some options. You can use QuickTime H265 if that's what you really want to do, but personally I think the quality of that one is not very good. I would suggest you try QuickTime, DNxHR 444 10-bit. Upload that, one and you will find that YouTube will recognize it as HDR, no problem.

Cheers.

I got this:



https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V3NYK6 ... sp=sharing

<iframe src="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V3NYK62svgALHfn5bF85d_HNEIbAyKZH/preview" width="640" height="480" allow="autoplay"></iframe>

When I render a deliverable with my settings, which are recognized as hdr by my other devices, just not youtube

I get this:

I created an HDR10 (not +) video from 12bit RAW clips using a Mac Mini m1. I relied on scopes and an SDR rendering in SDR and then testing the HDR version (1000 nits) on an OLED TV.

One big challenge with HDR -- which is echoed in the references I listed above from Mixing Light, FXPHD, and Dolby -- is that color changes when the consumer set starts tone mapping. So the problem is that specific hues and saturation amounts will change the moment you get beyond the range that the set can really reproduce. I have to say, I played it safe in my HDR projects and generally didn't slam a lot of scenes all the way up to 1000 nits, and left that primarily for specular highlights. But there was a significant difference between the SDR grade and the HDR grade, and much to my surprise, some viewers actually compared our HD Blu-ray releases with the 4K HDR Blu-ray releases and posted side-by-side photos... and came to the conclusion that the 4K was better and they liked the way it looked.

Keeping the shadows deep is another challenge: I found I was chasing that part of the signal, particularly in night scenes, quite a bit.

BTW, if you check the specs on mastering grade 4K displays, you'll notice that the sets are extremely heavy and often several times thicker than a consumer set. One of the things you pay for is beefier power supplies, and the HDR grading displays do take a lot more current than a consumer set. And they also have loud fans to cool off the set, because they get very hot over time. As I said, not simple, not cheap, not easy.

Thanks Marc..

I hadn't, until now gotten so clear a reference to the distinctions of how a consumer set handles that.
I have opened the manual again to read the selection you suggested.

I also got a lot of value out of your description of not slamming it all up and keeping upward of 1000nit for the spectral range only.

DISTINCTIONS! that's what separates you from so many, Is the distinctions you've made through experience!
And that gives me theory I can apply (with a deeper understanding now) to empower my experience.

For YouTube HDR content, on the Deliver page, select the YouTube tab on the upper left corner of the page. It will then give you some options. You can use QuickTime H265 if that's what you really want to do, but personally I think the quality of that one is not very good. I would suggest you try QuickTime, DNxHR 444 10-bit. Upload that, one and you will find that YouTube will recognize it as HDR, no problem.

Cheers.

Thanks for the suggestion. That's a negative for me.
First your precise selection (damn that file is big.)
And Nope. Couldn't test on note 20 ultra due to the format.
YouTube says it's SDR.

Also tried with h.265 as you suggested that would work too.
Nope. (Works on note 20 ultra. YouTube still says SDR.)

Sorry it didn't work for you. I'm not sure what might be causing the problem you're having with YouTube. When I upload content in this manner, I always test the unpublished file on an LG CX. The TV will immediately display its HDR content flag in the upper right corner and display it in HDR as intended. So, don't give up on YouTube HDR, if it's something you really want to do.There must be a simple solution to your problem, I wish I could tell you what it is.
Best of luck.

For YouTube HDR content, on the Deliver page, select the YouTube tab on the upper left corner of the page. It will then give you some options. You can use QuickTime H265 if that's what you really want to do, but personally I think the quality of that one is not very good. I would suggest you try QuickTime, DNxHR 444 10-bit. Upload that, one and you will find that YouTube will recognize it as HDR, no problem.

Cheers.

Thanks for the suggestion. That's a negative for me.
First your precise selection (damn that file is big.)
And Nope. Couldn't test on note 20 ultra due to the format.
YouTube says it's SDR.

Also tried with h.265 as you suggested that would work too.
Nope. (Works on note 20 ultra. YouTube still says SDR.)

Sorry it didn't work for you. I'm not sure what might be causing the problem you're having with YouTube. When I upload content in this manner, I always test the unpublished file on an LG CX. The TV will immediately display its HDR content flag in the upper right corner and display it in HDR as intended. So, don't give up on YouTube HDR, if it's something you really want to do.There must be a simple solution to your problem, I wish I could tell you what it is.
Best of luck.

When you click on the settings gear in the YouTube video player, does it display the resolutions with the HDR logo next to them?
If not, YouTube has not tagged it as HDR.

On an LG CX, you need to use YouTube Stats For Nerds which shows: Color smpte 2084 (PQ) bt2020.
When the content is clicked on, the TV immediately displays the HDR content flag. Yes, it is definitely HDR. When rendering for YouTube and not using the Resolve YouTube Tab, HDR is not activated in YouTube. At least, not for me.

I did a bit of experimenting and have another suggestion for you to try. Again, using the Resolve YouTube Tab, try rendering in: QuickTime DNxHR HQX 10-bit. This will result in a much smaller file size while still maintaining the 10-bit data. On the provided link, you will see it also listed as a workable format for YouTube HDR.


https://support.google.com/youtube/answ ... e-encoding

I've been posting all my last Youtube channel episodes in HDR on Youtube, color grading with ACEScct, and feeling great about it. There is a lot of room to improve, I am aware of it, but the experience to watch it is way better than before. Of course, since I use a very naturalistic approach on grading on the channel, very little grading actually, the risk of mistakes by not using an calibrated HDR monitor is less of a problem, in my concern.

If anyone is feeling like watching it:

(some footage of this video are from old archives and are not HDR)

Of course, since I use a very naturalistic approach on grading on the channel, very little grading actually, the risk of mistakes by not using an calibrated HDR monitor is less of a problem, in my concern.

Actually, to me, the risks of screwing up in a 1000-nit dynamic range and P3 color space is a lot greater than trying to color-correct in Rec709. But do what you think is right.

I am pretty sure is not the best workflow possible, but for me is working, ACES color management is doing ok.

Thanks 2D.
I'll give that one a go tonight.

It seemed like a lot of trouble, though today I downloaded Hybrid.
I was able to encode different metadata using this method. Only difference from him is I did an HLG delivery.
https://www.mysterybox.us/blog/2016/10/ ... vering-hdr
It's uploading now.. so I'll know soon if I got THAT right.

This HLG version before and after run through Hybrid did not register on my Note 20 Ultra. It won't even play the hybrid version. We'll see what YouTube does with it, but it's not promising.
What makes it worse is that I also test them.
I either get the HDR logo on my Galaxy Note 20, or I don't.
It will only display the HDR on a recognized HDR video that it is displaying as such.


Hey Marc, I'd expect nothing less from you.

I am pretty sure is not the best workflow possible, but for me is working, ACES color management is doing ok.

RCM2 can also do it to a point, but again the problem is being able to judge what you see. Alexis Van Hurkman's tutorial on Color Management goes into detail with some of the challenges for HDR grading, but an entire segment is on using RCM2 to take an existing SDR grade and tonemap it to HDR (with a trim pass). It can work, and it's just as valid a method as ACES but has some advantages.

Ermagard.

The FIRST version of my most recent video now has the HDR logo on YouTube.

Woohoo!

Marc, this would be like fingernails on a chalkboard to you, I imagine.
When I did my next delivery after thinking this one didn't work, I brought down the luma and saturation a little bit on red. I learn from experience AND theory!
I want to be clear that I didn't turn it up in the first place.
It was just a very very red sunset on a very very very very red freshly painted very red red (did I say red) roof.

Hmmm. I wonder if my purterbation could have been avoided had I been patient.. as in, maybe some of the versions I uploaded before and left up for a day, simply needed more time for YouTube to process and put up the HDR.
This one above was posted less than 24 hours ago and now has the logo.


I imagine I will sleep better tonight.

Thank you everybody, for all of the support.


And Plotzki, the thumb on that got my attention. I look forward to checking out your channel.

I am pretty sure is not the best workflow possible, but for me is working, ACES color management is doing ok.

RCM2 can also do it to a point, but again the problem is being able to judge what you see. Alexis Van Hurkman's tutorial on Color Management goes into detail with some of the challenges for HDR grading, but an entire segment is on using RCM2 to take an existing SDR grade and tonemap it to HDR (with a trim pass). It can work, and it's just as valid a method as ACES but has some advantages.

Thanks! I will give it a try and some testing on different situations.

Ermagard.
And Plotzki, the thumb on that got my attention. I look forward to checking out your channel.

Great!! If you feel like, start by these episodes with English subtitles: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqL8XKXLzHW5AWFleo8gr51wi38VrqMK0

Best,

ACES does do a HDR mapping, but you have to remember that is whatever ACES want it to be, without monitor you have NO control over it.

And sorry to say, it does not look good. Mostly is expanding the highlights leaving the SUBJECT underexposed. If you never saw that is action, get your hands on a proper display and you will see what i mean.

If you already know how to do HDR, please do. But the workflow i see here is akin to make a random colored image in the wrong viewing environment with compete disregard of the original photography and call it HDR.

I peek at the first video and the only thing I could think of was:
Over saturated
Over contrast
White clipped badly.

If that is you’re personal take on HDR, then you’ve achieved the objective.

My last mistake is my best teacher.

Had a hell of a time with the reds.
Even after a redo, the roofs are oversaturated.

It would have been better with a mask..
Though the masking I did do took me sooooooo long. And especially on the last clip where I rise from the ground up above the lighthouse, it looks bad.

After that experience, I didn't have the patience to mask the rough in all of the individual clips.

However, my next video will be better.
Because my last mistake is my best teacher.
Experience plus theory equals profound results!

#ExperientialLearning

Redo version.. incrementally better.

I don’t know, but this looks so wrong to me on any device.

I don’t know, but this looks so wrong to me on any device.

You like faster frame rates, I know. We don't all have the budget for the hobbit, you see.

Your thoughtful and constructive feedback is noted.
Especially after you took the time to watch it on "any device."

I don’t know, but this looks so wrong to me on any device.

You like faster frame rates, I know. We don't all have the budget for the hobbit, you see.

Your thoughtful and constructive feedback is noted.
Especially after you took the time to watch it on "any device."

Nothing to do with framerate. Colors just look over saturated, unnatural and clipped while there is very little mid tone details.

Absolutely cool if you're playing around with things. The result is just nothing I personally find pleasing to watch.

I don’t know, but this looks so wrong to me on any device.

I agree. I found it unnaturally oversaturated as if the only thing you did is to find the saturation button and set it to 600.

Dude?

lava.png (698.46 KiB) Viewed 13260 times

Good Luck

I don’t know, but this looks so wrong to me on any device.

You like faster frame rates, I know. We don't all have the budget for the hobbit, you see.

Your thoughtful and constructive feedback is noted.
Especially after you took the time to watch it on "any device."

Nothing to do with framerate. Colors just look over saturated, unnatural and clipped while there is very little mid tone details.

Absolutely cool if you're playing around with things. The result is just nothing I personally find pleasing to watch.

At least the second time you gave me something to work with.
I AM just playing around.
I'm not a professional color grader and don't intend to be.
I'm an independent multimedia artist.

Thanks for letting me know about the mid details.
Of course, I'm well aware of the oversaturated red.
No matter what I did short of masking it, I couldn't tone it down without making the sky funky.

I also am not going for a natural look.
My goal is to show people how I see things in my imagination..
Which is prone to surrealism.


I really appreciate encouragement and constructive feedback from anybody who wants to see an independent artist succeed in their goals.

All the rest is a waste of both your time and mine.


Here's my redone version.
You'll see the place where the mask is most visible, it took me hours to do that and I wasn't pleased with the result.
So I did not mask the other parts of the red.

I needed to move on from this project and take what I could chew on and apply that nourishment to my next project.

As for the saturation, the highest it is set anywhere is 58.
And then the entire video I pulled down the saturation of the red hue in the roof of the lighthouse to .82.. when I pulled it down below that, it started to produce weird black noise.

I truly appreciate specific feedback that helps me grow.

Dude?

lava.png

Good Luck

I know. That is frustrating. Anytime I got that toned down, I didn't like the rest of the video, especially the sky.
I was able to successfully apply a gradient mask from The horizon up on all of the clips. Any masking that required tracking was not as much of a success for me as you'll see in my redone version in the final scene that starts from the ground and goes up panning on the lighthouse and then into the sun.
The mask is so blatantly obvious.


Do you have suggestions or a link to a video or tutorial that can help me to bring the saturation down in the Red without ruining the sky?

Dude?

lava.png

Good Luck

I know. That is frustrating. Anytime I got that toned down, I didn't like the rest of the video, especially the sky.
I was able to successfully apply a gradient mask from The horizon up on all of the clips. Any masking that required tracking was not as much of a success for me as you'll see in my redone version in the final scene that starts from the ground and goes up panning on the lighthouse and then into the sun.
The mask is so blatantly obvious.


Do you have suggestions or a link to a video or tutorial that can help me to bring the saturation down in the Red without ruining the sky?

There is a program called DaVinci Resolve that allows you to control Hue vs. Sat, whose functionality you can see in this video:

If you narrow the range to red, you can fix your red saturation. But as other have said, just about everything in your imagery is whack in a "that's a technical problem, not an artistic problem" kind of way.

As others have also said, if you cannot monitor what you try to correct, you are just pushing buttons in a random system. Moreover, the automatic translation of a properly graded HDR source to SDR is also dicey, which is why both DolbyVision (in the high-end) and YouTube (in the low-end) provide mechanisms for translating HDR to SDR to preserve creative intention.

My advice: treat yourself to setting up a proper HDR monitoring chain and amaze yourself with how much fun it is to play with >= 1000 nits. 3000 nits definitely gets you into some really beautiful stuff.

Wow what a miserable thread to read through. Every thing is hard until it isn't. The guy didn't come in and say he wanted to win an academy award he said he wanted to see if he could do it. If your work isn't pure dreck you have probably tried all kinds of things that were hard, ill-advised or even verboten.

I am glad he succeeded. I had tried a couple of times myself and not hit the magic combo. I don't know if I can with an AMD card. But until you try and do some testing you will never know if it is worth pursuing further. I am glad the thread started to turn around and the tip on renting space for a final pass if it is an important project was a good one.

But if he didn't pull his guns and stand his ground ... lets just say a lesser man would have been crushed by the early posts.

But if he didn't pull his guns and stand his ground ... lets just say a lesser man would have been crushed by the early posts.

People ask a question, I provide an answer, which is just an opinion based on experience. One of the problems with asking for free advice on the internet is that sometimes, the answers you get may not be what you expected or hoped for. But it doesn't make the advice any less true.

But if he didn't pull his guns and stand his ground ... lets just say a lesser man would have been crushed by the early posts.

People ask a question, I provide an answer, which is just an opinion based on experience. One of the problems with asking for free advice on the internet is that sometimes, the answers you get may not be what you expected or hoped for. But it doesn't make the advice any less true.

For me there is no doubt that you know what you are talking about, and I am certain every advise you gave in this thread was completely true.

But I do think you are making a classical mistake that many professionals make, namely your standards are completely different then a lot of the people asking advise. To recommend to an amateur, who is just having a go at something like HDR, to buy a 35.000 dollar monitor or just forget about it, completely misses the point.
They are, as I am, amateurs/prosumers, just trying and exploring what they can do/accomplish.

To you, it has to be flawless, perfect, and to a very very high standard, made possible by years of experience and hard work.
To an amateur, it has to give a result, something nice to be proud of, a better understanding of what is being dealt with.

Having said that, a lot of the times these "amateur" actions in the end actually deliver. Not to the high standard you hold and are held to, but for many actually satisfactory.
For example colorgrading, or special effects. Who would have thought 15/20 years ago that some nerd in the attic (like me) on a pc could actually create the things they are doing now, as amateurs.

So while I completely understand your position in this, I think you are missing the point of what these people are trying to achieve. Who knows, in a few years, with this kind of experimentation, amateurs are pumping out satisfactory HDR videos, using 1000/2000 dollar monitors.

I'm happily retired but still enjoy making films for my YouTube channels, and regularly license content to cable channels, etc- only SDR for them.

However, this year I did decide to start working with HDR, which of course meant some significant purchases and learning new post skills sets. At this point, I don't expect to do much, if anything, in the way of licensing with the new HDR content and will use it for YouTube.

But, for what it's worth, I'm afraid that there is NO SUBSTITUTION for having some sort of a HDR capable display or monitor. You don't have to spend $30,000. IMO, but you will, at the bare minimum, need to use something like an LG CX. You will also absolutely need to use a Decklink or equivalent. For me, the sweet spot is using a Dell UP3221Q for initial grade, and then final grade on the LG CX, since that is more representative of a real world end user display. I think the OP could do pretty well with just the CX or equivalent. But after spending several months working with HDR content, I'm afraid that there just isn't any way that it can be done without a Decklink and some sort of display. Again, just my opinion, but for the vast majority of content not intended for theatrical release. 700-1000 nits is more than adequate.