The four things that make a file HDR10
HDR10 is not one setting. A file qualifies only when four separate properties line up, and a file missing any one of them is not HDR10 no matter what the export dialog said.
| Property | Value | Standard |
|---|---|---|
| Colour primaries | BT.2020 | ITU-R BT.2020 |
| Transfer characteristics | PQ | SMPTE ST 2084 |
| Bit depth | 10-bit minimum | ITU-R BT.2100 |
| Static metadata | Mastering display, MaxCLL, MaxFALL | SMPTE ST 2086, CTA-861.3 |
The metadata is the part people forget. It does not change the picture; it tells the display what the picture was graded on, so a 600-nit TV can decide how to handle a highlight that was mastered at 1,000 nits.
How to check a file
Colour signalling lives in the stream, not the filename. Read it directly:
ffprobe -v error -select_streams v:0 \
-show_entries stream=color_primaries,color_transfer,color_space,pix_fmt \
-of default=nw=1 input.mp4
A real HDR10 file reports color_transfer=smpte2084, color_primaries=bt2020 and a 10-bit pixel format such as yuv420p10le. If the transfer says bt709, you have an SDR file regardless of how bright it looks.
Why HDR10 and not something else
HDR10 is royalty-free and carries no licensing cost, so support is universal: every HDR display, every streaming platform, every hardware decoder. Dolby Vision carries per-frame metadata and can look better on a display that supports it, but it requires a licence and its playback path is narrower. For a file that has to play everywhere without a fallback, HDR10 is the format that does not need one.
Static metadata, and what it costs you
"Static" means one set of values for the whole clip. A film that opens on a candlelit interior and ends on a snowfield gets one MaxCLL figure covering both, so a display tone-maps every scene against the brightest moment in the file. On a short clip this rarely matters. It is the reason Dolby Vision and HDR10+ exist for feature-length content.
Questions people ask
Is HDR10 the same thing as HDR?
Not quite. HDR is the category; HDR10 is one format inside it, alongside Dolby Vision, HDR10+ and HLG. HDR10 is the baseline every HDR display supports, which is why a file described only as "HDR" is usually HDR10 in practice.
Do I need a special TV to play HDR10?
You need an HDR display, but not a specific brand or licence. HDR10 is royalty-free, so every television, phone and monitor that supports HDR at all supports HDR10. A display without HDR support tone-maps the file down and shows a watchable SDR picture.
Is HDR10 related to 4K?
No, they are independent. HDR10 describes brightness and colour; 4K describes pixel count. A 1080p file can be HDR10 and a 4K file can be SDR. The two are bundled in marketing because both arrived on the same generation of televisions.
Related: HDR10 vs Dolby Vision vs HLG covers the tradeoffs in full. What the converter outputs lists the exact stream properties you get back.