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Has anyone tried HDR video on the iPhone X?

T

terminator-jq

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Quick question for those of you who already have an iPhone X. I have mine arriving later today but since some of you already received your X, I’m curious if anyone has tried viewing HDR video on it. As far as I know, the Netflix app has been updated to support HDR on the iPhone X. If you have, what’s your opinion on it? Is there an indication that HDR is enabled?

Also what other HDR video sources are compatible with the iPhone X? I know YouTube has 4K, hdr videos but I’m assuming they don’t work on iOS...
 
I’m not even sure the Netflix app is properly showing hdr. I know one thing... it’s not updated for the X in any other way. It’s still got the video in a box the size of the small iPhone screen with the home bar always visible on the screen as you try to watch anything.

No icons to let you know HDR is on and Stranger Things Season 2 didn’t look obviously better than my HD tv.

So then I downloaded Mad Max Fury Road from iTunes, as I own that. Probably the best color grading in any movie ever made, so a perfect test. No icons to let you know it is HDR as it plays. It was definitely in HDR though. I know because fire and other effects looked cartoony and pasted over the movie.

I prefer the non-HDR version. The movie already has so much contrast in the color that when that gets jacked up it really starts to make real life elements look like pasted cgi. It looked less like “real life” and more like the brightness had been painted on in post. Like old Technicolor movies. I will say that I don’t believe movies were being shot with true HDR in mind until last year.

But I make movies myself and I love the low contrast look of film so I’m not ever going to love this stuff. Fury Road didn’t even have that HDR cartoon fire in the theater, why do I want it at home?

I’m sure it’s great when used more subtly or for live TV/news/Docs.
 
I watched the opening scene of John wick 2 from the Apple store. Looks great. Doesn’t let you know it’s hdr.
 
As interested as I am in checking out 4K HDR on my X, it's not worth renting/buying from iTunes...especially to watch on my phone. 4K HDR content from my Plex server looks great though.
 
Wonder Woman played like a dream. Now i'm waiting for iPad's and iPhone to come with 4K screen resolutions. I feel that the iPad will be earlier than iPhone. 😀
 
QquegChristian said:
I’m not even sure the Netflix app is properly showing hdr. I know one thing... it’s not updated for the X in any other way. It’s still got the video in a box the size of the small iPhone screen with the home bar always visible on the screen as you try to watch anything.

No icons to let you know HDR is on and Stranger Things Season 2 didn’t look obviously better than my HD tv.

So then I downloaded Mad Max Fury Road from iTunes, as I own that. Probably the best color grading in any movie ever made, so a perfect test. No icons to let you know it is HDR as it plays. It was definitely in HDR though. I know because fire and other effects looked cartoony and pasted over the movie.

I prefer the non-HDR version. The movie already has so much contrast in the color that when that gets jacked up it really starts to make real life elements look like pasted cgi. It looked less like “real life” and more like the brightness had been painted on in post. Like old Technicolor movies. I will say that I don’t believe movies were being shot with true HDR in mind until last year.

But I make movies myself and I love the low contrast look of film so I’m not ever going to love this stuff. Fury Road didn’t even have that HDR cartoon fire in the theater, why do I want it at home?

I’m sure it’s great when used more subtly or for live TV/news/Docs.
Click to expand...
Do you have the Netflix premium account? The premium account is the only way HDR versions appear. The standard Netflix accounts don’t have this ability.
 
QquegChristian said:
I’m not even sure the Netflix app is properly showing hdr. I know one thing... it’s not updated for the X in any other way. It’s still got the video in a box the size of the small iPhone screen with the home bar always visible on the screen as you try to watch anything.

No icons to let you know HDR is on and Stranger Things Season 2 didn’t look obviously better than my HD tv.

So then I downloaded Mad Max Fury Road from iTunes, as I own that. Probably the best color grading in any movie ever made, so a perfect test. No icons to let you know it is HDR as it plays. It was definitely in HDR though. I know because fire and other effects looked cartoony and pasted over the movie.

I prefer the non-HDR version. The movie already has so much contrast in the color that when that gets jacked up it really starts to make real life elements look like pasted cgi. It looked less like “real life” and more like the brightness had been painted on in post. Like old Technicolor movies. I will say that I don’t believe movies were being shot with true HDR in mind until last year.

But I make movies myself and I love the low contrast look of film so I’m not ever going to love this stuff. Fury Road didn’t even have that HDR cartoon fire in the theater, why do I want it at home?

I’m sure it’s great when used more subtly or for live TV/news/Docs.
Click to expand...
The Netflix app has been updated and looks great.
 
wesk702 said:
Do you have the Netflix premium account? The premium account is the only way HDR versions appear. The standard Netflix accounts don’t have this ability.
Click to expand...

I certainly do not and totally forgot Netflix even HAD subscription tiers. Makes total sense now.

DDustiNN said:
The Netflix app has been updated and looks great.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it was some kind of weird bug on iOS where the App Store was showing no available app updates. I figured that made sense as it had just downloaded all the apps from the cloud when I set up the phone.

Eventually I got frustrated by so many apps not being formatted for the X that I pulled the update screen down to refresh and suddenly had 30 available updates.

Weird that it downloads the old versions of your apps (if you were behind on updating) when you set up from a backup.

Didn’t help me with HDR anyway for reasons the post above pointed out. But at least a lot of my apps fill the screen now.
 
hovscorpion12 said:
Wonder Woman played like a dream. Now i'm waiting for iPad's and iPhone to come with 4K screen resolutions. I feel that the iPad will be earlier than iPhone. 😀
Click to expand...

Did you notice something weird happening during the bright flash at 2:06? I get this strange artifacting around the edges and the color gets all messed up. Goes away right after the bright flash though.
 
QquegChristian said:
I certainly do not and totally forgot Netflix even HAD subscription tiers. Makes total sense now.



Yeah, it was some kind of weird bug on iOS where the App Store was showing no available app updates. I figured that made sense as it had just downloaded all the apps from the cloud when I set up the phone.

Eventually I got frustrated by so many apps not being formatted for the X that I pulled the update screen down to refresh and suddenly had 30 available updates.

Weird that it downloads the old versions of your apps (if you were behind on updating) when you set up from a backup.

Didn’t help me with HDR anyway for reasons the post above pointed out. But at least a lot of my apps fill the screen now.
Click to expand...
I had the same issue on Friday regarding app updates. I set up via iCloud restore, and then the App Store was showing no updates. Yet many of the apps said they were updated for iPhone X... but clearly they weren’t, as they were all letterboxed. It was weird. But somehow it fixed itself and all of my updates appeared. I downloaded everything and apps look much better now.
 
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