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iPad HDR and Brightness Control

M

mizzoucat

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 8, 2005
217
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Forgive me if this has been discussed, but for optimal HDR viewing on the 12.9, do you have to manually turn the brightness all the way up? Or do HDR videos automatically adjust the brightness levels?
 
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mizzoucat said:
Forgive me if this has been discussed, but for optimal HDR viewing on the 12.9, do you have to manually turn the brightness all the way up? Or do HDR videos automatically adjust the brightness levels?
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No manual adjustment is needed as long as the video source is HDR and the player supports playing back in HDR.
 
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If the video you’re watching is truly HDR/Dolby Vision, then it will automatically show in HDR. Just look at this video from YouTube and notice the brightness of the lights:


Compare that same video played on a non-HDR capable iPad and you will see the difference. Again, the video should have been rendered in HDR to see the effect
 
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donster28 said:
If the video you’re watching is truly HDR/Dolby Vision, then it will automatically show in HDR. Just look at this video from YouTube and notice the brightness of the lights:


Compare that same video played on a non-HDR capable iPad and you will see the difference. Again, the video should have been rendered in HDR to see the effect
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Haha we posted similar videos.
 
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Can you tell which is which?
 

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What’s the point to take the photo with a non-HDR camera - it will reduce your image to SDR, even if you have an HDR camera (e.g. the iPhone 12 Pro?), when you upload the photo to MacRumors it will most likely be reduced to SDR. So uploading a photo here is not going to see much difference.
 
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Taken with a 12 Pro Max but there isn’t much difference in real life. Yes, the right one is the M1 iPad but I don‘t find this upgrade is worth it. Besides that, the new camera zooming feature is nice and I can plug it into my Pro Display XDR at 6k resolution but that‘s not enough to justify the price.
 
Manually, the highest you can turn up brightness is to 600 nits. But if HDR is playing, the iPad temporarily ups it to 1000 to 1600 nits on the fly. It's hella-bright when it does.
 
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Rafterman said:
Manually, the highest you can turn up brightness is to 500 nits. But if HDR is playing, the iPad temporarily ups it to 1000 to 1600 nits on the fly. It's hella-bright when it does.
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600nits to be more accurate 😁
 
Rafterman said:
Manually, the highest you can turn up brightness is to 600 nits. But if HDR is playing, the iPad temporarily ups it to 1000 to 1600 nits on the fly. It's hella-bright when it does.
Click to expand...
Agree, i tried, and if you set the auto-brightness On, and you get a flash light into the sensor you can reach up to 980-1102 nits
 
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Just an observation: it seems the streaming apps from Netflix to Disney+ and even AppleTV do not exhibit the same HDR brightness levels as in those YouTube demos On my 2021 iPad 12.9. I’m still sampling contents and so far, there are only a couple of movies that I noticed with almost the same brightness…most can pass as the old SDR.

I wonder why.
 
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donster28 said:
Just an observation: it seems the streaming apps from Netflix to Disney+ and even AppleTV do not exhibit the same HDR brightness levels as in those YouTube demos On my 2021 iPad 12.9. I’m still sampling contents and so far, there are only a couple of movies that I noticed with almost the same brightness…most can pass as the old SDR.

I wonder why.
Click to expand...
Check out Altered Carbon on Netflix
 
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donster28 said:
Just an observation: it seems the streaming apps from Netflix to Disney+ and even AppleTV do not exhibit the same HDR brightness levels as in those YouTube demos On my 2021 iPad 12.9. I’m still sampling contents and so far, there are only a couple of movies that I noticed with almost the same brightness…most can pass as the old SDR.

I wonder why.
Click to expand...
I noticed exactly the same thing !

The difference in HDR brightness between Youtube demos and Netflix, Disney+ and even AppleTV is quite important. Some Netflix shows or Disney+ movies are not that impressive.

I suspect the culprit is Dolby Vision. It tends to cap HDR brightness in many instances compared to HDR10, and the result is somewhat often duller in terms of brightness.
 
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Plx32 said:
I noticed exactly the same thing !

The difference in HDR brightness between Youtube demos and Netflix, Disney+ and even AppleTV is quite important. Some Netflix shows or Disney+ movies are not that impressive.

I suspect the culprit is Dolby Vision. It tends to cap HDR brightness in many instances compared to HDR10, and the result is somewhat often duller in terms of brightness.
Click to expand...
Good to know, I'm not the only one.
 
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