Video and displays
HDR10
The baseline open HDR format using 10-bit color, the PQ transfer curve, and static metadata that applies one set of brightness values to a whole film.
HDR10 is the mandatory HDR format on Ultra HD Blu-ray and the common denominator across streaming services and displays. It combines 10-bit color, the SMPTE ST 2084 perceptual quantizer (PQ) curve, the BT.2020 container, and static metadata describing the mastering display and content light levels.
Everything supports it, so HDR10 is the fallback whatever else a source offers, and a display that tone-maps HDR10 well looks good on almost all content. Its weakness is that one MaxCLL and MaxFALL value must serve both the darkest and brightest scenes.
Content is usually mastered at 1,000 nits, sometimes 4,000, for displays that may reach only 500 to 800, so the display tone-maps the difference. HDR10+ adds per-scene metadata on the same base and is ignored by displays without it.
Related terms