What is HDR video?
HDR video shows the bright parts of a clip — the sun, neon, reflections — brighter than ordinary white on an HDR screen, with richer color. It's a different mechanism from HDR photos, but the same idea. Here's how HDR video works and how to make your own.
See real HDR video
HDR video in one sentence
An HDR video stores brightness in 10 bits across a wide color space (BT.2020) and labels itself with a transfer function (PQ or HLG) that tells a display how bright each pixel should be. On an HDR screen the highlights go beyond white; on an SDR screen it plays as normal video.
PQ and HLG: the two HDR video flavors
PQ — the basis of HDR10 and Dolby Vision — maps pixel values to absolute brightness in nits, common for streaming and mastering. HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma) is a broadcast-friendly curve that also looks reasonable on SDR screens. MakeHDR can output either, in the browser or in the MakeHDR app.
HDR video vs HDR photos (Ultra HDR)
Photos use Ultra HDR — a JPEG with an embedded gain map (ISO 21496-1). Video doesn't use a gain map; it carries HDR as the 10-bit BT.2020 signal plus a PQ or HLG tag in the bitstream. So 'HDR' means two different file mechanisms for stills and motion, even though the visual goal — brighter highlights — is the same.
How SDR-to-HDR conversion works
Converting an SDR clip means lifting its highlights into HDR headroom with a gain curve, then encoding BT.2020 with a PQ or HLG tag. MakeHDR applies the same gain curve as its photos — no AI, no invented detail — so the brightness you already shot displays brighter, not fabricated.
How to make an HDR video
In Chrome, Edge or Android, MakeHDR converts a clip to an HDR file on your device — no upload. Where your browser can encode HEVC (for example Chrome on macOS) you get an HDR MP4 that plays in Chrome, Safari, QuickTime and iPhone Photos; otherwise a VP9 WebM that plays in Chrome, Edge and Android. Safari and iPhone can't create HDR video in the browser yet — that's what the MakeHDR app is for: hardware encoding to 10-bit HEVC MOV at 4K with no cap. Drop a clip, pick the strength, and download.