High dynamic range video chains

Abstract

Over the last decade, much research experience has been gained in the realm of high dynamic range imaging (HDRI). On account of the significantly improved visual experience that HDRI offers, industry has recently taken a strong interest in this set of technologies. This is evident in the active consideration of HDR by standardization bodies, for instance DVD and EBU in the context of UHDTV, and the emergence of demos at tradeshows. To enable a more engaging/immersive viewing experience in the home or in the cinema, a range of technologies, workflows and processes should be adapted, and HDRI would need to evolve to become HDRV: high dynamic range video. There exists a good number of solutions that each solves part of the problem. However, as a significant number of problems remain open, there is, up to now, no integrated pipeline that includes everything from capture to post-production, archival/storage, compression, transmission, and display. In this paper, we review the requirements for building high dynamic range video pipelines, and discuss how and where HDR components can and should be inserted. This leads to a range of different scenarios, each with their own expected quality levels, associated cost and required effort to implement in practice. In particular, we consider an ideal end-to-end HDR video chain, as well as several variants that involve either legacy content or conventional decoding and rendering devices.

Original document

The different versions of the original document can be found in:

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1049/ib.2014.0006

• http://www.erikreinhard.com/papers/ibc_2014.pdf

• https://digital-library.theiet.org/content/conferences/10.1049/ib.2014.0006,

https://academic.microsoft.com/#/detail/2085088278