This was all a waste of money. - Why HDR Sucks on YouTube.

Many of you have been asking why we upload our videos in SDR instead of HDR. Well, we’ve been asking the same question, so let’s examine why HDR content creation is such a pain on YouTube, and what YouTube can do to help make things easier (hint: it involves LUTs!)

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MUSIC CREDIT
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Intro: Laszlo - Supernova

Outro: Approaching Nirvana - Sugar High

CHAPTERS
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0:00 Intro
1:34 The problem
2:45 What is HDR
3:57 Why it's hard
6:15 Look up Tables
7:55 FRUSTRATED
9:12 Dear Youtube,
10:22 an Inconvenient Truth
11:45 Outro

[Bartoman]

As a response to this video, YouTube will remove the HDR feature altogether and remove the ability to select resolution options to improve the experience.

[Sakosaga]

F in the chat for Colton being in the middle

[TimestormFilms]

You are speaking out of my soul. We have been trying to upload high quality HDR content for over 5 years. We were never satisfied or understood what Youtube was doing. Now that software, codecs and displays are mature enough to support HDR, Youtube really needs to get their act together.

[EposVox]

I'm glad it wasn't just me... I felt a tad incompetent wondering if I just couldn't figure it out. Multiple audio tracks is TOTALLY a feature that they won't roll out, too.

[lariveePhoto]

I always wanted youtube to support multiple audio tracks. I wanted to start a bilingual (english/french) channel back in the day without having to have two separate videos.

[volvagia]

Props to Colton for being the butt of tons of jokes over the years and still being a great sport about it!

[puffnpluky]

What surprised me was back in the days before youtube supported 60fps video, they still stored the original 60fps file if thats what you uploaded. Then years later when they rolled out 60fps support, all these old videos magically became 60fps! it was great. I remember one youtuber I used to watch actually saw that coming and had been uploading all their videos in 60fps for years and years, even though Youtube didn't support it at the time.

[aaronhinton]

Hey, Linus! Thanks for referencing my HDR to SDR video! I've been thinking about doing a follow-up video about how to embed a blended Dolby Vision analysis into an HDR video file for use on YouTube. It's not full, legit Dolby Vision, but this method uses a portion of Dolby Vision's toolkit, and it's another great alternative for creating a tonemapped SDR version of your HDR videos for YouTube. Unfortunately, you still need to use YouTube's janky HDR Metadata Tool to embed it into the file... But let me know if it sound interesting to you, and I'll try to set aside some time to make that video!

[SoniasWay]

“Is it laziness, incompetence or both”
I felt that

[AnandSriraman]

I feel like Linus could also have spoken about whether Floatplane supports HDR content, and if it does the efforts they needed to enable it.

[TheDro]

youtube should open up a open source side of it where creators can submit features and all they have to do it add them if they are voted in fairly by the community. They could implement a system where only verified creators that are monetized can vote, this way they have our KYC and know the real channels. The creators that help submit features or combat spam on the platform earn an extra percentage amount on their revenue at the end of the month instead of youtube taking the full 30 percent. It would give everyone an incentive to make the platform better and they wouldn't have to wait years for updates that dont matter as much, like removing the dislike count. there are so many better things time could be spent on!

another example, creators should be allowed to also take in revenue from companies that directly advertise on their channel. The way this could work is that someone would submit an ad to your channel with an amount they wish to pay (allowing creators to also create tiers) and the creator can choose whether or not to accept the ad and where it would play during the video. This way advertisers can directly promote to their audience instead of a bunch of bots. So many advertisers right now are paying for botted views and have no idea!

[DoubleOSevan]

Oh? You wanted HDR? I thought you said, “Remove the dislike count.”

[shangerdanger]

I know so many people with RED cameras that spent so much money on this epic camera and then upload ungraded footage for people who are watching it on their phones... and it looks terrible

[bradley]

Perhaps the irony in this is that when I bought my first HDR capable TV, quite a while ago now. Youtube was one of the only ways you could even see HDR content at all. So it feels bad that they've apparently dropped the ball.

[AeviumFilms]

Thanks for using some of my footage! Super informative video 🙌🏼

[SergioTheOne]

Imagine if Linus would've uploaded this video in HDR *just to exemplify how awful it looks on most people's displays.*
I remember MKBHD talking about it before, and running into the same issues.
HDR is still niche, but because of things like these, it'll take longer to get there.

[Temarisboy]

As a videographer and editor I feel the struggle in this so hard.

[NanoMine]

Crazy how YouTube thought removing dislikes was more important than giving a better viewing experience to the users.

[ArashiKageTaro]

I remember when you did your last warehouse tour and you pointed out the editing suite that was supposed to be pitch black for mastering HDR content. Unfortunate that that hasn’t happened just yet but I’m positive it’ll be amazing once you guys implement it and YouTube improves it!

[NatesHomeTours]

My experience when trying to use a LUT in VSDC (video editing software I use) it creates a lot of banding when there is a large area with the same color such as a wall. I just recently started using it and have gotten comments that my video quality seems to have gone down and looks somewhat out of focus. So I quit using it. I do however still edit and upload in 4K.