iPad Pro Can 2020 iPad Pro Display HDR? I always hear it cannot, but it shows when HDR media is playing

[LionTeeth]

Pretty much title. I have a 2020 iPad Pro 11”, it’s a beast I love it. But I just wish it did HDR. I read that it doesn’t support it, but the hdr badge in the top left shows up when an hdr video is played. Anyone know what’s going on here? The video looks bright and colorful. Not quite “hdr”, but also not washed out like a display that doesn’t support hdr gets

 

[pdoherty]

The 11" doesn't do HDR (any year). It can play the files but the display isn't HDR.

 

[rui no onna]

Iirc, 2017 iPad Pro and newer have wider color gamut (DCI-P3) compared to previous models that only do sRGB.

However, they don’t get bright enough for true HDR.

 

[LionTeeth]

Iirc, 2017 iPad Pro and newer have wider color gamut (DCI-P3) compared to previous models that only do sRGB.

However, they don’t get bright enough for true HDR.

Ah ok so it’s handling the expanded color mode but just not the brightness. Like a hybrid of sorts. Well there you go makes sense thanks

 

[Toutou]

It’s a bit more complicated than that. Apple’s implementation of HDR capabilities is called EDR and it works on all of their new-ish devices and displays, including the dimmer ones like your 600nit iPad. The way EDR works is that it always tries to use any available display brightness above the currently set level to display the whiter-than-white highlights. If there’s no such headroom (brightness set to 100 %), no problem, 600 nits is white and that’s it. If you set the brightness lower, e.g. in a dimly lit room, “white” can be only represented by say 150 nits of brightness, but if you play a HDR video and there’s a whiter-than-white highlight, the display can still use the 600nit max brightness headroom and make the highlight four times brighter than what your eyes and brain already see as white.

 

[hippopotamusglorypig]

Fake HDR like on any display without FALD or the like. It looks horrible, to be honest, especially in web videos on an otherwise SDR web page, and I wish there were a setting to disable this behavior.

 

[LionTeeth]

It’s a bit more complicated than that. Apple’s implementation of HDR capabilities is called EDR and it works on all of their new-ish devices and displays, including the dimmer ones like your 600nit iPad. The way EDR works is that it always tries to use any available display brightness above the currently set level to display the whiter-than-white highlights. If there’s no such headroom (brightness set to 100 %), no problem, 600 nits is white and that’s it. If you set the brightness lower, e.g. in a dimly lit room, “white” can be only represented by say 150 nits of brightness, but if you play a HDR video and there’s a whiter-than-white highlight, the display can still use the 600nit max brightness headroom and make the highlight four times brighter than what your eyes and brain already see as white.

This is fascinating thank you, holy geez. Perfect info I was hoping someone knew

 

[Toutou]

There’s also this article, and there are some WWDC sessions available on EDR for anyone interested in the technical details.