https://mixinglight.com/color-tutorial/getting-know-dolby-vision-hdr-part-1/
“… Try to think about Dolby Vision as a funnel. The HDR grade is the wide end of the funnel: a high dynamic range (HDR), large color gamut, and possibly high resolution and frame rate moving image.
The Dolby Vision process analyzes your HDR grade (in the grading software), creates some metadata, and a Dolby Content Mapping Unit (CMU) reads the metadata produced by the analysis process. The metadata is embedded over SDI and in real-time the CMU creates a Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) version of the project….
… I know this is going to sound funny, but by starting with the HDR grade and deriving an SDR grade from that through the Dolby Vision process, I feel like I’m getting better SDR grades than I would have if I did the SDR version alone….”

Commentary
That MixingLight’s Robbie Carman is achieving better Standard Dynamic Range grades by starting off with a High Dynamic Range grade is not funny at all – this result has been reported for some time before he wrote his still-relevant article.
Although I do not currently have access to the means to shoot or post-produce in Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision, Mr Carman’s excellent three-part article is proving invaluable in better understanding the how, why and wherefor of two key Dolby Laboratories technologies that have found their way onto contemporary 4K television sets, Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision.
Links
- MixingLight – Getting To Know Dolby Vision HDR: Part 1: Terminology, Gear, and Workflow
- MixingLight – Getting To Know Dolby Vision Part 2: Delivering To non-HDR Televisions
- MixingLight – Getting To Know Dolby Vision Part 3: Dolby Vision For Everyone!
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