Report ITU-R BT.2408-9 (03/2026) Guidelines for operational practices in high dynamic range television production
Foreword
Policy on Intellectual Property Right (IPR)
Summary
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Introduction
2 Reference levels and signal format
     2.1 HDR Reference White
     2.2 Signal levels for line-up in production
     2.3 Bit depth
     2.4 Signal range
     2.5 Colour representation
3 Monitoring
     3.1 Display of PQ signals
          3.1.1 Mapping to displays with limited luminance range
     3.2 Display of HLG signals
          3.2.1 Display of HLG signals on SDR screens
4 Image brightness
     4.1 Comfortable brightness of static images
     4.2 Tolerance to programme brightness shifts
5 Integrating standard dynamic range and high dynamic range production
     5.1 Inclusion of standard dynamic range content in high dynamic range
          5.1.1 Display referred mapping
          5.1.2 Display referred mapping of SDR into PQ
          5.1.3 Display referred mapping of SDR into HLG
               5.1.3.1 Mapping without OOTF adjustment
               5.1.3.2 Mapping with OOTF adjustment
               5.1.3.3 Scaling
               5.1.3.4 Simplification of the HLG mapping process
          5.1.4 Scene referred mapping
               5.1.4.1 Scene referred mapping of SDR into HLG
          5.1.5 Comparing scene-light and display-light direct-mapping
     5.2 HDR to SDR down-mapping
     5.3 Handling negative values in format conversion
     5.4 Adjustments to BT.709 cameras
     5.5 Use of 8-bit content
6 Conversion between PQ and HLG
     6.1 Transcoding concepts
     6.2 Conversion concepts using a reference condition at 1 000 cd/m2
     6.3 Cameras using a common OOTF at a reference peak luminance of 1 000 cd/m2
     6.4 Handling PQ signals with greater than 1 000 cd/m2 peak luminance
     6.5 Possible colour differences when converting from PQ to HLG
7 Transitioning from SDR to HDR production
     7.1 Common components in a single-master workflow
          7.1.1 UHD and HD resolution HDR camera outputs
          7.1.2 HDR slow-motion
          7.1.3 HDR to SDR down-mapping
          7.1.4 Camera shading
          7.1.5 Technical and perceptual line-up options
     7.2 Single-master HDR production with HDR-focused workflow
     7.3 Single-master HDR production with SDR focused workflow
          7.3.1 PQ production with SDR shading
          7.3.2 HLG production with SDR shading
     7.4 Single-master HDR production with dual-focused workflow
     7.5 Downstream distribution of a single-master production
     7.6 SDR-HDR and HDR-SDR format conversion
          7.6.1 PQ conversion
          7.6.2 HLG conversion
          7.6.3 The displayed ‘look’ of content following format conversion
          7.6.4 Signal range considerations for HDR to SDR conversion
     7.7 SDR-HDR-SDR ‘Round-Tripping’
     7.8 Hardware colour matrix compensation
     7.9 Signal line-up
     7.10 Camera painting
     7.11 Progressive-to-interlaced conversion
          7.11.1 Filtering for progressive-to-interlaced conversion
          7.11.2 Issues with progressive to interlace workflows
     7.12 Look-up Table (LUT) conversions in HDR television production
     7.13 Floating-point signal representation for programme exchange
8 Conversion practices for camera and display RGB colorimetry
9 Graphics
Annex 1  Study to evaluate levels for PQ content
Annex 2  Analysis of reference levels
     A2.1 Introduction
     A2.2 Analysis of reference levels
     A2.3 Diffuse white elements in live HLG encoded broadcast content
     A2.4 Diffuse white in an HDR dataset of 1 000 cd/m2 PQ encoded images
     A2.5 Discussion
     A2.6 Conclusions
Annex 3  Two studies of skin tones, using a reflectance database and using real subjects
     A3.1 Study 1: using a skin tone database and an ideal model of a camera
     A3.2 Study 2: using human subjects and a RAW recording camera
     A3.3 Conclusions
Annex 4  Study of facial skin tones in broadcast content
     A4.1 Facial skin tones in SDR news and information programmes in studio
     A4.2 Comparison of facial skin tones in HLG HDR and SDR content in a music programme
     A4.3 Conclusion
Annex 5  Displaying PQ – calculating the EETF
Annex 6  Comparison of the native looks of HDR and SDR production
     A6.1 Differences in chromaticity and saturation
     A6.2 Quantifying the total colour differences
     A6.3 Comparison with the reference colour pattern data
Annex 7  Calculating the normalized primary matrix
     A7.1 Conversion of normalized linear colour signals to Recommendation ITU-R BT.2100
     A7.2 Conversion of BT.2100 to arbitrary linear colour signals for display systems
Annex 8  4K/8K UHD HDR and HD SDR simul-production and simulcast practice in China
     A8.1 Background
     A8.2 Basic workflows and principles
     A8.3 Introduction of related work and research
     A8.4 Mapping for conversion between HDR and SDR
     A8.5 Parameter settings
     A8.6 Converter performance consistency (LUTs usage)
     A8.7 Signal range
     A8.8 Consistency of international exchange
     A8.9 Summary
Annex 9  HDR and SDR monitors in close proximity
     A9.1 Approach A: Matching SDR diffuse white level by adapting HDR monitor peak luminance
     A9.2 Approach B: Matching HDR diffuse white level by adapting SDR monitor peak luminance
          A9.2.1 Signal flow - hybrid-linear HDR-to-SDR conversion
Annex 10  NBCUniversal single-master HDR-SDR workflow
Annex 11  Conversion between 203 cd/m2 and 100 cd/m2 (BT.2035) SDR signal formats
     A11.1 Example of optional gamma applied to SDR images
     A11.2 Example of optional gamma applied to SDR for monitoring
References
Glossary