Developer of dailies/transcoding/streaming systems, Colorfront, has added new tools for SDR/HDR colour workflows.
The new tools are powered by Colorfront Engine, the colour-volume remapper which uses the Human Perceptual Model for multiple-display mastering, while maintaining the original creative intent, and which features in Colorfront’s Transkoder, On-Set Dailies/Express Dailies products.
Colorfront’s new SDR/HDR color tools “deliver the guarantee of colour accuracy” and “eliminate awkward workarounds and open fresh opportunities for customers to work with emerging industry standards, streamlining speed and efficiency.”
The SDR to Dolby Vision round-trip tool transitions SDR to Dolby Vision HDR, and produces unique Dolby Vision XML metadata, guaranteeing that the Dolby-derived SDR output visually-matches the original SDR content. This method presents a unified, streamlined, single-source workflow for mastering and distribution, “enabling content owners to leverage their catalogues of film and TV programming.” The SDR to Dolby Vision feature is also available in AJA’s ColorBox.
An example of the SDR to Dolby Vision round-trip workflow experience was the conversion of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (2023) from standard 4K SDR to Dolby Vision 4K HDR by Transkoder for streaming on Disney+.
Earlier this year, Cricket Lane Post, the LA-based post-production services company specialising in unscripted content, also used the new tool in Transkoder in to convert all episodes of Welcome To Wrexham – Season 3 (Disney/Hulu) from final graded SDR to Dolby Vision HDR.
“We chose Transkoder’s SDR to Dolby Vision tool as it was by far the most efficient way for the Cricket Lane Post team to generate a great-looking HDR version of the show while maintaining the original creative intent across all versions,” said Aaron Lovell, EVP post production at Cricket Lane Post.
Matching the capabilities of the SDR to Dolby Vision tool, the DCI to Dolby Vision tool in Transkoder focuses on transforming XYZ cinema master content, designed for 48-nit theatrical content, into Dolby Vision HDR for home video. This tool preserves the original creative intent and simultaneously produces a Dolby Vision master with corresponding metadata.
With the proliferation of HDR cinema technology, including projectors and emissive displays, there is growing demand for tools that can efficiently produce additional deliverables, but without adding significant hours to the color grading process. No matter the hero grade, the new HDR Cinema tool manages the conversions for any required cinema deliverables. Colorfront also supports the latest the Digital Cinema Initiatives specifications for High Dynamic Range D-Cinema, meaning that HDR DCPs created in Transkoder meet the DCI standard for HDR content.
Using Transkoder’s new HDR Roll-off tool, users can roll-off the highlights in HDR content, using controls to manage peak luminance and the softness of the roll-off curve. The roll-off is performed in the perceptual colour engine to maintain the creative intent. This new feature will prove especially powerful in creating highlight-managed deliverables for emerging HDR exhibition technologies, including Barco’s Lightsteering projection.
HDR Harmony is specially-designed to correct overly-bright and saturated and/or out of spec HDR content. Leveraging Colorfront Engine’s perceptual image-processing, it protects against colour artifacts and highlight clipping, resulting in a cleaner displayed image.
The Broadcast Converter tools deliver a set of optimized controls to manage broadcast-based display-referred conversions between SDR, HDR PQ and HDR HLG. The Broadcast Converter Advanced tool builds on the standard Broadcast Converter, with an added softness control for SDR source images, plus support for BT2408.
Some HDR content can be visually-disturbing when large areas of the image are overly-bright, such as large titles. With the HDR Brightness Guard, users can quickly identify the shots in their timeline that may contain large blocks of overly-bright highlights, by setting the brightness warning to a custom nit value. Markers are automatically generated on the timeline, allowing for quick and easy navigation to the relevant shots for review and the potential application of different conversion settings.
When converting from SDR to HDR, burned-in subtitles can often be much brighter than desired in HDR. Transkoder’s Subtitle Detection tool enables users to detect the subtitles and adjust their brightness independently of the background image, for an optimal HDR master.
“The new SDR/HDR color tools in Colorfront products will prove extremely useful in cinema and TV mastering workflows,” said Aron Jaszberenyi, MD of Colorfront. “It’s exciting to see customers, in large and boutique facilities alike, already using the SDR to Dolby Vision tool to expedite their Dolby Vision deliverables, and users will really appreciate the opportunities and time-saving advantages our additional tools will bring.”
Staff Reporter
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