Are HDR videos supported? (color shift)

What are high dynamic range (HDR) videos?

Imagine you're taking a walk at sunset. You see the brilliant colors of the sky, the deep shadows under the trees, and the bright highlights of the sun reflecting off a window. Your eyes can see all these details - from the darkest shadows to the brightest lights - very clearly. That's kind of what HDR (High Dynamic Range) does for videos.

In a regular video, you might notice that sometimes the details in very bright areas (like the sky) get washed out to white, or the details in dark areas (like under a tree) are lost in the shadows. HDR videos fix this by offering a much wider range of colors and brightness levels. This means that you get to see the videos more like how you see the world with your own eyes - the bright parts aren't too bright to see the details, and the dark parts aren't just black shadows.

In short, HDR videos bring out the details in both the brightest and darkest parts of a picture, making everything more vivid and real, just like that sunset you're watching. Many recent smartphones have started to record images and videos using HDR per default.

Does Storrito support HDR videos?

Yes and no. It's important to know that although HDR brings a lot of benefits to video quality, it's not yet supported everywhere. For example, HTML5 canvas, which is a technology used on websites to draw graphics and animations directly in your web browser, doesn't currently support HDR. This means that if you're watching videos or looking at graphics on most websites, you might not get the full HDR experience even if your device and the video itself support it. This is because the technology behind web graphics (like HTML5 canvas) hasn't caught up to the HDR standards yet, so the range of colors and brightness levels you see might be more limited compared to watching an HDR video on a supported device or app.

Storrito's story editor is using HTML5 canvas therefore you will see color shifts like the one below:



The colors on the left looks a bit "washed-out". However, the good news is that Storrito's video renderer will take over the correct color information from your original HDR video. So the video that you download from Storrito or schedule for your Instagram Stories will have the correct colors 🥳

Does Storrito support HDR images?

Regrettably, no, due to the HTML5 canvas limitations mentioned above. However, if this is essential for you please let us know via our support chat.

Updated on: 04/04/2024