How Tone Mapping Influences the Bit Rate and the Bit Depth of Coded Sequences

In recent years, high dynamic range (HDR) made major steps forward to become the next big broadcast technology. It is generally accepted that HDR will need a higher bit rate because of more quantization steps and the fact that the images deal with much more detail in the highlights and shadows. However, it is only insufficiently taken into account that most of these details will be preserved when performing an HDR downconversion using tone mapping. It remains unclear how the standard dynamic range bit rate is influenced by the HDR production. Therefore, peak signal-to-noise ratio measurements have been performed, and detailed explanations of the reasons are given in this paper. Moreover, it is not definitively known if the strong manipulation on the luminance component at downconversion can produce artifacts like banding. To provide information, the incoming bit depth of the HDR with subsequent tone mapping is verified by a viewing test.