Proposed Measured Display Characterization File for HDR Consumer Displays

The advent of wide color gamut and high-dynamic-range (HDR) imaging has upended long-established standards for display monitors and changed the very definition of display calibration. With the International Telecommunications Union-Radiocommunication BT.7091 standard, which in retrospect looks like a calm and pastoral monoculture, the nature of display calibration was straight-forward, i.e., adjust the behavior of the video display until its output matches the standard as closely as possible. The changes created by HDR can be seen most clearly by describing the way HDR color volume mapping works. An HDR TV’s color volume-mapping algorithm looks at the metadata that shows how the content was mastered, compares that metadata to the definition of the HDR TV’s capabilities, and applies some very intelligent mapping to make the HDR content appear as accurately as possible on the TV. A new kind of calibration process is needed to provide color accuracy while not affecting the intended behavior of the TV’s Color Volume Remapping algorithm. No standard exists for the format or mechanism of this process. This paper proposes a standard for self-description in video displays that will allow mapping algorithms to best display a variety of HDR content on a variety of display devices with differing capabilities.