HDR metadata checker
HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision and HDR10+ in broadcast and VOD masters
HDR deliveries get rejected less for missing metadata than for metadata that’s there and wrong: a MaxCLL of 0, MaxFALL above MaxCLL, a mastering display of ten million nits because nobody divided by 10,000, the MXF descriptor saying PQ while the HEVC says HLG, a Dolby Vision XML a shot short. Drop a master, and its Dolby Vision XML if it has one, to see the metadata in every layer it lives in and what doesn’t add up against the standards that define it. It runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
Drop a master, and its Dolby Vision XML if it has one
MXF (IMF, AS-11, XDCAM), MOV and MP4. Only the headers and the first frame are read, so a 300 GB IMF track file takes a second. The XML is read as a stream. Nothing is uploaded.
Layers
HDR metadata can be written in up to four places, and they don’t always agree: the container (an MP4 or MOV’s colr, mdcv and clli boxes), the MXF picture descriptor (SMPTE ST 377-1 and ST 2067-21), the bitstream (the HEVC or H.264 VUI and SEI, or a ProRes frame header) and a Dolby Vision XML sidecar. Players differ on which one they believe, so a disagreement is a fault even when one of the layers is right. JPEG 2000 in IMF carries no colour signalling of its own: there the descriptor is the only layer, which is normal.
What isn’t checked
- MaxCLL and MaxFALL are measured from the picture for ProRes, DNxHD/DNxHR, HEVC, H.264 and JPEG 2000 PQ masters, decoded here at full precision. By default from a sample of about 240 frames (key frames, for long-GOP HEVC and H.264), which gives a lower bound; measuring every frame is a click away. In a long-GOP file, frames after a decode error up to the next key frame are left out, and HEVC doesn’t report damage at all. A measurement here is a check, not delivery evidence.
- Dolby Vision metadata embedded in an IMF track file isn’t read; the XML sidecar is.
- HDR10+ (SMPTE ST 2094-40) is detected in the first frame, not decoded.
Sources
The checks stand on the standards below (all checked 2026-10-13), never on a broadcaster’s or streamer’s delivery spec.
- SMPTE ST 2086:2018, Mastering Display Color Volume Metadata, §5.2–5.7, Annex A (sold by SMPTE)
- SMPTE ST 2067-21:2023, IMF Application #2E, §6.2.2–6.2.4, §7.5, Annex B (sold by SMPTE)
- SMPTE ST 2084:2014, High Dynamic Range EOTF (PQ) (sold by SMPTE)
- CTA-861.3-A, HDR Static Metadata Extensions (MaxCLL and MaxFALL) (sold by CTA); the method as it is publicly described, not read from the document
- Recommendation ITU-R BT.2100-3 (02/2025), Tables 1, 5, 9, 10
- Report ITU-R BT.2408-8 (2024), Guidance for operational practices in HDR television production, §2.1 HDR Reference White (203 cd/m²)
- Recommendation ITU-T H.265, SEI D.2.28 (mastering display) and D.2.35 (content light level)
- Dolby Vision Profiles and Levels Specification v1.5 (12 December 2024), Table 1 (profiles), Table 2 (cross-compatibility ID to VUI)
- Dolby, “Dolby Vision Metadata Levels” (knowledge article, 1 April 2025)
Related: colour tag checker (for creator exports and phone clips) · file header reader · broadcast loudness meter.