Part 1. What are SDR and HDR10?

Understanding SDR (Standard Dynamic Range)

SDR, or Standard Dynamic Range, has been the standard for television and film content for decades. SDR content is typically displayed with a limited range of brightness and color. The contrast between the darkest and brightest parts of the image is constrained, and the color space is narrower compared to HDR standards.

• Brightness: SDR is typically limited to a peak brightness of 100 to 300 nits (a unit of light intensity).
• Color: SDR uses the Rec. 709 color space, which is relatively narrow compared to HDR formats.
• Contrast: SDR's contrast range is more compressed, meaning the difference between the brightest whites and darkest blacks isn't as pronounced.

Despite being the standard for a long time, SDR’s limitations in brightness, color depth, and contrast are becoming evident as newer technology, like HDR, takes the spotlight.

Understanding HDR10

HDR10 is one of the most widely adopted HDR formats and is commonly used in 4K UHD Blu-ray discs and modern television sets. HDR10 enhances video quality by offering higher brightness, deeper contrast, and a broader color spectrum compared to SDR. It allows for a more vibrant and lifelike image, with greater detail in both bright and dark areas.

• Brightness: HDR10 supports peak brightness levels up to 1,000 nits or higher, providing stunning highlights and deeper contrast.
• Color: HDR10 uses the Rec. 2020 color space, which is much wider than Rec. 709, allowing for more colors to be displayed.
• Contrast: The contrast ratio in HDR10 is far superior to SDR, allowing for more detailed shadows and highlights. HDR10 also uses 10-bit color depth, which significantly improves the smoothness of color transitions.

In short, HDR10 offers a dramatic improvement over SDR, providing more detailed, realistic, and immersive visuals.

Part 2. Convert SDR to HDR10 with EncodeGUI

To make the most of HDR content, you'll first need to convert your SDR videos into HDR10 format. EncodeGUI is a popular tool that simplifies this process. It’s a user-friendly graphical interface for video encoding that allows you to convert SDR videos into HDR10 with ease.

EncodeGUI Video Encoder is a user-friendly graphical interface designed to simplify video encoding and processing tasks, particularly for SDR to HDR conversion. Built on top of powerful open-source encoding tools, EncodeGUI provides an intuitive platform for users to easily convert videos between different formats, including converting SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) content to HDR10 (High Dynamic Range). The software supports a wide range of video formats, allowing users to enhance video quality with adjustable settings for brightness, color, and tone mapping. It also offers options for configuring HDR10-specific parameters, such as peak brightness, color space (Rec. 2020), and 10-bit color depth, ensuring high-quality results. The streamlined interface makes it easy for both beginners and advanced users to perform complex encoding tasks without needing deep technical knowledge. With support for modern video standards, EncodeGUI is a versatile and accessible tool for video enthusiasts looking to enhance their content.

Step-by-Step Guide to Converting SDR to HDR10 with EncodeGUI

First, go to the official EncodeGUI website at https://encodegui.com/ to download the software. It’s a free and open-source tool, compatible with Windows and Apple Silicon Macs (macOS). The program is lightweight, making it easy to install and run on most modern systems.

For a detailed walkthrough, you can refer to this tutorial video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPqzGsTbjRk.

Step 1: Load Your SDR Video

After launching the software, click the “Select input” button to load your SDR video. Next, set the “Video codec” option to HEVC. Then, click “Select output” at the bottom to choose the destination and filename for the converted video.

Step 2: HEVC Page Settings

Navigate to Video → HEVC → Main tab, then set the CRF value to 17, choose Profile as Main10, and select Bit depth as 10-bit.

Step 3: Signal Page Settings

Navigate to the Video → Signal → HDR tab and enable the HDR10 Metadata option. Here, you can adjust settings like brightness level, mastering display, and dynamic metadata to align with your desired HDR10 parameters. Next, go to the Signal → Colors tab and set Matrix to BT.2020nc, Transfer to SMPTE2084, and Primaries to BT.2020.

Step 4: VapourSynth Settings

Go to the VapourSynth → Colors tab. Under the Input section, set the parameters to match the values shown in the Video Info panel on the right—for example, set Matrix to BT.470bg, and adjust other fields accordingly. In the Output section, configure the values as follows: Matrix to BT.2020ncl, Transfer to ST2084, and Primaries to BT.2020.

Step 5: Start Converting

Click "Add Job" to queue the task, then hit the "Start" button to begin the conversion. The process may take some time to complete, depending on your computer's performance.

Part 3. Author HDR10 UHD Blu-ray with Yuhan 4K UHD Creator

Now that you have your HDR10 video, it’s time to burn it to a UHD Blu-ray disc. Yuhan 4K UHD Creator is a powerful software solution for creating professional-grade UHD Blu-rays, including support for HDR10 content. Here’s how to use it for UHD Blu-ray authoring.

Yuhan 4K UHD Creator is a professional UHD Blu-ray authoring tool designed for creating high-quality 4K discs with HDR support. It supports a wide range of video formats, including MKV, MP4, M2TS, and more, and can retain HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision metadata during the authoring process. The software offers full support for multi-audio and multi-subtitle tracks, allowing users to add multiple languages and external subtitles with ease. Yuhan 4K UHD Creator also includes 30+ customizable menu templates, enabling users to design interactive Blu-ray menus with background images, videos, and music. It supports 4K output up to BD100 and is compatible with all major frame rates and resolutions, including 23.976fps, 24fps, and 60fps. With hardware acceleration for Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA, it ensures fast processing without compromising video quality. Whether you’re preserving HDR movies or creating personal UHD content, Yuhan 4K UHD Creator is a powerful, user-friendly solution.

Step-by-Step Guide to Authoring HDR10 UHD Blu-ray

Before we start, we need to download and install Yuhan 4K UHD Creator. If your computer is Windows, you can click the button on the left below to download it. If your computer is Mac, please click the button on the right below to download it.

Step 1: Add Media Files

After launching the software, click on the "4K UHD" tab at the top to begin creating a 4K UHD Blu-ray. Use the "Add Video" button to import your HDR10 video files. Yuhan 4K UHD Creator automatically detects HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision formats. For each imported video, you can choose your preferred audio track and subtitles. At the bottom of the interface, you can configure the disc capacity (BD50, BD66, or BD100) and set the desired frame rate for the final output.

Step 2: Video Settings (Optional)

Click the "Edit" icon next to the loaded video to open the video settings window. Here, you can trim the video by adjusting the start and end time, and customize chapter points as needed. If your video already includes chapter information, Yuhan 4K UHD Creator will automatically import it to ensure smooth, seamless navigation during playback.

Step 3: Disk Menu Settings

Click the "Select Menu" button to open the Menu Settings window. Yuhan 4K UHD Creator includes over 30 built-in disc menu templates. You can choose your preferred template from the panel on the right and fully customize it—set unique background images and music for each menu page, rearrange the layout by dragging menu items, and adjust the overall appearance. Additionally, you can remove unwanted elements from the main menu, such as "Setup", thumbnails, or titles, to create a clean and personalized Blu-ray menu.

Step 4: Advanced Settings

To ensure the original video's HDR10 metadata is preserved, open the Settings dialog box in the software and set the "UHD HDR & SDR" option to "HDR10". Here, you can also configure additional parameters such as the video encoder, decoder, and bitrate, allowing for greater control over output quality and compatibility.

Step 5: Output Settings

Yuhan 4K UHD Creator allows you to save your project in three formats: BDMV folder, ISO image, or burn directly to disc. Additionally, you can personalize your disc by setting a custom disc label, choosing a default audio track, default subtitle, and adjusting other preferences to suit your needs.

Step 6: Start authoring

Click the "Start" button to begin the creation process. Yuhan 4K UHD Creator will start authoring your 4K UHD Blu-ray. The duration may vary depending on the size of your project and system performance. If your computer supports GPU acceleration, the process can often be completed within one to two hours.

Part 4. Conclusion

Converting SDR to HDR10 and creating a UHD Blu-ray is a straightforward process with the right tools. In this guide, we covered how to convert SDR content to HDR10 using EncodeGUI and how to use Yuhan 4K UHD Creator to burn that HDR10 video to a professional-quality UHD Blu-ray.

With these tools and this step-by-step guide, you’re ready to create high-quality HDR10 content that will look stunning on any UHD Blu-ray player. Enjoy the benefits of HDR10 and bring your video collection to the next level of cinematic quality!

If you want to learn more about Yuhan 4K UHD Creator, please click: https://yuhanmedia.com/uhd-creator

If you want to download and try it for free, please click the button below to download it.