How to compress HDR video without losing HDR

October 23, 2026 • VideoRecompress Studio Team

iPhone HDR clips look grey and washed out after compressing when the converter squeezes the 10-bit HDR picture into 8-bit, or loses the tags that tell the player it is HDR. Since version 2026.2.25, VideoRecompress Studio keeps HDR10 and HLG at 10-bit when you choose H.265, AV1 or VP9, and carries single-layer Dolby Vision through. Choose H.264 and it converts the HDR to normal SDR video properly, so the colors stay right.

−72 %smaller with AV1 (50.3 MB to 14.2 MB), still HLG 10-bit

−78 %smaller with H.265 on the CPU plus Denoise Light (50.3 MB to 10.9 MB), HLG and Dolby Vision kept

1797/1797frames of that CPU file still carry their Dolby Vision metadata (checked with ffprobe)

Measured on 23 October 2026 with VideoRecompress Studio 2026.2.27 on a Ryzen 9 3900X with an RTX 3080, default quality (23), MP4. The clip is 30 seconds of 1080p60 Dolby Vision 8.4 on HLG, the HDR format iPhones record, at 14 Mbit/s: “Test Jellyfin 1080p DV P8.4”, courtesy of Gnattu, CC BY-SA 4.0, from the Jellyfin test videos.

Why compressed HDR video looks washed out

HDR video stores light on a different curve (PQ for HDR10, HLG for phones and TV), with 10 bits per color and the wide BT.2020 colors. Tags in the file tell the player which curve it is. If a converter writes 8-bit, or loses those tags, the player shows the HDR signal as if it were normal video: flat, grey and pale. Only two results are right.

HDR kept10-bit, BT.2020, the HDR curve and its tags. Bright highlights on an HDR screen.

Half convertedAn HDR picture in an 8-bit file, or HDR tags lost. Grey and washed out everywhere.

Converted to SDRTone-mapped to normal 8-bit BT.709 video. Right colors on any screen, without the HDR highlights.

What VideoRecompress does with HDR

Output	HDR10 and HLG	Dolby Vision from an iPhone
H.265 on the GPU	Kept, 10-bit	Dolby Vision layer dropped, plays as HLG
H.265, Software (CPU)	Kept, 10-bit	Kept (MP4 or MKV, same frame size)
AV1	Kept, 10-bit	Dolby Vision layer dropped, plays as HLG
VP9	Kept, 10-bit (HDR10+ too)	Dolby Vision layer dropped, plays as HLG
H.264	Converted to SDR	Converted to SDR

iPhones record Dolby Vision on top of an HLG picture, so even without the Dolby Vision layer the file still plays as HDR. Each file's row in the app says what was kept. Tick “Convert HDR to SDR” to get SDR with any codec. Stabilization also converts to SDR, because it works on 8-bit video only.

Measured: one iPhone-format clip, four ways

The same clip at default quality, one file at a time from the command line (recompress), which re-encodes even when the codec already matches. In the app, an H.265 target on this H.265 clip needs one real change, like the Denoise Light row. Times are for the whole job.

Original: H.265, Dolby Vision 8.4 on HLG · 50.3 MB

AV1CPU14.2 MB · −72 % · 74 s · HLG kept

H.265CPU + Denoise Light10.9 MB · −78 % · 50 s · HLG + Dolby Vision kept

H.265GPU (NVENC)16.9 MB · −66 % · 7 s · HLG kept

H.265CPU11.6 MB · −77 % · 85 s · HLG + Dolby Vision kept

H.264GPU (NVENC)32.4 MB · −36 % · 58 s · SDR

ffprobe on the results: the four HDR files are 10-bit (yuv420p10le) with BT.2020 colors and the HLG transfer (arib-std-b67). Both H.265 CPU files also keep the Dolby Vision 8.4 record, with Dolby Vision metadata on all 1,797 frames. The H.264 file is 8-bit BT.709 SDR. It is the biggest because H.264 needs more data for the same picture.

Which codec for which screen

Where it will play	Choose	You get
iPhone, iPad or Mac	H.265 (HEVC)	HDR
HDR TV, Plex or a media player	H.265 (HEVC), MP4 or MKV	HDR
YouTube upload	H.265 or AV1	HDR
Windows PC with an HDR screen	H.265 or AV1	HDR, with the HEVC or AV1 Video Extension from the Microsoft Store
Older TVs, projectors, normal screens, sharing with anyone	H.264	SDR with the right colors
Keep the iPhone's Dolby Vision	H.265 (HEVC) with Software (CPU), MP4 or MKV, same frame size	Dolby Vision

iPhone clips are already H.265. To make them smaller and keep H.265, add one real change such as Denoise: Light (see the steps), or choose AV1 where your screens play it. Play one result on the screen you care about before you delete any originals.

Steps in VideoRecompress Studio

iPhone clips are already H.265 (HEVC). The app does not re-encode a video into the codec it already has unless you also change something. An iPhone clip set to H.265 with nothing else is skipped, and a .MOV saved as MP4 is only copied, not made smaller. A quality setting alone does not count as a change.

Select Videos: add your HDR clips or a whole folder. The next step shows “HDR content detected.”
Settings, Codec: for iPhone clips, choose AV1. HDR10 and HLG stay 10-bit; the Dolby Vision layer is dropped. For HDR files that are not H.265 yet, H.265 (HEVC) works as well. H.264 gives SDR.
To keep an iPhone's Dolby Vision instead: choose H.265 (HEVC), set HW Accel to Software (CPU), and in Configure & Output open Filters and set Denoise to Light. That change makes the app re-encode the clip (a trim or a frame-rate change also counts). Do not resize, crop or rotate: those drop Dolby Vision.
Configure & Output: choose MP4 or MKV as the container and leave “Convert HDR to SDR” unticked. Tick it only when you want SDR files.
Click Start Recompressing. Each file's row says what happened to its HDR, for example “The result plays as HLG.”

From the command line

The videorecompress command line follows the same rule: batch skips files already in the target codec unless something changes. recompress, for one file, re-encodes it anyway. HDR is kept by default; --hdr sdr converts to SDR on purpose.

Keep HDR10 and HLG (iPhone clips are already H.265, so AV1):

videorecompress batch "D:\iPhone HDR" -o "D:\iPhone HDR\small" --codec av1

Keep Dolby Vision as well (H.265 on the CPU, with Denoise Light as the change):

videorecompress batch "D:\iPhone HDR" -o "D:\iPhone HDR\small" --codec h265 --hw-accel software --denoise light

Convert to SDR on purpose:

videorecompress batch "D:\iPhone HDR" -o "D:\iPhone HDR\sdr" --codec h265 --hdr sdr

Each file prints an HDR line, for example HDR: HLG kept (10-bit, bt2020). With --json, the hdr field says kept or tonemapped.

Compress 4K HDR Video HEVC vs H.264: how much space you really save (measured) H.265 vs AV1: the full comparison Stabilize Shaky Video While Compressing

Questions

Why does my iPhone HDR video look washed out after compressing?

The converter wrote the HDR picture as 8-bit video, or lost its HDR tags, so the player shows the HDR signal as normal video. Compress the original again: to AV1, or to H.265 with one real change such as Denoise: Light, to keep HDR; or to H.264 to get proper SDR.

Does compressing HDR video lose the HDR?

Not when the output stays 10-bit with its HDR tags. In VideoRecompress that happens with H.265, AV1 and VP9. In our test, AV1 cut a 50.3 MB iPhone-format clip to 14.2 MB and it still played as HLG 10-bit.

Can I keep Dolby Vision when I compress?

Yes, for single-layer Dolby Vision (profiles 5 and 8, which includes iPhone video): choose H.265 with Software (CPU), MP4 or MKV, keep the frame size, and set Denoise to Light so the clip, already H.265, is re-encoded. On the GPU, with AV1 or VP9, or with a resize, the Dolby Vision layer is dropped and the HDR10 or HLG picture underneath is kept. Profile 5 has no picture underneath, so keep those files on the CPU. Dual-layer Dolby Vision (profile 7, from UHD Blu-ray) keeps only its HDR10 picture.

How do I convert HDR video to SDR?

Tick “Convert HDR to SDR” in Configure & Output, or add --hdr sdr on the command line. The video is tone-mapped to 8-bit BT.709 with any codec. Choosing H.264 does it automatically.

Can I stabilize HDR video and keep the HDR?

No. Stabilization works on 8-bit video, so a stabilized HDR clip is converted to SDR, with the right colors. The file's row says so.

Compress your HDR clips and keep the HDR

Free trial with no time limit: your first 10 files convert with no watermark; after that files get a watermark and a 10-minute cap. Buying removes both.

Download Free Trial