Color · HDR
HDR finishing for streaming: a practical mastering checklist
Trim passes, peak limits, and the small workflow choices that save you in QC.
01 · Trim pass discipline
Every HDR master we ship has been trim-passed for SDR delivery in the same room, on calibrated displays, in a single session. Skipping that pass is the fastest way to ship a broken deliverable.
If you only do one thing different next quarter, do this: budget the trim pass into the original schedule. Not as a stretch goal. As a sacred deliverable that doesn't get cut.
02 · Peak limits we actually use
1000 nits for streaming, 4000 for theatrical, hardline 600 for any face on screen. We've ignored these limits twice and regretted it both times.
"Trim pass discipline beats peak nits every time."
— Niko Petrov, Color Director
03 · The QC trap
Most failures we see in QC are not contrast or peak issues — they're color crawl in the highlight rolloff. Test before you ship. We use a 30-second sweep through our hardest scene as the smoke test.
04 · Practical checklist
Calibrated display. Reference monitor in the trim suite. Test pattern at start and end of session. Single signed-off LUT chain. No assumptions. If you can't tick all five, don't ship.
