List of EDR/HDR compatible displays

[Johannes]

Hi guys,

is there a list of displays for Macs, which are compatible with EDR (extended dynamic range) within Affinity suite?
I want to buy a new Display for my RX580 Mac. I don't know which displays will work with EDR in Affinity suite.

The following wide gamut displays are top in my list:

1. EIZO CG279X
2. EIZO CG2730
3. EIZO CG277-BK
4. EIZO CS2740
5. EIZO CS2731
6. BenQ SW271

Is any of these Affinity-EDR compatible if plugged in my Mac?

Is the Radeon RX 580 8 GB compatible?

[James Ritson]

Hi @Johannes, Apple opened up HDR support to most displays that support an HDR10 signal with Catalina (EDR is their term for their own displays). I've tested it successfully on a Samsung CHG70, Acer XV273K and a couple of larger monitors/TVs.

Apple displays themselves will typically have EDR which is just activated automatically, and is available within the Affinity apps when working with 32-bit format documents. Displays include the 2019 MacBook Pro, 2020 iMac (I think?), Pro Display XDR etc. At one point the third party LG 5K monitors supported it in a public beta, but I'm not sure if that's still the case.

Any modern display with genuine HDR support should be fine—be aware of lower end models that have some kind of "HDR picture processing", they need to actually support an HDR10 signal. If in doubt, look for VESA certified models, e.g. HDR400, HDR600, HDR1000 etc. Looking at those models you've listed, as long as they actually accept an HDR signal they should theoretically work with macOS's HDR compositing.

The bigger issue is making sure you have the right connectivity and OS updates—I noticed you're on Mojave, I believe you need Catalina as a minimum. The RX580 is Polaris architecture so you should be OK there. Use an up-to-date DisplayPort cable (1.4) or HDMI cable (2.0 or higher). Try and use DisplayPort, since HDMI 2.0 has various a and b permutations which affect the maximum chroma sampling and refresh rate you can achieve at 4K HDR etc. I don't have the figures to hand at the moment but I think the RX 580 might only be HDMI 2.0, so just stick with DisplayPort to be safe.

You're on a Mac Pro with a discrete GPU, so you don't need to mess around with dongles—good news there! There are USB-C DisplayPort dongles that support 4K60 HDR etc, and Apple's HDMI adapter will do 4K HDR but I'm not sure about chroma sampling limitations there.

Assuming all your hardware supports it, and you've got Catalina or Big Sur installed, you should have an HDR toggle on your display preferences:

Then in your Affinity app (typically Photo or Designer), make sure your document is in 32-bit and open the 32-bit Preview panel (View>Studio). Enable EDR and then values above 1.0 will be mapped to the extended dynamic range:

And that should be it! Hope that was helpful.

[Alann]

Will the above list of monitors also Enable HDR?

[Johannes]

could not delete this posting

Edited November 23, 2020 by Johannes
did not see a posting

[James Ritson]

Well, you would need to just research whether the listed monitors will accept an HDR10 signal. If they advertise HDR specifically and you can find a peak brightness value listed such as 1000nits/600nits etc then yes, chances are you will be good to go. Even better if you can find detailed specifications and confirm they will accept HDR10.

I cannot speak about the USB-C connectivity on those monitors and whether they would also carry an HDR10 signal, but since you’re using a Mac with a discrete GPU I guess that’s not an issue here...

Unless any third party display specifically advertises it—none that I know of—EDR is limited to Apple displays and (possibly) LG’s third party Thunderbolt displays.

However, just to reiterate @Johannes, you would first need to update to Catalina or Big Sur. I believe EDR support is available on Mojave, but not HDR, you will need Catalina minimum for that. However, for all intents and purposes, they behave the same in the Affinity apps, and are simply both referred to as EDR on the user interface.

[Johannes]

Thank you. 🙏 

[Johannes]

Here is the answer from EIZO support. One of the top display manufacturers of the world. (I tried to translate from German to English):

Quote

 

We have monitors that can display HDR tone value curves. These are currently the models CG319X, CG279X, CG247X and the CS2740. These are all monitors that can be hardware calibrated. During calibration you specify a target brightness and set the colour reproduction correctly for this brightness.
HDR10 transmits metadata, which is used to dynamically control the monitor brightness, even partially. This contradicts the idea of colour accuracy. Every change in brightness would actually require a different calibration to be stored. In other words, these monitors are not HDR10 monitors because they do not process metadata.
With the devices you can reproduce HDR tonal value curves in the limited brightness range of the monitors. So either compressed to the maximum brightness of the monitor, or only the lower brightness range of the material up to the maximum brightness of the monitor.

The CG3146 is a real HDR monitor for HDR colour grading. With its 1000cd/m² and 1.000.000:1 contrast ratio, the real and colour-true HDR displays. However, it does not receive HDR10 metadata either. So you can set your target colour standard on the monitor as usual during video editing. This method is necessary for the colour-accurate display. Afterwards, for viewing on the consumer side, the regulation may be done via the metadata. But not for mastering.

 

The CG3146 is a reference monitor for color grading movies and is priced around 25,000 USD and does not support HDR10.

Let's think about this.

[Mat Schulte]

Has anyone yet been able to determine whether or not LG’s third party Thunderbolt displays support EDR when attached to, say, an iMac or a Mac Mini?

I'm thinking of getting an M1 Mac Mini plus an LG 4k Ultrafine, but after reading this blog post, I got curious about the EDR capability of that combo.

Apple support was not able to tell me for sure one way or another.

[devon7y]

On 11/23/2020 at 5:41 AM, James Ritson said:

Hi @Johannes, Apple opened up HDR support to most displays that support an HDR10 signal with Catalina (EDR is their term for their own displays). I've tested it successfully on a Samsung CHG70, Acer XV273K and a couple of larger monitors/TVs.

Apple displays themselves will typically have EDR which is just activated automatically, and is available within the Affinity apps when working with 32-bit format documents. Displays include the 2019 MacBook Pro, 2020 iMac (I think?), Pro Display XDR etc. At one point the third party LG 5K monitors supported it in a public beta, but I'm not sure if that's still the case.

Any modern display with genuine HDR support should be fine—be aware of lower end models that have some kind of "HDR picture processing", they need to actually support an HDR10 signal. If in doubt, look for VESA certified models, e.g. HDR400, HDR600, HDR1000 etc. Looking at those models you've listed, as long as they actually accept an HDR signal they should theoretically work with macOS's HDR compositing.

The bigger issue is making sure you have the right connectivity and OS updates—I noticed you're on Mojave, I believe you need Catalina as a minimum. The RX580 is Polaris architecture so you should be OK there. Use an up-to-date DisplayPort cable (1.4) or HDMI cable (2.0 or higher). Try and use DisplayPort, since HDMI 2.0 has various a and b permutations which affect the maximum chroma sampling and refresh rate you can achieve at 4K HDR etc. I don't have the figures to hand at the moment but I think the RX 580 might only be HDMI 2.0, so just stick with DisplayPort to be safe.

You're on a Mac Pro with a discrete GPU, so you don't need to mess around with dongles—good news there! There are USB-C DisplayPort dongles that support 4K60 HDR etc, and Apple's HDMI adapter will do 4K HDR but I'm not sure about chroma sampling limitations there.

Assuming all your hardware supports it, and you've got Catalina or Big Sur installed, you should have an HDR toggle on your display preferences:

Then in your Affinity app (typically Photo or Designer), make sure your document is in 32-bit and open the 32-bit Preview panel (View>Studio). Enable EDR and then values above 1.0 will be mapped to the extended dynamic range:

And that should be it! Hope that was helpful.

Hey @James Ritson, why doesn’t the Affinity apps for iPad support EDR when most iPads can display EDR? 

[Parky]

I bought a Dell XPS 15 last year (which uses Windows). I discovered recently when using Affinity V2 that I was unable to toggle the 'enable HDR' within the 32bit preview panel as its greyed out. The Dell system specification seems to support HDR but from what I can see (I could be wrong) the display has a luminosity of 500 nits. I don't know what to do to enable the HDR option. Any suggestions? 

 

[Komatös]

Hi @Parky

Try with these steps:

Right click on the desktop
Choose Display settings
Set Use HDR to On

[NotMyFault]

32 bit preview works only for RGB/32 documents, or while in Develop Persona.

[Parky]

3 hours ago, Komatös said:

Hi @Parky

Try with these steps:

Right click on the desktop
Choose Display settings
Set Use HDR to On

Thank you - I'll give that a go. Much appreciated 

[Parky]

11 hours ago, Komatös said:

Hi @Parky

Try with these steps:

Right click on the desktop
Choose Display settings
Set Use HDR to On

Hi - I've tried this and I don't think I can enable HDR for photos. It seems to be enabled for video tho. So I don't know what to do 🤔

[v_kyr]

1 hour ago, Parky said:

I've tried this and I don't think I can enable HDR for photos.

See related and search at the Dell support forums for your specific XPS 15 model and it's series assembled TFT-panel (screen) ...

• XPS 15 7590 OLED | HDR Support

[Parky]

26 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

See related and search at the Dell support forums for your specific XPS 15 model and it's series assembled TFT-panel (screen) ...

• XPS 15 7590 OLED | HDR Support

OK - great thank you 

[Komatös]

@Parky

Did you follow notmyfault's advice?

17 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

32 bit preview works only for RGB/32 documents, or while in Develop Persona.

 

[NotMyFault]

3 minutes ago, Komatös said:

@Parky

Did you follow notmyfault's advice?

 

The post linked by v_ykr unfortunately shows HDR is not supported by the display for regular apps, only for edge browser and video streaming sites

 

dell forum post:

So my advise is not applicable in this specific case.

Any answer to this question? So the laptop can only use HDR on Edge?

Correct.

XPS 15 7590 OLED HDR mode
* HDR mode only works on Microsoft Edge for YouTube/Netflix App
* Windows HD Color Settings =
Stream HDR video Yes (supported)
Play HDR games and apps (not supported)
Use WCG apps (not supported)
DELL-Admin

[Parky]

1 hour ago, NotMyFault said:

The post linked by v_ykr unfortunately shows HDR is not supported by the display for regular apps, only for edge browser and video streaming sites

 

dell forum post:

So my advise is not applicable in this specific case.

Any answer to this question? So the laptop can only use HDR on Edge?

Correct.

XPS 15 7590 OLED HDR mode
* HDR mode only works on Microsoft Edge for YouTube/Netflix App
* Windows HD Color Settings =
Stream HDR video Yes (supported)
Play HDR games and apps (not supported)
Use WCG apps (not supported)
DELL-Admin

Ah thank you @NotMyFault- I missed that advice. Much appreciated for clarifying why enabling HDR won't work with Affinity V2 (due to my monitor)