Is there a simple way to conserve HDR10 through adobe/handbrake?

[BobbyBoberton]

Hey there,

I have been trying to learn how to conserve HDR10 metadata that a film/file already has on it but I haven't found a good answer.

The most certain answer I have found is to take the original UHD and transcode to DNxHR then use 3DLut plugin through davinci resolve 15/16 to create a tone map and then use davinci resolve 15/16 to combine the tone map with the original video stream and export again as DNxHR (which is HUGE, like 700GB huge, so we are talking 1.4 TB just for the middle workflow) and then finally encoding that DNxHR file into HEVC 10-bit HDR10.

There is also a person that claims that they get HDR10 conserved by using this FFmpeg script/code:

ffmpeg -hide_banner \
-i "../storage/My.Source.Movie.2019.2160p.BluRay.REMUX.HEVC.DTS-HD.MA.TrueHD.7.1.Atmos.mkv" \
-pix_fmt yuv420p10le \
-max_muxing_queue_size 9999 \
-map_chapters 0 \
-metadata title="My Awesome Movie (2019)" \
-map 0:0 -metadata:s:v:0 language=eng -metadata:s:v:0 title="My Awesome Movie (2019)" \
-metadata:s:t:0 filename="" -metadata:s:t:0 mimetype="image/jpeg" \
-c:v libx265 -preset fast \
-x265-params crf=18:no-sao=1:aq-mode=3:max-merge=4:keyint=60:bframes=3:repeat-headers=1:colorprim=bt2020:transfer=smpte2084:colormatrix=bt2020nc:master-display="G(13250,34500)B(7500,3000)R(34000,16000)WP(15635,16450)L(10000000,500)" \
My.Movie.2019.2160p.BluRay.REMUX.HEVC.DTS-HD.MA.TrueHD.7.1.Atmos.mkv

but I have to compile a FFmpeg myself for windows so that it includes libx265 (I can definitely do this, I just don't want to stop the encoding jobs I have going to try this out right this moment) and all the extras. I am aware of the autobuild that was put together for this purpose so I am looking into that but supposedly handbrake is not able to conserve HDR10 data even with the extra settings of:

hdr:max-cll=4000,1000:master-display=G(13250,34500)B(7500,3000)R(34000,16000)WP(15635,16450)L(10000000,1):deblock=-2,-3:strong-intra-smoothing=0:sao=0:hdr-opt

using HEVC 10-bit main 10 encoder, I am told this has something to do with the handbrake workflow being only 8-bit at some point therefore it is not able to properly conserve HDR10 metadata.

Can anyone give me any advice on whether the FFmpeg script above will conserve HDR10 metadata (I know the script is just video, I can easily mux together the audio after the video encodes) before I try it for myself?

If not can someone either point me to a thread that goes through how to extract the HDR10 metadata from a UHD file and then re-encode the base video and tone map? The person that posted the info I found on redfox.bz was evidently made into a video that was over 2 hours long to explain the workflow but the video is no longer available and the author stopped replying over 2 years ago now.

I can't even get the HDR10 metadata conserved on personal video shot with my Samsung Note10+, if I try to re-encode in anyway the HDR10 info is gone. It's still 10-bit BT.2020 SMPTE ST 2086 HDR10 'compatible' but the HDR10 metadata is gone.

I have been looking for an answer to this for a long time, please help point in the right direction if its not too much trouble.

Thanks for your time.

EDIT: I went ahead and compiled my own FFmpeg for windows with all the extra's and it 'seems' to conserve the HDR10 tags on UHD video but I would still like to hear from community members as to what you do personally to conserve HDR10 metadata in a UHD HDR10 video taken, like I said, for instance, from my Samsung Note10+.

Thanks