Final cut pro codec setting for youtube - HDR video

In that case it's an issue with Youtube in your area, or something specific about the version of MacOS or Safari combined with Youtube.

Check if you can play a commercial HDR video. On Youtube query on "HDR Channel" plus "Dolby Vision", and play some of those. If Safari doesn't work, try Firefox. If it works, the Stats for Nerds output will show PQ or HLG, plus it should be visibly similar to local Quicktime playback.

Today I tried several commercial Youtube HDR HLG Dolby Vision videos on Safari 18.0, Sequoia 15.0 on an M1 Ultra Mac Studio and with gigabit fiber. It just didn't work. There is something wrong with Safari 18.0 and Youtube. Firefox (desktop version) worked.

All those combinations worked on Vimeo. This illustrates that HDR distribution on Youtube is just not mature and reliable on all platforms. There is nothing you can do about this, except switch to Vimeo.

A few years ago Youtube would not play at 4k in Safari, but would play in Firefox or Chrome. I think Youtube required the VP9 codec for the higher res material and Safari at that time did not support VP9.

It's conceivable that Youtube might be moving some of the HDR content to require the AV1 codec. I'm not sure Safari supports that but Firefox does. In some cases you can request AV1 by going to this page (in Firefox) and selecting "Always prefer AV1." The options appear in MacOS Firefox but not Safari. For other platforms and browsers, you'll have to test that. https://www.youtube.com/account_playback

If you want HDR, you need to work in a wide-gamut project: Use wide-gamut HDR color processing in Final Cut Pro for Mac - Apple Support

Then export from FCP: Export HDR files in Final Cut Pro for Mac - Apple Support

Here's the YouTube help page for submitting HDR: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7126552?hl=en#zippy=%2Chdr-video-file-encoding

The FCP library needs to be wide gamut. The project color space should be Wide Gamut HDR - Rec. 2020 HLG.

Grade it with those settings in place. How it's seen during local playback in Quicktime will depend on your physical monitor and the MacOS color profile for that monitor.

For the XDR Pro display, Apple Studio display, and all recent MacBook Pros with Liquid Retina or similar displays, in MacOS System Settings>Displays>Preset, select the one that says something like Apple Display P3-600 nits or Apple XDR Display (P3-1600 nits). If it's an older display, it might only say "Color LCD", etc, in which case it won't look as good.

When you export, as a first attempt use the built-in FCP preset File>Share>Export File>Settings, Format: Computer, Video Codec: HEVC (10-bit, HLG, Dolby Vision 8.4), Resolution: (4k or as preferred). Color Space should automatically show Wide Gamut - Rec. 2020 HLG.

Export that, upload to Youtube, wait for it to fully process -- depending on various factors this could take a while. Then stream that video from your Mac. On either Safari or Firefox it should normally show a little red "HDR" tag over the gear icon at bottom right of the playback window.

However I just tested it from two different machines, and Youtube is not working right today with user-uploaded Dolby Vision HDR HLG material (at least from desktop Safari 18.0). Or maybe the Content Distribution Network (CDN) that I connect to isn't working. I have seen this several times before. Vimeo is much more reliable at HDR playback than Youtube.

You can right-click on the Youtube playback window from a desktop browser and select "Stats for Nerds." If it says "Color bt709 / bt709", then Youtube is not properly identifying the Rec. 2020 HLG metadata, or else when the client machine handshakes it doesn't like something about your client config. It should say "Color arib-std-b67 (HLG) / bt2020."

I tested some Rec.2020 HLG Dolby Vision clips I had previously uploaded to Youtube and which worked fine before. Today they are not working (using desktop Safari 18.0). Today the same clips on Vimeo work fine and display in Safari as HLG HDR.

Some other commercial HLG HDR test files work OK on Youtube. There is something messed up on the Youtube's servers right now, or it's some incompatibility with Safari. I got it to work a few times using Firefox 130.0.1, but it wasn't reliable and tended to fall back to Rec.709 streaming playback.

This is an example of how HDR distribution is still quite immature and unreliable. It's not practical to have to tell your viewing audience to try specific browsers, look at Youtube debug info, etc.

Youtube re-encodes all uploads, whether from a solo person or a large content producer. You can see that by right-clicking on "Stats for Nerds" and examining the codecs. As of today, I can see HDR HLG Dolby Vision videos I exported from FCP and uploaded to Youtube -- IF using Safari 18.0 on Sonoma 14.7. If using Safari 18.0 on Sequoia 15.0, it doesn't work. However, I can use Firefox 130.0.1 on Sequoia 15.0, and that works.

It is easy to see the problem by right-clicking on MacOS Safari Youtube playback, picking "Stats for Nerds", and examining the "color" attribute. On Sonoma 14.7 and Safari 18.0 it says (HLG) / bt2020. On Sequoia 15.0 and Safari 18.0, it says bt709 / bt709. Safari 18.0 on Sequoia 15.0 is not handshaking with Youtube to obtain the HDR HLG/BT2020 version. The same versions and same streamed file work OK on Sonoma 14.7.

HDR/HLG playback using the same file works fine on Vimeo -- with both MacOS versions. It's apparently an issue with Safari 18.0 on Sequoia 15.0 and Youtube.

AFAIK youtube keeps only big $$ players' uploads as is, and re-encodes average joe uploads as it currently likes no matter what.

As described in my Sept 28 post, you need to use a Rec.2020 HLG project and export using FCP preset File>Share>Export File>Settings, Format: Computer, Video Codec: HEVC (10-bit, HLG, Dolby Vision 8.4). See attached.

Rendering is not exporting. Rendering is used by the application primarily to make playback easier, or to let the editor see the finished look of the project. Or has nothing to do directly with how you export.