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When importing an HDR video into Descript, you may notice color issues such as muted or washed-out colors, or in some cases colors that appear overly vivid. This most commonly happens with HDR recordings from iPhones and other devices that record in HDR by default.
Descript’s HDR support is currently in Beta. You may experience slower rendering, exporting, or playback when working with HDR footage while we continue improving performance and color handling.
Descript converts HDR video to SDR using tone mapping so it can be edited and processed consistently alongside standard video. While we aim to preserve the original look of your footage, HDR-to-SDR conversion is not always perfectly accurate, which can result in unexpected color shifts. If your video looks noticeably off after import, and adjusting color settings does not help, we recommend converting the video to SDR before editing. If you continue to see issues, please contact support or reply to an existing request.
Tip: If you regularly record video for Descript, disabling HDR before recording can help avoid color issues altogether.
On iPhone, you can turn off automatic HDR in your camera settings. Many cameras, webcams, and screen recording tools on macOS and Windows also include HDR or “high dynamic range” options that can be disabled before recording.

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How to fix HDR recordings after recording

  1. Right-click your video file in Finder.
  2. Select Encode Selected Video Files.
  3. Choose one of the H.264 options to convert the video to SDR.
  4. Click Continue. A converted copy of the video will be created in the same folder.  Gif showing how to encode an iPhone video on Mac
  5. Import the converted video into Descript. If the original HDR file is already in your project, you can replace the file to keep your existing edits.
  1. Use a video encoding tool to convert the video to SDR. We recommend HandBrake, a free and open-source video transcoder. Learn how to use HandBrake .
  2. When encoding, choose an H.264 preset or format.
  3. Import the converted file into Descript. If you already imported the HDR version, you can replace the file to preserve your edits.