Overview: Tone mapping

Tone mapping adapts a source's brightness representation to the useful range and characteristics of an output.

An HDR source and a viewing display can have different brightness limits. Tone mapping chooses how to retain useful contrast and highlight detail within the output's range, with color handling forming another part of the adaptation.

The fundamentals explain the goal, the curves make the brightness relationship visible, and execution topics locate the processing within an Emby playback path. This organization separates the desired picture behavior from the CPU or GPU mechanism used to produce it.

• Fundamentals
  Tone-mapping fundamentals explain why source and display ranges differ and what HDR adaptation aims to preserve.

• Color and luminance handling
  Color and luminance handling connect brightness adaptation with gamut limits, highlight shape and changing scene content.

• Tone-mapping curves
  Tone-mapping curves specify how source brightness values are transformed across the output range.

• Tone-mapping execution
  Tone-mapping execution locates brightness adaptation within the client or server pipeline and its available processing resources.