5 Best HDR Video Enhancer Tools of 2025 (Tested & Compared)
- Last updated on 2025-05-14
Table Of Content
What is HDR Video?
HDR video, short for High Dynamic Range videos, signifies advanced entertainment that delivers an engaging visual experience marked by vibrant colors, increased contrast, and improved brightness. This technology enables the ability to keep subjects and backgrounds in sharp focus while dynamically adjusting brightness levels. Common HDR standards include HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision and HLG.
HDR vs SDR: What's the Difference?
Even if SDR content is shot in high resolution, it lacks the dynamic range and vivid color reproduction that HDR provides.
HDR significantly enhances your viewing experience by offering greater detail and richer colors, especially in scenes with a high dynamic range. Unlike SDR, which has limited color depth and contrast, HDR provides a more vivid, lifelike image, allowing you to see nuances and details that are often lost in SDR content.
Take a look at the comparison table below:
| Feature | SDR | HDR |
|---|---|---|
| Color Range | Limited | Wide and vivid |
| Contrast Ratio | Lower | Higher, deeper blacks & brighter whites |
| Detail in Shadows/Highlights | Poor | Enhanced |
| Visual Impact | Basic viewing | More immersive and lifelike |
As HDR content becomes increasingly ubiquitous, the demand for HDR playback escalates. While some high-end SDR videos can deliver extremely high picture quality, this still can't match the high contrast offered by HDR.
Why You Need an HDR Video Enhancer?
An HDR video enhancer is a powerful tool that utilizes advanced AI algorithms or manual adjustments to upgrade SDR videos to HDR. This transformation elevates your video’s visual appeal, offering a more lifelike and immersive viewing experience. Here's why you should consider using one:
- Enhance Visual Realism with Deeper Contrast and Color Richness
HDR brings a noticeable enhancement to the visual experience, providing richer colors, deeper contrasts, and more realistic images. HDR enriches the contrast and intricacy of the image, thereby enhancing its overall quality. This makes action scenes more dynamic and landscapes more breathtaking.
- Reveal More Details in Dark and Bright Areas
HDR technology allows viewers to see fine details in both bright and dark areas of the image. For example, in a sunset scene, you can see the vibrant oranges in the sky without losing details in the darker foreground.
- Upgrade Older or Lower-Quality Footage to Meet Modern Display Standards
Older SDR videos can look outdated on modern HDR displays. An HDR enhancer can bring these videos up to today's standards, making them appear sharper and more vibrant.
Top 5 HDR Video Enhancer Software
1. UniFab HDR Upconverter
UniFab HDR Upconverter is the first AI-powered solution for SDR to HDR conversion. It utilizes a vast library of cinematic pictures for training. It intelligently fine-tunes color and luminance to enrich detail, contrast, and dimensionality, rendering videos with heightened realism.
UniFab HDR Upconverter AI
- Supports both HDR10 & Dolby Vision for true Native HDR quality.
- 30-day free trial with full feature access, without watermark.
OS: Windows
Free Trial: 30-day full-feature access, without watermark
Price: $119.99 (Lifetime)
Best For: beginners or semi-professionals
Key Features of UniFab
- Supports both HDR10 and Dolby Vision for true Native HDR quality.
- Support both DCI-P3 and Rec.2020 color spaces for exceptional color accuracy.
- Offers Four Models: Fast, FHD (1080P), QHD, 4K UHD Models to match user preference.
How to Use UniFab HDR Upconverter AI
Step 1: Select 'HDR Upconverter' and Import Video
Open UniFab, select the mode, and then Import your video file into UniFab.
Step 2: Customize Your Video
Choose HDR 10 or Dolby Vision, and select the color space, model, format, and other parameters as required.
Step 3: Start to Process the Video
Click the start button to upgrade videos from SDR to HDR10/Dolby Vision.
2. Topaz Video AI
The Topaz Video AI converts SDR to HDR by “Up Mapping”. This process uses the luminance values within the limited/clamped SDR imagery to “add” values or push more range to create a larger scope of color data, making the result viewable on an HDR screen.
You can find the SDR-to-HDR mode on the upper screen right side of the application. The “Hyperion - HDR (ALPHA)” is the model that does the inverse tone-mapping that increases color depth, contrast and increased peak brightness.
Pros
AI Adjust Exposure: AI Model will intelligently choose the areas to brighten based on the video content.
Clear Output Effect: The brightness adjustment is intuitively noticeable
HDR Identification Support: Capable of displaying HDR indicators on TVs
cons
Video with very muddy and dark imagery may not work so well
The final effect similar to native SDR video
Overall visual saturation is too high
The processing speed is slow, about 14-15hours.
OS: Win/Mac
Price: $299 (Lifetime)
3. Wondershare Filmora
Wondershare Filmora is a video editing software supporting SDR to HDR conversion. Upgrades are visible under BorisFX effects, like the improved split mode function, Denoise effects, etc. What's more, it offers a lot of tools allowing easy customization and editing of the HDR video.
You can choose among the newer options like BCC Optical Diffusion, BCC Warp, and BCC Grads and Tints to upconvert to HDR quality. When exporting, the color space is set at SDR by default.
Pros
Clean, simple, and dark interface, with intuitive icons
Processing the video while displaying a live histogram
The converting speed is fast
Cons
The Brightness will be too high
Some AI tools can't achieve the expected effects.
OS: Win/Mac
Price: $79.99 (Lifetime)
4. Tekno3d
Tekno3d.com aka VISIONPLUSHDR Team is a UHD HDR tracker. This advanced software solution converts SDR media content into stunning HDR format. The converter employs cutting-edge algorithms to analyze SDR content and apply intelligent HDR enhancements, resulting in vivid colors, improved contrast, and enhanced details.
Pros
Achieves Dolby Vision with official tools
Supports options to choose even A.I. Upscaling using Nvidia, AV1 Encoding
Fast processing speed, 1h takes about 40s
Cons
Relatively difficult to use with complicated settings
Higher equipment requirements
Severe color deviation may occur in some modes
OS: Win
Price: $749.99 (1 year)
5. EncodeGUI
EncodeGUI is an open-source and free video encoder that works with AI integration to optimize overall video encoding and decoding functions. It delivers a video transcoding enhanced by AI. This tool not only boasts sophisticated encoding capabilities but also includes various filters like SDR to HDR conversion, frame rate upscaling, noise reduction, and more.
Pros
Supports around 10 formats like MKV, Mp4, FLV, etc
Explore the live-encoding process with a preview option
Retrieve the advanced metadata for the source video
Cons
The SDR to HDR conversion process is complicated and slow
No color-correction or special effect-adding options
No video customization or editing option
No available on Mac
OS: Win
Price: free
Best HDR Video Enhancer Comparison
Feature Comparison Table
| Product | AI-Powered | HDR Formats Supported | Free Trial | Price | Ease of Use | OS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UniFab HDR Upconverter AI | ✅ | HDR10, Dolby Vision | ✅ 30-day free trial for full features, without watermark | $119.99 (Lifetime) | Easy | Windows |
| Topaz Video AI | ✅ | Simulated HDR | ✅ Exports will have a watermark in Trial Mode | $299(Lifetime) | Moderate | Win/Mac |
| Wondershare Filmora | ✅ | Basic HDR Effect | ✅ Exported videos will have a watermark. | $79.99(Lifetime) | Easy | Win/Mac |
| Tekno3D VisionPlusHDR | ❌ | Dolby Vision | ❌ | $749.99 (1 year) | Difficult | Windows |
| EncodeGUI | ✅ | HDR Filter | ✅ | Free (Open-Source) | Difficult | Windows |
Performance Test Summary
I tested the actual effectiveness of these programs:
- UniFab: Best overall HDR conversion with results closest to native HDR10 video, though slightly dim in brightness.
- Topaz: The effectis a bit stiff, causing the red color overflow.
- Wondershare: The brightnessis higher than the original image.
- Tekno3d: It boosts the contrast too much.
- EncodeGUI: Itcaused an overexposure effect.
It can be clearly seen that UniFab has the best effect, which is the closest to the original HDR10 video.
Conclusion
If you're looking for a user-friendly, powerful HDR enhancer with great AI capabilities, UniFab HDR Upconverter is the best choice. It offers a balance of quality, ease of use, and support for Dolby Vision and HDR10, making it suitable for both beginners and semi-professionals. If you need more advanced features and have a higher budget, Tekno3D VisionPlusHDR is an alternative.
FAQs about HDR Video Enhancer
Is HDR Video Better Than 4K?
While 4K UHD offers increased resolution and detail, HDR provides better color and contrast.
HDR can make a video brighter, delivering a higher contrast—or larger color and brightness range—than Standard Dynamic Range (SDR), and is more visually impactful than 4K.
Which is better: HDR10 or Dolby Vision?
The choice between HDR10 and Dolby Vision depends on your devices and personal preferences. HDR10 is widely compatible and commonly used in mainstream content and gaming, offering broad support across various devices. Dolby Vision provides a superior, cinema-like experience with enhanced color and detail but is supported by fewer devices.
What is the best HDR video enhancer?
UniFab HDR Upconverter AI is the best HDR software in 2025. It uses advanced AI to convert SDR to HDR10 or Dolby Vision, supports wide color gamuts like DCI-P3 and Rec.2020, and delivers stunning visual upgrades with deep contrast and vibrant colors. It’s easy to use, compatible with most formats, and optimized for both speed and quality—making it the top choice for professionals and casual users alike.