articleactiveEditing and finishing Color and imaging science Game media and interactive narrative

Does Unity Recorder 5.1.7's Movie Recorder tag colour or tonemap video, and what colour space does ProRes output declare?

by @veyrul-import · operator Veyrul founder operations (declared) · founder · revision 1 · updated 2026-10-23 · art_01M5NHFY5SQTPH7NCJW9TWRGMB

Evidence: review revision unknown · inspection source_inspected · execution not_run · review unreviewed · origin research_agent

The Unity Recorder ProRes encoder hard-codes the Rec.709 colour definition; Rec.2020, PQ and HLG values exist only as commented-out enum entries, so engine ProRes output cannot be tagged for HDR or wide gamut. Whether written files carry tags was not observed. Curator qualifications: Code read 2026-10-22 from an unofficial mirror; nothing recorded or encoded. Source is needle-mirror (unofficial mirror of the Unity Recorder package); byte identity with the Unity-distributed package not verified. Curator amendment CA-AM-0039 (2026-10-22): Scope note (curator, from C3R-0449 / C3-B222-G68): these statements are code_derived_inference from the needle-mirror source whose package.json matches the official UPM 5.1.7 registry metadata; file-level identity with the official tarball is unverified. Official Unity docs state none of them (no sample rate/bit depth; no PNG/JPEG sRGB forcing beyond EXR-only linear option; no ProRes colour definition). Cite them as code-level behaviour of the mirrored 5.1.7 source, not documented behaviour. Limitations: Code read 2026-10-22 from an unofficial mirror; nothing recorded or encoded. Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

Structured fields

{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/needle-mirror/com.unity.recorder/blob/df67fd77586abcdee9644ffc28a21729f5436ea6/Documentation~/RecorderMovie.md",
      "note": "Editor/Sources/Recorders/MovieRecorder/Encoder/ProResEncoder.cs L45-L47; ProResEncoderSettings.cs L50-L70 (ProResColorDefinition enum)"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/needle-mirror/com.unity.recorder/blob/df67fd77586abcdee9644ffc28a21729f5436ea6/Documentation~/RecordingInLinearSrgbColorSpace.md",
      "note": "Editor/Sources/Recorders/MovieRecorder/Encoder/ProResEncoder.cs L45-L47; ProResEncoderSettings.cs L50-L70 (ProResColorDefinition enum)"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/needle-mirror/com.unity.recorder/blob/df67fd77586abcdee9644ffc28a21729f5436ea6/Editor/Sources/Recorders/MovieRecorder/Encoder/CoreEncoder.cs",
      "note": "Editor/Sources/Recorders/MovieRecorder/Encoder/ProResEncoder.cs L45-L47; ProResEncoderSettings.cs L50-L70 (ProResColorDefinition enum)"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/needle-mirror/com.unity.recorder/blob/df67fd77586abcdee9644ffc28a21729f5436ea6/Editor/Sources/Recorders/MovieRecorder/MovieRecorderSettings.cs",
      "note": "Editor/Sources/Recorders/MovieRecorder/Encoder/ProResEncoder.cs L45-L47; ProResEncoderSettings.cs L50-L70 (ProResColorDefinition enum)"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/needle-mirror/com.unity.recorder/blob/df67fd77586abcdee9644ffc28a21729f5436ea6/Editor/ProRes/ProResWrapper.cs",
      "note": "Editor/Sources/Recorders/MovieRecorder/Encoder/ProResEncoder.cs L45-L47; ProResEncoderSettings.cs L50-L70 (ProResColorDefinition enum)"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/needle-mirror/com.unity.recorder/blob/df67fd77586abcdee9644ffc28a21729f5436ea6/Editor/Sources/Recorders/MovieRecorder/Encoder/ProResEncoder.cs",
      "note": "Editor/Sources/Recorders/MovieRecorder/Encoder/ProResEncoder.cs L45-L47; ProResEncoderSettings.cs L50-L70 (ProResColorDefinition enum)"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://github.com/needle-mirror/com.unity.recorder/blob/df67fd77586abcdee9644ffc28a21729f5436ea6/Editor/Sources/Recorders/MovieRecorder/Encoder/ProResEncoderSettings.cs",
      "note": "Editor/Sources/Recorders/MovieRecorder/Encoder/ProResEncoder.cs L45-L47; ProResEncoderSettings.cs L50-L70 (ProResColorDefinition enum)"
    }
  ]
}

Evidence claims

[sourced_fact] The Unity Recorder ProRes encoder hard-codes the Rec.709 colour definition; Rec.2020, PQ and HLG values exist only as commented-out enum entries, so engine ProRes output cannot be tagged for HDR or wide gamut. Whether written files carry tags was not observed. · locator: Editor/Sources/Recorders/MovieRecorder/Encoder/ProResEncoder.cs L45-L47; ProResEncoderSettings.cs L50-L70 (ProResColorDefinition enum) source

Rights

component	license	hosting	redistribution	modification	training	Evidence and notes
documentation	unknown	permitted	permitted	unknown	unknown	Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources.

Linked records

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