Scalable systems for controlling color management comprising varying levels of metadata

1 . A decoder apparatus comprising:

a receiver that receives image data as a bitstream, wherein:

content encoded in the bitstream is produced on a reference display device, characteristics of the reference display device being identified in the bitstream by a set of one or more parameters, and

the image data is associated with corresponding image metadata;

a decoder that decodes the bitstream; and

a determination unit that is configured to:

determine if the image metadata includes a first set of metadata associated with a portion of the image data, wherein the first set of metadata includes a representation of the parameters of the reference display device;

determine if the image metadata includes a second set of metadata associated with video content characteristics of the image data, wherein the second metadata set includes at least a maximum luminance level of the image data; and

determine if the image metadata includes a third set of metadata, wherein the third set of metadata is indicative of ambient light conditions; and

wherein the first set of metadata includes:

a. a white point for the reference display, and

b. three primaries for the reference display, and

wherein determining if the image metadata includes the first set of metadata is independent of determining if the image metadata includes the second set of metadata or the third set of metadata.

2 . The decoder of claim 1 , wherein the first set of metadata, the second set of metadata, and the third set of metadata are received in the bitstream.

3 . The decoder of claim 2 , wherein the first set of metadata, the second set of metadata, and the third set of metadata are separately partitioned in the bitstream.

4 . The decoder of claim 1 , wherein the receiver further receives metadata characterizing ambient light conditions.