Screen capture + HDR = dim recordings

jinxpad · 29 Dec 2022 at 18:05

So I finally turned on HDR on my PG329Q because they apparently released a firmware update which fixed the auto dimming issues. I was actually pleasantly surprised, despite only being an HDR 600 rated monitor, it actually made a marked the visual quality of my games, at least to me anyway.

Now the only problem that I'm facing is that anytime I do any screen capture either via. AMD relive or even OBS, the videos are extremely dim. I was wondering if there is any setting that I need to change? Or will I just have to up the brightness in post?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

jinxpad · 29 Dec 2022 at 22:21

Meddling-Monk said:
Dim... As in washed out looking? Lacking in colour?

If so, I think that's (part) nature of the beast of HDR. If you're not capturing through something that can capture HDR as well, it does it in a funny way where the extra HDR details is "lost" (as it's supposed to be attached to a different part of the video stream), and only the pixels of the screen and movement is recorded. Hence the washed out look.

If it's screen shots, that should work normally though. Can you confirm it's just video steams suffering this issue?

Here's a quick capture:

Lost Ark - auto HDR

Recorded using AMD ReLive

youtu.be

Even on my SDR monitor the image of the video looks the same, very dim. Compared to captures made when HDR is off:

Lost Ark - Performance issues - 7900xtx + 5900X @ 1440p

Lost Ark performance seems well below what I would expect it to be.

youtu.be

jinxpad · 30 Dec 2022 at 02:44

Thankful for the very useful information. So I guess the non painless way would just be to stick with SDR mode with a calibrated profile for when I want to record gaming or anything like that.

jinxpad · 30 Dec 2022 at 07:59

Yeah, I've never tried to record anything in HDR because my usual settings on windows with always based on a calibrated SDR colour profile.

It's so strange that this is an issue on the software side given the rise of good HDR monitors and the increase usage of TVs as PC monitors such as the LG panels and more recently with the OLED and it's variants in the actual monitor space. I guess if I plan on doing any recording I could just switch back to SDR for that particular content.

It's just a shame that I won't be able to properly capture the HDR content when I use stuff like instant replay Which is sometimes when you get the juiciest gameplay content because it's unexpected.