You should try this if you have an HDR monitor

chaparral

chaparral

chaparral

Caporegime
Joined
27 Nov 2005
Posts
25,292
Location
Guernsey
If you haven't done this already highly worth while doing this to see the difference HDR makes

Run split screen of youtube displaying HDR on one side & non HDR on the other size of the same video

This picture i taken with my mobile phone camera really doesn't show the difference that well which you really see in real life w6eZ2sp.jpg
 
Last edited:
YT HDR does look nice but Windows in general looks a mess with it, it should auto turn on/off loading games so at least that is one thing.
 
I did have but still not ideal, no longer have the G7 (HDR600) so no HDR for me till something decent comes out.

Pacific Rim Uprising on Emby Theater did look nice though movie was crap so did not watch fully.
 
chaparral said:
If you haven't done this already i highly worth while doing to see the difference HDR makes

Run split screen of youtube displaying HDR on my side & non HDR on the other size of the same video

This picture i taken with my mobile phone camera really doesn't show the difference that well which you really see in real life
Click to expand...
How is that a fair comparison? As soon as you turn on HDR the SDR image goes washed out and horrible making it look worse than normal. You are not really seeing the difference between HDR and SDR as that SDR is not real SDR.

HDR is great its just so horrible on windows. Right pain to get working correctly. Games are even worse half the time the HDR goes wrong and looks worse then SDR. Turning on HDR and using the HDR/SDR brightness balance slider does not look fine. It makes SDR a little better but still massively worse then when HDR turned off. Which is why you should leave HDR off when not looking at HDR content.

I also found many HDR games do not work correctly in full screen mode. If you do that you get a washed out HDR. To avoid the horrbile washed out HDR you have to run games in window mode borderless.
 
chaparral said:
I just tried comparing that video in SDR with HDR turned on and off and i don't get a washed out image on my monitor :confused:..
Click to expand...
Try the same with a background wallpaper. I have a dark one with blacks and reds and there is clear noticeable difference when switching between SDR and HDR mode. The slider made it a little better but still the entire SDR image was dull in HDR mode compared to SDR mode. I noticed it a lot in the background wallpaper and while browsing the web. So I leave HDR off now unless using HDR content.
 
Pottsey said:
Try the same with a background wallpaper. I have a dark one with blacks and reds and there is clear noticeable difference when switching between SDR and HDR mode. The slider made it a little better but still the entire SDR image was dull in HDR mode compared to SDR mode. I noticed it a lot in the background wallpaper and while browsing the web. So I leave HDR off now unless using HDR content.
Click to expand...
I have a look again later

Pottsey said:
The slider made it a little better but still the entire SDR image was dull in HDR mode compared to SDR mode.
Click to expand...
I setup my other Non HDR monitor (PG348Q) this morning on my other PC and i couldn't believe how dull & boring SDR looked after using a HDR TV & PC monitor

But i do agree HDR can be far from perfect in a lot of stuff
 
Last edited:
chaparral said:
I have a look again later

I setup my other Non HDR monitor (PG348Q) this morning on my other PC and i couldn't believe how dull & boring SDR looks after using a HDR TV & PC monitor
Click to expand...
Fully agree when it works correctly HDR is better. Its just I am experiencing a lot of problems when HDR is switched on in windows. Fullscreen HDR games have incorrect black levels making them look worse then playing them in window mode or SDR mode and SDR content when HDR is switched on goes extra dull. More dull then what it would be if in SDR mode. Its that bad I cannot stand to use SDR content with HDR switched on. I just cannot get SDR content to look correct unless HDR is switched off.
 
Pottsey said:
Fullscreen HDR games have incorrect black levels making them look worse then playing them in window mode or SDR mode and SDR content when HDR is switched on goes extra dull. More dull then what it would be if in SDR mode. Its that bad I cannot stand to use SDR content with HDR switched on. I just cannot get SDR content to look correct unless HDR is switched off.
Click to expand...
But it can sometimes be hard to know if it the HDR fault

For Example the blacks seem raised in the game Metro Exodus but they where also raised to like a dark grey in SDR on my SDR monitor
As i started playing this game before i own a HDR monitor and i hated the blacks at the start of the game..
 
chaparral said:
But it can sometimes be hard to know if it the HDR fault

For Example the blacks seem raised in the game Metro Exodus but they where also raised to like a dark grey in SDR on my SDR monitor
As i started playing this game before i own a HDR monitor and i hated the blacks at the start of the game..
Click to expand...
It seems to be Microsofts fault with how they use HDR. The problems are way worse in Windows10 then the same games on consoles. I have a night and day difference between the the games in window mode borderless and full screen in regards to the blacks being dark gray in HDR model. Not tried Metro but Division 2 was a good example. HDR Full screen is far worse then HDR window borderless.
 
Pottsey said:
It seems to be Microsofts fault with how they use HDR. The problems are way worse in Windows10 then the same games on consoles. I have a night and day difference between the the games in window mode borderless and full screen in regards to the blacks being dark gray in HDR model. Not tried Metro but Division 2 was a good example. HDR Full screen is far worse then HDR window borderless.
Click to expand...
I know this is far from perfect but what i been doing to get the blacks to look much better in some games is ignore the graph on the right and lower the gamma slider to what you feel is right in the Windows Display Colour Calibration

ZG8Qf3v.png
 
chaparral said:
I know this is far from perfect but what i been doing to get the blacks to look much better in some games is lowering the gamma slider in the Windows Display Colour Calibration
Click to expand...
If you have a wide colour gamut display which I assume you do as you are using HDR you really shouldn't be using that. All you will do is mess up the colours and limit the wide gamut down to conventional gamut.
 
Pottsey said:
If you have a wide colour gamut display which I assume you do as you are using HDR you really shouldn't be using that. All you will do is mess up the colours and limit the wide gamut down to conventional gamut.
Click to expand...
Do you know of any other way to darken the blacks for games that has them raised blacks ?

As i can't find any other thing that works
 
Windows needs proper colour management. So it is used selectively in supported apps/games only.

I noticed after I moved to win10 and latest nvidia drivers, the default colour saturation is massively over saturated which I think is to get people used to over saturation because microsoft cannot be bothered to do it properly.
 
chaparral said:
Do you know of any other way to darken the blacks for games that has them raised blacks ?

As i can't find any other thing that works
Click to expand...
My LG screen has a setting called Black Stabilizer. Default is 50 I prefer 40 myself for deeper blacks its within the monitor menus. If you have Nvidia, display, Adjust Desktop color Settings. gamma default is 1.0. Try 0.9 or 0.80 perhaps. AMD have the same setting though I am unsure where.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom