You should try this if you have an HDR monitor

chaparral · 19 Mar 2021 at 22:17

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

chaparral · 19 Mar 2021 at 23:13

JohnG7 said:
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 just leave HDR on all the time which i find looks fine if you adjust the HDR/SDR brightness balance slider..

chaparral · 20 Mar 2021 at 09:53

Pottsey said:
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.

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:

..

chaparral · 20 Mar 2021 at 10:20

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.

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.

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

chaparral · 20 Mar 2021 at 10:31

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.

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 · 20 Mar 2021 at 11:02

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.

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

chaparral · 20 Mar 2021 at 11:22

billysielu said:
how do you turn on hdr in youtube?

If HDR is enabled in the windows display settings youtube should auto play in HDR (or it does in the edge browser) As long the video supports HDR

Or go to the cog icon and you should be able to choose a resolution with HDR

chaparral · 20 Mar 2021 at 11:28

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.

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