HDR settings uniformity is much needed

[Cyan]

after 5 to 6 years using HDR display only with HDR enabled like 99,9% of the time, and now that I've had the AW2523HF for about a month, which isn't HDR certified but has HDR but I don't bother using it....

The main difference I notice is that using SDR the contrast feels more like the bad shadowing created by games on Ultra settings using the most "advanced" AO in the past. The contrast, especially in dark zones, looks bad.

HDR looks better overall. That being said, I can enable HDR on the AW2523HF but I prefer not to, it adds a lot of hassle for certain things like taking screengrabs and the HDR image on this particular monitor isn't that great to begin with, so SDR is the way to go depending on the screen.

 

[homerdog]

HDR looks so good when it works though. I didn’t realize how flat SDR looks in comparison. I’m really questioning the need for super bright displays though. Even at 500 nits I find myself squinting at highlights. Can’t imagine why we need 1000 or god forbid 10000 nit monitors.

100% agreed. My monitor is rated for 1000nits and in practice I think it goes even higher. It is devastating when a bright flash happens in games. 400nits is even too much in a dark room. Which is the lowest some games will allow me to go while keeping HDR on. Maybe 500+nits is okay for a television that is a 10ft away, but not for a monitor in your face.

All that said when the HDR is done right it is transformational. Like when I saw an HDTV for the first time at a state fair.

Edit somehow didn't notice trinibwoy's post was a couple pages back when I replied to it.

 

[Scott_Arm]

after 5 to 6 years using HDR display only with HDR enabled like 99,9% of the time, and now that I've had the AW2523HF which isn't HDR certified but has HDR but I don't bother using it....

The main difference I notice is that using SDR the contrast feels more like the bad shadowing created by games on Ultra settings using the most "advanced" AO in the past. The contrast, especially in dark zones, looks bad.

HDR looks better overall. That being said, I can enable HDR on the AW2523HF but I prefer not to, it adds a lot of hassle for certain things like taking screengrabs and the image on this particular monitor isn't that great to begin with, so SDR is the way to go depending on the screen.

That display doesn't have local dimming, so it can't really do HDR. It's an IPS with pretty standard contrast for that panel type at a little more than 1000:1. It won't be the best in really dark games. It has a slightly wide gamut, so finding a way to clamp that will help a bit with the image. Rtings has an icc file for it, but that won't work with fullscreen games. You may need to adjust the RGB settings a bit. They used 100-98-95 for R-G-B. That'll help get the colour temperature correct. I also wouldn't crank up the brightness because on IPS screens you'll typically see the backlight glowing. Turn it down to something reasonable, maybe 50 or slightly higher.

 

[Cyan]

That display doesn't have local dimming, so it can't really do HDR. It's an IPS with pretty standard contrast for that panel type at a little more than 1000:1. It won't be the best in really dark games. It has a slightly wide gamut, so finding a way to clamp that will help a bit with the image. Rtings has an icc file for it, but that won't work with fullscreen games. You may need to adjust the RGB settings a bit. They used 100-98-95 for R-G-B. That'll help get the colour temperature correct. I also wouldn't crank up the brightness because on IPS screens you'll typically see the backlight glowing. Turn it down to something reasonable, maybe 50 or slightly higher.

thanks! Applied those settings and downloaded the ICC profile, but only for SDR. Looks good. Tested Shadow of the Tomb Raider for a few minutes and I can't complain tbh

I also enabled HDR and yes, the colours look much more intense, the brightness too, but dark areas are meh, still better than SDR if the monitor had a decent contrast but this one doesn't. I've had a i7-7700-HQ laptop with a 1050Ti 4GB in the past and it also had an IPS panel, the contrast was bad too... A 4K TV I have features much much better contrast, but other than that it's too much of a screen for my PC, and me...

By Fullscreen do you mean Exclusive Fullscreen or Borderless FullScreen? I use borderless on all the games or Windowed, I don't like exclusive fullscreen that much.

How can you clamp the colour gamut? I wouldn't mind playing using HDR as long as the colours look fine at least. On SDR mode this monitor has nice colours, not as vibrant as in HDR mode but really solidly good.

 

[Scott_Arm]

thanks! Applied those settings and downloaded the ICC profile, but only for SDR. Looks good. Tested Shadow of the Tomb Raider for a few minutes and I can't complain tbh

I also enabled HDR and yes, the colours look much more intense, the brightness too, but dark areas are meh, still better than SDR if the monitor had a decent contrast but this one doesn't. I've had a i7-7700-HQ laptop with a 1050Ti 4GB in the past and it also had an IPS panel, the contrast was bad too... A 4K TV I have features much much better contrast, but other than that it's too much of a screen for my PC, and me...

By Fullscreen do you mean Exclusive Fullscreen or Borderless FullScreen? I use borderless on all the games or Windowed, I don't like exclusive fullscreen that much.

How can you clamp the colour gamut? I wouldn't mind playing using HDR as long as the colours look fine at least. On SDR mode this monitor has nice colours, not as vibrant as in HDR mode but really solidly good.

I would not use HDR. The monitor is not really HDR at all. It doesn't get bright enough for highlights and it has no local dimming. The max contrast is around 1000:1, which is not HDR at all. Turning on HDR is just going to look broken. Better to get a proper SDR experience.

An icc profile may work in borderless/windowed fullscreen, but probably not. Definitely not the exclusive fullscreen, even though exclusive fullscreen doesn't truly exist anymore. Most games bypass the window composition which would apply the colour correction from the icc.

In terms of an srgb clamp, there's a way to do it in AMD drivers. Nvidia requires a tool, novideo_srgb. For intel I have no idea.

 

[pcchen]

It'd be nicer if Windows handles HDR better. For example, many monitors do not show SDR contents well in HDR mode, so it's generally not recommended to turn HDR on all the time (some monitors are better but some are very bad). However, this means whenever you want to use HDR you need to manually turn it on. Fortunately now there's a keyboard shortcut to do so (windows+alt+B) but it's not ideal.
Ideally monitors should be able to handle all contents properly with HDR on. The problem seems to be that Windows can't output SDR sRGB content with HDR in mind, thus causing many SDR contents to be less bright or less saturated with HDR on. I don't know if this is a strictly Windows problem or maybe both, but I think there really should be a better solution.

 

[RobertR1]

It'd be nicer if Windows handles HDR better. For example, many monitors do not show SDR contents well in HDR mode, so it's generally not recommended to turn HDR on all the time (some monitors are better but some are very bad). However, this means whenever you want to use HDR you need to manually turn it on. Fortunately now there's a keyboard shortcut to do so (windows+alt+B) but it's not ideal.
Ideally monitors should be able to handle all contents properly with HDR on. The problem seems to be that Windows can't output SDR sRGB content with HDR in mind, thus causing many SDR contents to be less bright or less saturated with HDR on. I don't know if this is a strictly Windows problem or maybe both, but I think there really should be a better solution.

Streaming devices like Apple TV for example have a feature called match dynamic range. When hdr is detected it switches the panel to hdr. That’s what windows needs.

Also having to download the hdr calibration app which is essential is a bit clowny. It should be native to the os. Shows that hdr is a tack on to windows thus it behaves the way it does.