HDR Monitor too bright

[homerdog]

I recently got an AOC Q27G3XMN, which is an HDR LCD with local dimming. It works well and the HDR picture is stunning. In fact it's beyond stunning. It is so bright it hurts my eyeballs.

I downloaded the Windows HDR calibration tool and experimented with capping the brightness at different levels. At night even capping at 400 nits is a bit painful after a while. I tried capping at 200 nits (the minimum) but HDR content starts to look odd with that. Am I the only one with this problem? For now I've turned off HDR entirely.

It's not a problem in SDR content since there's a slider in Windows to turn SDR brightness down. Colors get desaturated (subjective observation) but at least it's not painful.

 

[homerdog]

 

[xz321zx]

100-200 nit can quickly turn advantageous with something like plasma or properly set up CRT ( ultra-fast retrace like analog TV) otherwise nits make flicker-sensitivity/ fusion-threshold spike.

 

[homerdog]

100-200 nit can quickly turn advantageous with something like plasma or properly set up CRT ( ultra-fast retrace like analog TV) otherwise nits make flicker-sensitivity/ fusion-threshold spike.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Low nits makes flicker worse?

Right now I've turned on HDR with 400nits cap for full window and details. It's usable right now with daylight in the room. I'll try a 200nit/200nit cap tonight and see how it goes.

 

[homerdog]

I have found my salvation in RTX HDR. The Windows Auto HDR function was making my game (Persona 5 Royal) way too bright, especially in the menus. RTX HDR doesn't have this problem, and I can specifically limit the game to a certain peak brightness in the new NVIDIA App. Though even at 1000nits it's much more bearable than the Windows Auto HDR was at 400.

It was a PITA to get RTX HDR working. I had to plug my 2nd monitor into the IGP and then it still gave me errors saying to turn off DSR and Image Scaling even though they were off. A clean driver reinstall fixed that.

 

[Davros]

Does rtx hdr not support dsr and image scaling ?

 

[homerdog]

Does rtx hdr not support dsr and image scaling ?

The options explicitly say it doesn't. But right now the option isn't greyed out for me and I have some DSR factors enabled. Maybe you just can't use them at the same time.

 

[Malo]

So to clarify, is this over-brightness occurring when you're trying to use Windows Auto HDR? What about real HDR content?

 

[homerdog]

So to clarify, is this over-brightness occurring when you're trying to use Windows Auto HDR? What about real HDR content?

Not too sure about native HDR content. I'm not playing any games that have native HDR. I tried some HDR video on youtube and in the daytime scenes it is way too bright at night.

RTX HDR is better than Auto HDR in this regard, but it's all too bright for me at night. I know I said RTX HDR was the solution but after a while I couldn't take it.

 

[arandomguy]

Auto HDR and RTX HDR are supposed to be used on SDR content to change them into HDR. You aren't supposed to be applying them content that is already HDR.

 

[homerdog]

Auto HDR and RTX HDR are supposed to be used on SDR content to change them into HDR. You aren't supposed to be applying them content that is already HDR.

I know. I'm using it on a game that doesn't support HDR.

BTW I got RTX HDR and DSR working together just fine. I had to change my desktop resolution to the DSR resolution and use borderless windowed mode.

 

[pharma]

Not too sure about native HDR content. I'm not playing any games that have native HDR. I tried some HDR video on youtube and in the daytime scenes it is way too bright at night.

RTX HDR is better than Auto HDR in this regard, but it's all too bright for me at night. I know I said RTX HDR was the solution but after a while I couldn't take it.

Out of curiosity have you tried Dynamic Vibrance with RTX HDR to see whether it makes a difference?

RTX HDR and RTX Dynamic Vibrance use AI to dramatically improve the look of thousands of games

The AI-powered RTX HDR and RTX Dynamic Vibrance breathe new life into thousands of games, with impressive results. Both are part of the new NVIDIA App.

www.tweaktown.com

 

[Malo]

Does something like this look normal HDR for you? Or is it insanely bright and washed out?

 

[homerdog]

Out of curiosity have you tried Dynamic Vibrance with RTX HDR to see whether it makes a difference?

RTX HDR and RTX Dynamic Vibrance use AI to dramatically improve the look of thousands of games

The AI-powered RTX HDR and RTX Dynamic Vibrance breathe new life into thousands of games, with impressive results. Both are part of the new NVIDIA App.

www.tweaktown.com

I will try that.

I just loaded up Hellblade 2 and it seems my problem is only with non-HDR games. This game operates like I would expect. There is huge dynamic range but the menus and stuff aren't blindingly bright. Just things like the sun, light sources, and specular highlights are bright. Frankly it looks absolutely amazing.

 

[orangpelupa]

try to not lower the cap in the HDR calibration tool, and just calibrate it properly to your monitor spec.

then try to change the brightness slider in windows 11 settings to the lowest. i think its buried inside the HDR submenu (you need to click the tiny HDR text in the same row as the HDR toggle)

if still too bright, try combine that with lower brightness in monitor OSD

 

[homerdog]

try to not lower the cap in the HDR calibration tool, and just calibrate it properly to your monitor spec.

then try to change the brightness slider in windows 11 settings to the lowest. i think its buried inside the HDR submenu (you need to click the tiny HDR text in the same row as the HDR toggle)

if still too bright, try combine that with lower brightness in monitor OSD

That's exactly what I've done. It's fine. I get the benefit of proper HDR in games that support it and I don't get melted by 1000nit inventory screens in games that don't. I will stay clear or Auto-HDR and RTX HDR at night. During the day RTX HDR is usable but not at night.

 

[homerdog]

Does something like this look normal HDR for you? Or is it insanely bright and washed out?

It looks normal.

Wait I think we're in the wrong thread

 

[Malo]

Wait I think we're in the wrong thread

uhh yeah, fixed

 

[Malo]

It looks normal.

So there's nothing wrong with the HDR capabilities of the monitor then.

 

[homerdog]

So there's nothing wrong with the HDR capabilities of the monitor then.

Yes, there is nothing wrong with the monitor. Just too bright when using stuff that converts SDR content into HDR. I made this thread because I was confused since in HDR mode there are no brightness or color settings that function on the monitor. It took me a while to makes sense of that.