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I don’t understand HDR. Everything looks dark or dim on PS5.

Astral

Astral

Member
Oct 27, 2017
28,017
I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to HDR setting on the PS5. Every time HDR is on for most of, it makes my games look darker than usual or as if the whole screen is dim. How exactly does it work and what can I do to fix it besides turning it off? I've tried it with FFXIV and KH: MoM and both look darker than they should and it kinda hurts my eyes. I THINK Demon's Souls looks alright but I can't tell. Some parts can look pretty dark. Pretty sure I had this problem with the PS4 too for the games that supported it. Is it my TV or am I adjusting the settings incorrectly?
 
Odesu

Odesu

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,536
Are you 100% sure that your TV enters HDR mode? Some do it automatically and show it with a small icon, some do it automatically and don't show it, some can be switched to HDR and back manually. If you are in a game and turn HDR off your TV should go black for a second and switch to its Non-HDR mode. Maybe the console recognizes your TV as HDR capable, switches to HDR output without your TV doing the same?

Oh, also: Are you sure you are playing games that support HDR? Otherwise you'll be switching to HDR mode (if you can do that manually with your TV) while the game outputs SDR, making everything look fucked up.

Did you do the HDR calibration in the PS5 system settings?
 
striderno9

striderno9

The Fallen
Oct 31, 2017
2,343
New York, NY
From my very limited understanding, it'll make darks look darker and gives games a wider color palette. Not all HDR TVs are the same, some do it worse than others. Also, how it's implemented by the devs is a factor.
 
Venatio

Venatio

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,735
Could be your tv. I have a TCL tv that supports HDR 10 AND Dolby Vision, but the HDR is simply not good, so I leave it off.
 
Fat4all

Fat4all

Woke up, got a money tag, swears a lot
Member
Oct 25, 2017
92,529
here
it's just like jesus says, every tv is different and needs to be rubbed in different ways to make the magic happen
 
Teenage Fansub

Teenage Fansub

Member
May 24, 2019
22,178
LG game mode HDR is dim (at least on LCD). Try standard HDR mode. You can then change your HDMI input mode to computer or laptop or whatever it is to reduce lag a bit.
 
Sordid Plebeian

Sordid Plebeian

Member
Oct 26, 2017
17,359
You can calibrate HDR in your settings, in certain games, and you may need to adjust the picture on your TV if it still doesn't look right
 
rebelcrusader

rebelcrusader

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,833
Your tv peaks at 300 nits which is sdr brightness and has no local dimming


You can mess with settings but you will probably have a better experience in sdr
 
finalflame

finalflame

Product Management
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
8,538
This comes up all the time. You are not going to enjoy HDR unless you have a mid-upper to high end modern TV. 300 nits peak brightness and no local dimming just isn't going to produce good HDR.

You are better off disabling it.
 
LiK

LiK

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,038
Judging from that TV, it might not have the nits required for true HDR.

What does active HDR mean?

Active HDR is LG's algorithm that it uses on their TVs to generate dynamic metadata for HDR10 on the fly. It's not an HDR format, but rather it can be used on any HDR10 content by setting Dynamic Contrast to Low. This would be useful for TVs with sub-optimal peak brightness, such as the TVs you're considering.
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Better off just turning it off. you'll see a major increase in quality cuz bad/fake HDR can ruin the image.
 
CaptainKashup

CaptainKashup

Banned
May 10, 2018
8,313
I know the feeling. My Monitor is supposed to be HDR but all it does is make the white more white while hurting my eyes in the process.
It doesn't seem more vibrant, just more bright and a bit more contrasted
 
Wingfan19

Wingfan19

Layout Designer
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
9,752
Bothell WA
HDR is meant to be used in a dark room (5 nits of light). So most of the calibration settings you see online are for that. Think of how dark a movie theater gets. You'll need to increase the panel brightness or OLED light if you game in a standard lit room.

pswii60 said:
Irrelevant to this thread. That's from a few years back when LG released a firmware update for the B6/C6 OLEDs which dimmed HDR in Game Mode, and was later fixed with a subsequent firmware update.
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I keep seeing this, but my C7 is still darker in HDR Game mode than any other mode and I have latest firmware. Did they not fix this on the 2017 models?
 
gzell60

gzell60

Member
Oct 26, 2017
711
Munich
If your TV has a peak brightness of pretty much SDR content, then it obviously needs to dim all other pixels on screen to create a high dynamic range effect. Basically don't bother right now, turn it off and get a new set with significantly higher peak brightness next time.
 
zombiejames

zombiejames

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,917
The quality of HDR depends on your TV and if you have it set up correctly. It isn't a simple switch you can enable for instant best results, unfortunately.
 
Voytek

Voytek

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,804
I had to turn it off on my PS5. It made PS4 games look awful. I blame my TV though.
 
bitcloudrzr

bitcloudrzr

Member
May 31, 2018
13,893
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CRIMSON-XIII

CRIMSON-XIII

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,173
Chicago, IL
A few things, please let us know what TV you have. The brightness should be set to 50 on the tv and you may have a game mode option that you have to set. Sometimes it needs to be on game mode / HDR game mode to look and feel right. Beyond that, you have to set the PS5 system HDR settings, following the instructions on the screen with the dark and light boxes. It will adjust every game accordingly. Some games like No Mans Sky have HDR oversaturated issues according to claims, on PS5. But you have to set these things correctly, as a standard. And then see if you are experiencing issues.

Your tv may not have a proper HDR mode and or you can also turn HDR off in the PS5 settings i think.
 
Kinggroin

Kinggroin

Self-requested ban
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
6,392
Uranus, get it?!? YOUR. ANUS.
Turn HDR off wherever possible (PS5 should allow this in settings). This TV is incapable of properly displaying an HDR picture, despite the bullshit badge of support.

SDR will look pretty good however. No worries OP.
 
OP
OP
Astral

Astral

Member
Oct 27, 2017
28,017
bitcloudrzr said:
To be blunt, there is no wide colour gamut and the HDR brightness is mediocre so you might as well turn HDR off.
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I checked the advance settings and found color gamut. It's set to wide. I also found a Dynamic Contrast option and set it to High. That seemed to have done the trick. It's a huge difference. There's a Dynamic Color option but I can't really see the difference.
 
Osu 16 Bit

Osu 16 Bit

QA Lead at NetherRealm Studios
Verified
Oct 27, 2017
2,922
Chicago, IL
so my monitor, the ASUS vg289u, apparently isn't "real hdr" but some stuff looks phenomenal. I can tell a massive, obvious difference when I go back and forth between HDR and SDR. HDR looks super bright and vibrant. Games like Miles Morales and Gears 4 are very impressive. SDR looks dull when I go back and compare. But it's also weird and something seems off, like stuff like neon lights, sunlight, or white UI text will be blown out and overly bright. There were areas of Black Ops Cold War where the sun and snow were blinding. I can't find any options to change either. The monitor has every option greyed out when HDR is on and the sliders in games often do nothing. Like the internal Xbox calibrator, the white options literally do nothing and the logo that's supposed to be barely visible never is. I find myself going back and forth because I am never happy, I hate it lol. I also can't tell what "real" hdr is meant to be, so I don't know what is my monitor being crappy and what is just HDR. I have asked around and looked around and nobody seems to know much. Super, super frustratying.
 
LiK

LiK

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,038
Wingfan19 said:
HDR is meant to be used in a dark room (5 nits of light). So most of the calibration settings you see online are for that. Think of how dark a movie theater gets. You'll need to increase the panel brightness or OLED light if you game in a standard lit room.


I keep seeing this, but my C7 is still darker in HDR Game mode than any other mode and I have latest firmware. Did they not fix this on the 2017 models?
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B7 here looks fine to me. I don't really notice it being dimmer in games. Maxed out OLED light and Brightness is 80, iirc and everything still looks plenty bright for me. And I usually play with lights on.
 
Footos22

Footos22

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,769
That TV has "hdr" just as a selling point. Isn't even close to proper hdr. I fell into that trap with my old Samsung. It's bs. Turn it off. You'll have a much better picture all your doing is sticking an hdr effect on everything. Mom and ff14 don't even support hdr in the first place.
 
Wingfan19

Wingfan19

Layout Designer
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
9,752
Bothell WA
LiK said:
B7 here looks fine to me. I don't really notice it being dimmer in games. Maxed out OLED light and Brightness is 80, iirc and everything still looks plenty bright for me. And I usually play with lights on.
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Oh, you have your brightness turned up to 80, that's probably why. I kept mine at 50. However, there is a vast difference in brightness between HDR Standard and HDR Game with all settings exactly the same for each. It's a weird behind the scenes thing LG did which is really stupid.
 
Transistor

Transistor

The Walnut King
Administrator
Oct 25, 2017
37,119
Washington, D.C.
dedge said:
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Looks like HDR isn't strong on this TV, I would probably turn it off.
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Yeah, unfortunately HDR just isn't good on this tv. Maybe if your room is pitch black, but even then. I would just recommend turning HDR off
 
Pargon

Pargon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,989
finalflame said:
This comes up all the time. You are not going to enjoy HDR unless you have a mid-upper to high end modern TV. 300 nits peak brightness and no local dimming just isn't going to produce good HDR.

You are better off disabling it.
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It's not just that.
The SDR spec intends for content to be viewed at 100 nits brightness, but this is not enforced and most HDR TVs are capable of displaying it at 5× that brightness - or more.
In comparison, the HDR spec is designed to display content at its intended brightness level, and most displays do not even reach 1/5 of the maximum supported brightness - so they do not have the ability to increase its brightness without compressing the dynamic range.

This means that many people end up watching SDR out-of-spec and a lot brighter than intended, while HDR content is forced in-spec (or closer to it) and appears much darker.
If you compare a calibrated SDR image to an HDR one, the HDR image is generally going to be brighter - though it's often that there are elements of the picture which are brighter, rather than the entire image.
In a dark room - as HDR is intended to be viewed - a high average picture brightness can be uncomfortable to watch, so a lot of content does not raise the average screen brightness significantly above SDR levels.

I think a lot of people are going to prefer the look of high-brightness SDR to an HDR image.
And many HDR TVs are capable of displaying SDR images with much more vivid/saturated colors than HDR too.
Again: it's not as the content was intended to be viewed, but many do not care about that and just want a bright vibrant image.
 
LiK

LiK

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,038
Wingfan19 said:
Oh, you have your brightness turned up to 80, that's probably why. I kept mine at 50. However, there is a vast difference in brightness between HDR Standard and HDR Game with all settings exactly the same for each. It's a weird behind the scenes thing LG did which is really stupid.
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Yea, it's weird so I compensated by brightening it up. There's also another setting I forget what its called that I set to High and it matched the Cinema mode for me in colors as well. Since I game more than watch movies on it, I think just matching the other modes is good enough. No real complaints here aside from the screen auto-dimming when it thinks nothing is going on. I hate that I can't turn it off like if I'm in the menus for a while.
 
SRTtoZ

SRTtoZ

Member
Dec 8, 2017
4,624
Make sure you adjust your TV settings and up your brightness and all that while in HDR mode. If you changed settings when in SDR mode it doesn't transfer to HDR mode so you need to re-set them.
 
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