I wasn't a believer in HDR until I tried it

[mikehaggar]

UK27 series? Or maybe more higher end?

I rock the UK27850, it's just perfect, amazing monitor, USB-C, 90deg pivot, 4K, FreeSync, I would suggest it to anyone with consoles and a USB-C laptop.

Unfortunately though, monitors are far, far behind TVs in HDR. It supports it, but the peak brightness is too low for it to be amazing. Getting a monitor that has decent HDR is incredibly expensive for now.

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Fron my extensive research, monitors, even the high end £1000+ ones, don't do HDR as well as the high end OLED TVs.

I don't really understand why there is such such a dichotomy between monitors and TVs when it comes to this technology?

For me that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make and I'm already used to it. Ever since I first learned about Black Levels as a teen, I've always had a habit of turning down the backlight of my TV, especially at night.

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Most monitors suck for HDR gaming right now apart from a few that have FALD and are expensive as hell. It's straight up gonna cost less to buy a much much better 48" OLED this year than a high end gaming monitor that's how stupid the pricing is in the monitor market for high end HDR implementation.

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I have the LG 27UL600. Disappointing to learn that HDR in monitors (and assuming the one I have as well) is not great. However, overall I'm quite happy with the monitor. Like I said, I needed a 4K monitor for work due to resolution (HDR is irrelevant), so no issues there.;

I keep coming really close to buying the LG C9 OLED that everyone here is always raving about, but it's kind of hard to justify spending the money as I wouldn't hook up any of my consoles or PC to it (it would go in the living room) and we would be feeding it so little 4K content.

 

[P40L0]

I absolutely adore hdr but holy hell as a migraine sufferer sometimes the tv feels like it's burning my retinas out and I have to turn it off.

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Change TV preset, and set it up correctly in-game.
It shouldn't do that.

 

[Skyfireblaze]

I'm holding out hope that true, bright HDR displays become affordable. The problem is that it requires a physically beefy power supply, heat sinks and/or fans to power and cool all that light output. Unless they come out with some magically efficient light source. The fact the Vizio Quantum X can get close to 3000 nits and got under $1300 for a 65" model gives me a little hope.

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Yeah I get why they are expensive but with how little TVs are used in my household I just can't justify spending more than 500€ on one and even that stretches it. Hopefully it all trickles down eventually.

 

[Fancy Clown]

Yeah I've been replaying some Naughty Dog games on my new tv (4k & HDR but not OLED) and I've been toggling HDR on and off and marveling how huge the difference is.

 

[dedge]

I highly recommend Shadow of the Tomb Raider for HDR, coming out of some of the caves from dark to light looks absolutely stunning (among many other areas in the game)

 

[Midgarian]

I keep coming really close to buying the LG C9 OLED that everyone here is always raving about, but it's kind of hard to justify spending the money as I wouldn't hook up any of my consoles or PC to it (it would go in the living room) and we would be feeding it so little 4K content.

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This is what is going to be problematic for me when it comes to purchasing one.

My PC is in its own dedicated room, and I've moved my PS4 there as well to take advantage of the 1440p fast motion monitor.

A 2160p OLED TV would make most sense to go to my bedroom to replace my 1080p LED TV (I still live with my parents, so living room is out of the question :P) as it wouldn't comfortably fit in my PC room.

But then that brings up the question of moving my PC to my bedroom, otherwise it would feel like a waste to not be feeding content from the PC to the TV.

I'm holding out hope that true, bright HDR displays become affordable. The problem is that it requires a physically beefy power supply, heat sinks and/or fans to power and cool all that light output. Unless they come out with some magically efficient light source. The fact the Vizio Quantum X can get close to 3000 nits and got under $1300 for a 65" model gives me a little hope.

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While I'm in the OLED camp for my future purchase, the pro-nits argument never totally leaves my heart.

 

[Rover_]

Your TV is a little low on nits levels. It also has no local dimming that is basically a must for LEDs with HDR, and no support for wide color gamut.

Samsung KU6300 Review (UN40KU6300, UN43KU6300, UN50KU6300, UN55KU6300, UN60KU6300, UN65KU6300, UN70KU6300)

The 4k Samsung KU6300 Series UHD LED TV doesn't have a stellar picture quality but is good enough for most content. It supports an HDR input, but it doesn't have...

www.rtings.com

edited because I linked the wrong TV lol sorry

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It nothing you are doing wrong. Your TV is just not capable of a wide color gamut.
RTings review is here.

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thank you both, i'm gonna look around :)

 

[Ferrs]

I keep coming really close to buying the LG C9 OLED that everyone here is always raving about, but it's kind of hard to justify spending the money as I wouldn't hook up any of my consoles or PC to it (it would go in the living room) and we would be feeding it so little 4K content.

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Yeah there is really no point if you're not gonna use it for 4K HDR content (be consoles or movies or streaming platforms).

I still use my C8 for cable TV but with that it's just a random big TV, doesn't have anything that makes that content shine.

 

[severianb]

thank you both, i'm gonna look around :)

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If you can, you might just want to wait a bit. I feel we are kind of in a "in-between" zone for gaming TVs. This is the first year that almost every manufacturer has a HDMI 2.1 set. HDMI 2.1 video cards and consoles will be out by the end of the year. Places like RTings.com, Digital Foundry and early adopters will finally be able to torture test this stuff. Bugs will be worked out. Firmware will be updated. Game studios will get better tools for making HDR great. I suspect the end of 2020 or sometime in 2021 will be a great time to get a nice HDR TV.

 

[Cerulean_skylark]

Change TV preset, and set it up correctly in-game.
It shouldn't do that.

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I mean, I know how to config TV's and games. That doesn't really do much for my body and brain's photosensitivity response to the bigger colour and brightness range... I'm just saying I love it and wish it wasn't so hard on me during periods of photosensitivity that I don't get with standard range.

 

[Rover_]

If you can, you might just want to wait a bit. I feel we are kind of in a "in-between" zone for gaming TVs. This is the first year that almost every manufacturer has a HDMI 2.1 set. HDMI 2.1 video cards and consoles will be out by the end of the year. Places like RTings.com, Digital Foundry and early adopters will finally be able to torture test this stuff. Bugs will be worked out. Firmware will be updated. Game studios will get better tools for making HDR great. I suspect the end of 2020 or sometime in 2021 will be a great time to get a nice HDR TV.

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sure, i'm not gonna buy another one for at least 2 years, have to buy ps5 first. just gonna try to calibrate my with the best image as possible.

 

[P40L0]

I mean, I know how to config TV's and games. That doesn't really do much for my body and brain's photosensitivity response to the bigger colour and brightness range... I'm just saying I love it and wish it wasn't so hard on me during periods of photosensitivity that I don't get with standard range.

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Sorry, didn't want to undermine you.
It's just that very often default HDR presets are unnecessarily super bright and with "vivid", totally oversaturated colors, to look good in shops and direct comparison with other TVs.
Just changing presets to something like "Cinema/Movie" or "HDR Cinema/Movie" will be more accurate in their EOTF luminance curve (also resulting in a lower average nits) with also warmer color and white temperatures, and less eye strain in dark room viewing overall.

This may help.

 

[Cats_Schrodinger]

I have the LG 27UL600. Disappointing to learn that HDR in monitors (and assuming the one I have as well) is not great. However, overall I'm quite happy with the monitor. Like I said, I needed a 4K monitor for work due to resolution (HDR is irrelevant), so no issues there.;

I keep coming really close to buying the LG C9 OLED that everyone here is always raving about, but it's kind of hard to justify spending the money as I wouldn't hook up any of my consoles or PC to it (it would go in the living room) and we would be feeding it so little 4K content.

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Exactly, I bought it knowing full well that HDR is not a strong point, nevertheless it's an amazing monitor. I could easily suggest it to anyone who wants to game but also uses it for work. Amazing bang for the buck.

 

[mdf/markus]

What's a bigger improvement HDR or high refresh rate / VRR?

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I'd also pick high refresh rate/VRR.

Doom Eternal at 120fps & GSync is my current showcase game when friends want to check out my OLED.

 

[Oh Hi Mark]

Yeah I've been replaying some Naughty Dog games on my new tv (4k & HDR but not OLED) and I've been toggling HDR on and off and marveling how huge the difference is.

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So should I just leave on HDR all the time? Or is it different for games and movies. I have no clue tbf

 

[Fancy Clown]

So should I just leave on HDR all the time? Or is it different for games and movies. I have no clue tbf

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The PS4 at least does it automatically, it asks if I want to use HDR for a game when I boot it up the first time, but then I can toggle it off and on in the options for the game. So test what it looks like with HDR on and off and then go with whatever looks better. So far everything I've tested looks much better with HDR on my tv.

 

[shadowsdarknes]

I really want a 30 inch 4k OLED 120 HZ monitor with HDR.

But for practical pricing purposes, it's essentially non existent. Yet I can achieve this with a TV. Ugh.

 

[vivftp]

I had a 900E and I loved it. Best TV I had personally ever owned. It was my first HDR TV so I could see the improvements but I was never "blown away" so to speak. I bought a 950G last month and it's HDR performance is a big improvement. More than I anticipated honestly.

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Glad to hear I can expect noticeable improvements when I upgrade next year 😃

 

[AtomicShroom]

You haven't truly experienced HDR until something has made you literally squint from the glare. It's glorious!

 

[ThreepQuest64]

I would like to "convert", too, but I can't afford a TV with proper (hardware) HDR capabilities. My TV only do HDR on the software side and has no dimming zones or OLEDs or even a true 10 bit panel so the picture only looks different with HDR enabled. And the cheaper models with local dimming zones seem to be too much of a compromise for an upgrade over my completely well-working TV.

Maybe when OLED with HDR becomes much more affordable like about 600EUR I can stop being a non-believer as well (:

 

[EvilBoris]

Yeah I've been replaying some Naughty Dog games on my new tv (4k & HDR but not OLED) and I've been toggling HDR on and off and marveling how huge the difference is.

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I've been playing TLOU on PS4 and have been pretty impressed by how good it can look. It wasn't really made with it in mind (and can sometimes make the game hard to play unfortunately) I'm really looking forward to 2 now.

 

[Lump]

There's a lot of great HDR out there. There's also a ton of bad HDR out there because it takes real effort to do it right - you can't just flip an "HDR On" button when making games or editing video to get it right (no matter what Disney+ tries to tell its content creators).

 

[EvilBoris]

I dunno, I haven't been that impressed with HDR implementation. In most cases I've seen on PS4, it makes the image more washed out.

(Uncharted 4 and RDR2 most recently I played)

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Those are both examples unfortunately.
I'd not spent lots of time on U4, but certainly from what I saw it wasn't the best.

It also won't help when there is a 95% chance that the TV is saturating the image more than it should.

 

[Vire]

Those are both examples unfortunately.
I'd not spent lots of time on U4, but certainly from what I saw it wasn't the best.

It also won't help when there is a 95% chance that the TV is saturating the image more than it should.

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Also FF7 Remake, certain things looked better certain things looked worse. I ended keeping it on for things like fire effects, but overall I don't feel like HDR is the current slam dunk win that a lot are proclaiming it is.

 

[cooldawn]

I'm still utterly blown away by the HDR effect on Gran Turismo Sport. The opening movie is especially a stunner. Not played a game anywhere near that quality.

 

[Kindekuma]

I think Death Stranding's HDR is what blew me away the most with that.

 

[kubev]

It also won't help when there is a 95% chance that the TV is saturating the image more than it should.

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I don't know how much things have improved, as I don't play a lot of different games that specifically make good use of HDR, but I think the key to making sure people are experiencing HDR content PROPERLY is to have good built-in calibration guides in consoles and media players.

 

[Deleted member 21339]

Make sure you adjust HDR in the in-game menus so everything is all blown out.

 

[EvilBoris]

I don't know how much things have improved, as I don't play a lot of different games that specifically make good use of HDR, but I think the key to making sure people are experiencing HDR content PROPERLY is to have good built-in calibration guides in consoles and media players.

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That stuff definately helps, but there is a difference in the way that TVs handle SDR and HDR and that one format is designed to be adjusted for viewing environments and the other isn't. It makes it tricky

 

[kubev]

That stuff definately helps, but there is a difference in the way that TVs handle SDR and HDR and that one format is designed to be adjusted for viewing environments and the other isn't. It makes it tricky

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Understandable. I wonder if Microsoft's approach of using A.I. to implement HDR into potentially all games on Xbox will fix that issue.

 

[Leeway]

Back in 2017 when I was upgrading to 4K, I was choosing between Sony 65" x900E LED or LG 55" C7 OLED which were the same prices just diff in size. Ultimately went with the 65" Sony, but sometimes I wish I had gone with OLED. I'm satisfied with the HDR on my TV so it's not a major issue, but man I see OLEDs sometimes and they just pop. They look so good. Perhaps in a few more years time I will move onto an OLED.

 

[EvilBoris]

Understandable. I wonder if Microsoft's approach of using A.I. to implement HDR into potentially all games on Xbox will fix that issue.

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It won't help it if people have TVs that are crazy vivid in SDR and kinda normal in HDR. I'm sure that is some of the problem.
Also trying to get a balance between something being plug and play and "juts working" and giving user controls to adjust to taste

 

[ss_lemonade]

To people who know/understand a lot about HDR, how accurate is the split HDR option in certain Xbox One software like the Insects tech demo? It certainly does show a big difference and some people even tend to use that as an example of how much better HDR is, but I feel like it's misleading because the SDR side ends up looking washed out and is definitely not how the Insects demo looks like in actual SDR. I think Gears of War 4 had a similar option with the same results.

It reminds me of using Windows 10 while keeping HDR engaged. Some people seem to do that and just use the SDR brightness slider to adjust brightness, but this SDR inside an HDR container thing just looks wrong to me (slightly washed out, colors look wrong, etc)

 

[Soap]

HDR is a much bigger deal than 4K. The problem is all that brightness costs money.

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I kind of echo this. I have a top of the line 4K OLED and I find HDR wows me even at 1080p.

 

[kubev]

It won't help it if people have TVs that are crazy vivid in SDR and kinda normal in HDR. I'm sure that is some of the problem.
Also trying to get a balance between something being plug and play and "juts working" and giving user controls to adjust to taste

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You know, the irony for me about HDR is that it's made stuff designed to improve the experience with legacy hardware a complete pain in the ass to deal with. For example, I don't know how widespread this issue is, but you apparently can't get audio from a Framemeister to a TV if HDR color is enabled anywhere that particularly HDMI signal passes through.

 

[Ashes of Dreams]

Are you sure your tv is collaborated correctly and set for 4k output on the pro?

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I literally said I couldn't tell if it was in my post, so obviously not lol

But it could also just be a not true 4K TV, I've heard that before.

 

[EvilBoris]

You know, the irony for me about HDR is that it's made stuff designed to improve the experience with legacy hardware a complete pain in the ass to deal with. For example, I don't know how widespread this issue is, but you apparently can't get audio from a Framemeister to a TV if HDR color is enabled anywhere that particularly HDMI signal passes through.

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the XRGB Mini only supports HDMI 1.3 (which is 14 years old )if that is the model you mean? I'd imagine that would cause all kinds of issues if the TVs try to communicate with newer protocols. It's why many TVs have the option to disable the newer versions of HDMi on each port.

 

[Haze]

HDR is a more significant leap in visuals than 4k. Unfortunately, it's not uncommon to see poor HDR implementation and many companies straight up lie about HDR.

 

[kubev]

the XRGB Mini only supports HDMI 1.3 (which is 14 years old )if that is the model you mean? I'd imagine that would cause all kinds of issues if the TVs try to communicate with newer protocols. It's why many TVs have the option to disable the newer versions of HDMi on each port.

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Unfortunately, while I can disable HDR Color on the USB ports themselves, I have no way of disabling it on my AV switches or through my capture device, which makes the Framemeister (yes, the model you mentioned) useless for my streaming setup. It's unfortunate that hardware that's designed to support or at least serve as a pass-through for HDR content doesn't similarly offer a way to toggle HDR.

 

[EvilBoris]

Unfortunately, while I can disable HDR Color on the USB ports themselves, I have no way of disabling it on my AV switches or through my capture device, which makes the Framemeister (yes, the model you mentioned) useless for my streaming setup. It's unfortunate that hardware that's designed to support or at least serve as a pass-through for HDR content doesn't similarly offer a way to toggle HDR.

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You should be able to just disable it on the TV, that is the starting point for the HDR devices trying to communicate in that method. All of the later revisions are backwards compatible, you just need to stop the TV from advertising it's compatibility (in theory).

What does your device chain look like? Which capture device are you using? (that could also be overriding your TV and broadcasting an EDID you don't want)

 

[Septy]

I've tried comparing hdr in games by disabling it and reenabling through my tv. But I don't really see a difference. The settings for hdr in each game is also so confusing.

 

[kubev]

You should be able to just disable it on the TV, that is the starting point for the HDR devices trying to communicate in that method. All of the later revisions are backwards compatible, you just need to stop the TV from advertising it's compatibility (in theory).

What does your device chain look like? Which capture device are you using? (that could also be overriding your TV and broadcasting an EDID you don't want)

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AV Switch w/ 4 Devices > AV Switch w/ 3 Devices, 1 Passthrough > AV Switch w/ 3 Devices, 1 Passthrough > Razer Ripsaw HD > Samsung KS8000

The switches are all Blackbird switches from Monoprice that support 4K and HDR.

 

[EvilBoris]

AV Switch w/ 4 Devices > AV Switch w/ 3 Devices, 1 Passthrough > AV Switch w/ 3 Devices, 1 Passthrough > Razer Ripsaw HD > Samsung KS8000

The switches are all Blackbird switches from Monoprice that support 4K and HDR.

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Right, so it's due to everything be routed through via a single port in the TV through the capture card?
Some weirdness could also occur with the Razer, as that doesn't support HDR, even in passthrough.

But I know your pain the Elgato card sometimes causes issues as the capture device doesn't support the HDMI features of the devices either side of it. It actually overrides the EDID broadcast of the TV in order to ensure it only receives footage it can accept.

I have to unplug it when and go direct when I'm not capturing footage, as it doesn't pass through VRR.

 

[kubev]

Right, so it's due to everything be routed through via a single port in the TV through the capture card?
Some weirdness could also occur with the Razer, as that doesn't support HDR, even in passthrough.

But I know your pain the Elgato card sometimes causes issues as the capture device doesn't support the HDMI features of the devices either side of it. It actually overrides the EDID broadcast of the TV in order to ensure it only receives footage it can accept.

I have to unplug it when and go direct when I'm not capturing footage, as it doesn't pass through VRR.

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Yeah, I set it up this way to streamline capturing and streaming, as I hate having to continually unplug or plug in various devices. I wonder if AV receivers allow you to disable/enable HDR Color on demand. That could be a way around this problem. That said, I'm not exactly interested in adding even more clutter to my setup. Haha.

Regarding the Razer Ripsaw HD, honestly, I wouldn't expect that to be part of the problem, but yeah, you never know. Having anything going through so many devices can admittedly have strange effects. PlayStation 3 and PlayStation TV, for example, need HDMI splitters attached to them to go through my setup.

 

[EvilBoris]

Yeah, I set it up this way to streamline capturing and streaming, as I hate having to continually unplug or plug in various devices. I wonder if AV receivers allow you to disable/enable HDR Color on demand. That could be a way around this problem. That said, I'm not exactly interested in adding even more clutter to my setup. Haha.

Regarding the Razer Ripsaw HD, honestly, I wouldn't expect that to be part of the problem, but yeah, you never know. Having anything going through so many devices can admittedly have strange effects. PlayStation 3 and PlayStation TV, for example, need HDMI splitters attached to them to go through my setup.

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I'm guessing HDMI splitters that strip the HDCP?

 

[Wojo]

Will HDR work properly if you have game mode enabled on your TV? I just purchased a LGC9.

 

[kubev]

I'm guessing HDMI splitters that strip the HDCP?

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Yeah, though it's weird in that the PlayStation TV was fine with passing through the switches sometime prior to me rearranging my setup, so I'm not 100% sure that HDCP was entirely the issue in that case.

 

[Pixelatic]

HDR on QLEDS is some next level shit, especially when it's tuned to take advantage of the insane peak brightness of these displays. It's the only reason why I keep one around when I already have an OLED.

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Care to share your HDR settings?

 

[EvilBoris]

Will HDR work properly if you have game mode enabled on your TV? I just purchased a LGC9.

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Yes.

 

[Gero]

Will HDR work properly if you have game mode enabled on your TV? I just purchased a LGC9.

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Game mode on the C9 is literally the same as the non game modes regarding picture quality. No loss of quality here unlike samsung QLEDs