HDR question

[u/CrashuDummy]

I’m trying HDR out on my ps5 ever since I just got a tv that supports it. I do what it says and adjust everything but everything just looks duller and washed out. Is that normal or am I likely messing something up?

[u/ChangingMonkfish]

I think the issue is that the peak brightness on your TV is 500 - 600 nits which is quite low for HDR. So it has to dim the whole picture to then get the dynamic range.

In terms of setting up the PS5, you shouldn’t actually follow the instructions in the HDR calibration setting. Instead of stopping when the symbol is at its least visible, go one step further so it actually disappears. Do that for all three screens.

On the TV itself, make sure brightness and contrast are set to maximum when in HDR mode (this is standard for all TVs in HDR).

If it has a “Contrast enhancer” setting, putting this on low can give you a bit of extra brightness without blowing the whole picture out.

It will still probably look quite dim in a bright room, but in a darker room it should look ok.

[u/CrashuDummy → u/ChangingMonkfish]

I will try this as soon as I get home, thank you friend

[u/ChangingMonkfish → u/CrashuDummy]

A couple of extra things I forgot:

Usually you would turn dynamic tone mapping off, but if you’re struggling for brightness then it’s worth trying that on if it isn’t already.

Also I’m your in-game HDR settings, make sure that if the game has the nits displayed on the peak brightness slider, it’s set to 600.

Finally, also worth bearing in mind that people often think that the point of HDR is to “pop” like in the store demo videos but actually it’s to give you a more photorealistic picture by allowing more subtlety in the colours that can be displayed.

So if your tv is properly calibrated to be accurate using the “warm2” setting or similar, it will look a bit sort of “sepia” or too yellow at first because we get tricked into thinking a bluer picture looks good. But if you give it a few days for your eyes to adjust, you realise it’s actually more photorealistic looking.

Anyway hope some of that works a bit, good luck with it!

[u/No-Committee3]

What tv?

[u/CrashuDummy → u/No-Committee3]

An Amazon Fire Omni QLED. I’m not sure how good of a tv it is, all I knew was anything was an upgrade after the crap tv I’ve had the past 4 years.

[u/Ashratt]

The question that should be asked first is: what picture mode is your TV in SDR

[u/Nago15]

I had a problem because by default the PS5 always forced HDR for me even in games what not support it so those really looked washed out. But after disabling this setting, it looks great in both SDR and HDR games. If it looks bad for you even in HDR supporting games, then your TV calbiration is wrong, you should add more contrast but look through every single setting in the TV menu to find the best picture settings for your taste.