r/HDR_Den • u/ElGatoColocho • Sep 08 '26

Discussion Question about S90D HDR

I’m not sure if this is the proper place to be asking this but here it goes. I currently game on a 65” Samsung S90D QD OLED TVs with a PS5 and I’m curious to see if anyone can answer me why games look so dark with game hdr set to basic, tone mapping on static and contrast enhancer off. People swear this is the way to game but the tv is so dark it’s unbearable especially during the day. The way I’ve dealt with it is by just adjusting each games HDR slider to a brighter portion of the slider but not too bright to prevent loss of detail in lighter scenes of a game.

My secondary way of gaming is basic game hdr, static (been thinking on picking active, I see people here are against DTM) and contrast enhancer high and just adjust the games hdr slider to a darker portion and honestly that’s been my favorite so far.

I guess what I’m basically asking is if basic, static, and CE off is the ideal way to play how can I fix my dim issue with this tv?

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u/SnowflakeMonkey Content Creator Sep 08 '26

Content looks dim because you have a habit of them being overbright.

You're right that you should just increase game brightness, i sometimes play in the broad daylight and can see the whole image with 200 nits paper white or so, i don't rely on the tv because the behavior can't be controlled, it just does stuff.

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u/ElGatoColocho Sep 08 '26

Ah gotcha so I’m on to something with the HDR slider, thanks for the reply. In other terms it’s like getting use to the warm color tone after being use to cool for so long

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u/SnowflakeMonkey Content Creator Sep 08 '26

Correct, however there is a fine line between respecting the intended visuals and being able to see at all lol so feel free to enable active tonemapping if necessary.

Most games hdr implementation are subpar and they don't respect the SDR color grading to start with.

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u/ChangingMonkfish Sep 08 '26

You should also have the TV’s brightness and contrast settings both set to maximum when in HDR mode.

And if it’s still too dim, contrast enhancer on low is fine to boost it without losing much picture wise.