How to get auto HDR setting for my system?

Nexxus · May 16, 2021

I know you used to gave to join the insider programme. Is that still a thing that needs to be done? If so what channel do I join?

May 17, 2021

I couldn't get it working either. all the guides online say that you just sign up for windows insider program and you should then have the option in the hd colour settings.....i signed up, did all the windows updates......no option for auto hdr anywhere.

i also tried a couple of different programs which aim to automate the hdr switching process based on when certain apps are lanuched.....none of these worked either.

best solution i could come up with was a script that you can manually run, and just leave it as a link on your dektop. 1 script to swithc hdr on, and another to switch it off.

it's a tad easier than manually opening up settings and switching it on/off....but only marginally.

It's become a bit of a moot point for me though, as, after initially being wowed by the hdr on my samsung g7, it later became aparant that both black and white levels are awful when hdr is enabled. The black levels are somehow clipped, while at the same time being raised (which makes no sense!), i.e. the deepest black is a slight grey, compared to sdr mode, where you can get it very very dark. The hdr white clipping pattern shows that all info above 352 nits is clipped.....so while it might be a very bright screen (supposedly 600 nits), the tone mapping is awful, so half the data is just merged into one (or "clipped").

i'm not sure if this is just how the screen itself behaves in dhr mode (i haven't properly tested it with another source yet), or just windows hdr being terrible.....but i'm inclined to think the latter, as there are countless reports online of people struggling with windows hdr settings.

For a while, I thought I'd got it working well by adjusting settings in the nvidia control panel....and you can adjust thigns like brightness, contrast and gamma there to "fix" the test pattern performance.....but it usually results in darkening the image to an extent where you can't work out the darker parts in order to bring back the clipped whites...gamma in hdr works very differently to sdr gamma curves, so it's not easy to fix.

I also found that, even getting the right balance to show as much of a range between the blacks and whites as possible, the colours just didn't seem as rich and deep as they did in sdr mode.....so I don't really use hdr now.

Nexxus · May 18, 2021

14 hours ago, Glenn-Tidbury said:

snip

I bailed on the idea anyways someone on reddit said once you are on the insider program you are stuck on it, and no thanks. With how problimatic release windows have been in recent times I would rather not get an even more problem prone version.

Also I think you may be a lil confussed about the auto HDR process, it gives non HDR games HDR effects, has nothing to do with enabling HDR on games with it already, unless you were just mentioning that on the side.

May 18, 2021

You can defintiely leave the insider program. I joined, tried it, and then left....after you leave, check for updates again and that sorts you out back to normal again.

I have definitely misunderstood what you were askign though. I thought auto HDR is supposed to turn windows HDR mode on when you are using a compatible app/game/program.

Having fake hdr effect applied doesn't really interest me anyway, but to clarify, the option still wasn't there for me, even after joining the insider program.

I'm guessing that they have either removed the option to toggle it, removed it altogether, or have it permanently implemented with no way to toggle it off?

Either way, SDR looks better to me, with or without the latest windows insider updates, so I'll keep HDR off for now

Nexxus · May 18, 2021

9 hours ago, Glenn-Tidbury said:

You can defintiely leave the insider program. I joined, tried it, and then left....after you leave, check for updates again and that sorts you out back to normal again.

I have definitely misunderstood what you were askign though. I thought auto HDR is supposed to turn windows HDR mode on when you are using a compatible app/game/program.

Having fake hdr effect applied doesn't really interest me anyway, but to clarify, the option still wasn't there for me, even after joining the insider program.

I'm guessing that they have either removed the option to toggle it, removed it altogether, or have it permanently implemented with no way to toggle it off?

Either way, SDR looks better to me, with or without the latest windows insider updates, so I'll keep HDR off for now

Thats cool but yeah I just started using HDR again cause I played and HDR compatible game again (been playing older stuff.) on my TV and was gushing at the visuals (re7) so was kinda interested in checking it out. But yeah... insider builds still kinda scare me tbh.