Read this if you have HDR Black Level problems on Windows 10 with and LG OLED TV (Raised or Crushed Blacks)

[BlackFireBR]

It always bothered me that the HDR on Windows never looked right with the techinically "correct" settings.

Technically you are suposed to use:

- Full Output Dynamic Range + Black Levels High or
- Limited Output Dynamic Range + Black Levels Low
For HDR
(and Black Levels always on Low for SDR)
 

Thing is, on Windows Desktop HDR, if you use either Full / High or Limited / Low, everything looks washed out. But if you use Black Level Low, in some games, you get black crush.
 

Here's what I found out:
- The image you see on Windows Desktop is an SDR image being artificially converted to and HDR image by Windows, but it's actually it's "still SDR", so on the Windows Desktop, you should always use Black Levels on Low. (with Output Dynamic Range to Full)

^{Don't believe me? Open this test pattern first with HDR off to see how it looks like, then enable HDR and put Black Levels on High (the theorical recomended, you will see the first square is super visible and it should be only barelly visible (raised blacks). Now change the Black Levels to Low, it will look almost the same as it looked when HDR was Off.)
Now open this youtube video with HDR ON. Since the youtube player actually outputs true HDR, if you use Black Levels High it will look right, and if you use Low, it looks crushed (the oposite of what happened before. Therefore, normal Windows desktop = Black Levels Low is correct (even if HDR is ON in the Windows settings). Youtube video or anything that outputs true HDR, Black Levels High is correct.)}

- On games, there are games that are true HDR and some that are SDR converted to HDR. The trick to know this is to install MSI Afterburner and set the On Screen Display to monitor anything while you're gaming with the default colors untouched. Open your game and enable HDR in the game.
 

If the orange colors of the OSD of MSI Afterburner looks like this (#FF8000) (the original color that is also shown in SDR), it's true HDR and Black Levels should be set to High (with Output Dynamic Range Full)
 

If the orange colors of the OSD of MSI Afterburner looks like a stronger orange (more towards red), then it's Fake HDR and Black Levels should be set to Low (with Output Dynamic Range to Full)
 

Let me know your thoughts.