HDR content displaying too dark

[Max Eckhardt]

Hi there, I’ve got a problem with HDR not working correctly for me on my desktop. 
 

My PC specs: Intel i5 4670K (3.40GHz)

                        Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti

                        16GB RAM (DDR3 1600)

 

I have a crappy old 1080p monitor connected and an LG C1 television which I use as my primary screen for gaming, connected via an HDMI 2.1 cable. My OS is Windows 10 and my GPU drivers are up-to-date. 

I also have a PS5 connected to my television with the exact same type of cable. HDR content displays great from the console so that rules out the cable or the television being the problem. 

None of the games I have on Steam that are HDR capable display correctly. When I enable HDR in the Windows 10 display menu and then restart the system and load a game after enabling HDR in the game the display is vibrant but way too dark. Increasing the brightness and/or whiteness sliders in games do absolutely nothing. 
 

I’m at my wits end with this. I’m not tech savvy at all, and google searches have yielded no results. Can you find people help me, please?

 

 

 

[KhakiHat]

It could be how you have HDR set up within your OS.

 

When it is enabled, there is a HDR/SDR brightness balance slider that you can use to change the darkness and brightness of the HDR effect

[Stahlmann]

What are your display settings on your PC? A 1080Ti has no HDMI 2.1, so it is not capable of 4K 120Hz 10bit HDR. You have to compromise with resolution, refresh rate or bit depth.

[Max Eckhardt]

9 hours ago, Stahlmann said:

What are your display settings on your PC? A 1080Ti has no HDMI 2.1, so it is not capable of 4K 120Hz 10bit HDR. You have to compromise with resolution, refresh rate or bit depth.

Desktop resolution 3840 x 2160

Refresh rate 60 Hz

Bit depth 8-bit with dithering

Colour format RGB, True Colour (32 bit)

 

[Stahlmann]

3 minutes ago, Max Eckhardt said:

Desktop resolution 3840 x 2160

Refresh rate 60 Hz

Bit depth 8-bit with dithering

Colour format RGB, True Colour (32 bit)

Looks good to me. But just in case, try to change the color format to 4:2:2 and limited range and see if that fixes your problems.

 

[Max Eckhardt]

21 hours ago, KhakiHat said:

It could be how you have HDR set up within your OS.

 

When it is enabled, there is a HDR/SDR brightness balance slider that you can use to change the darkness and brightness of the HDR effect

The HD colour Settings? So I slide the slider all the way to the left. This made my desktop darker but my games lighter. The games look good to me though. So I guess this is the solution. Need to check more games though and watch some videos and stuff. 

[Stahlmann]

17 minutes ago, Max Eckhardt said:

The HD colour Settings? So I slide the slider all the way to the left. This made my desktop darker but my games lighter. The games look good to me though. So I guess this is the solution. Need to check more games though and watch some videos and stuff. 

This slider only changes how bright SDR content looks while you're in the HDR mode. It shouldn't affect your HDR game's brightness at all. If it does then something is definetly wrong. Maybe DDU your GPU drivers.

[Max Eckhardt]

1 minute ago, Stahlmann said:

This slider only changes how bright SDR content looks while you're in the HDR mode. It shouldn't affect your HDR game's brightness at all. If it doesn then something is definetly wrong. Maybe DDU your GPU drivers.

Well, it definitely made a difference to HDR content. I’m very confused.