Windows 11 HDR Calibration App

It works well - I tested it out and my blacks look cleaner/darker than they were with no loss to brighter effects. Before I just used all the same settings my PS5 and Firestick were using - which clearly weren't 100% the same.
 
djoye said:
Wow, this makes HDR usable on the Windows UI. The UI is no longer washed out with HDR enabled.
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I would really like to get this app on my systems, but not so much as I don't want to upgrade to Win 11 until I absolutely have to.

I just bought a new laptop and for the OS I chose the option with downgrade ability to Win 10. Take that, Microsoft. :)
 
I have to imagine someone will provide instructions for installing it on Windows 10 - probably via PowerShell. There's nothing preventing it besides Microsoft declaring it a Windows 11 exclusive. I'm kinda shocked it took them like 5 years to release an app like this. It should've been built into the OS when they added HDR support in the first place.
 
i tried fiddling with this last night and it still seems kinda dull and washed out. think ill continue to turn it on/off manually as needed. at least media play hc auto-switches media for me...
 
I can only barely tell the difference between when HDR is enabled vs. off now, but I still leave it off unless a game needs it. Normal content still simply looks better with it off. A few games (like Elden Ring and RE Village) even turn it on automatically when launched. Ditto with MPC-HC/MadVR. Plus, in Windows 11 there's always Win+Alt+B to quickly toggle it anyway. I set it up as a macro on my keyboard so it's even easier.
 
Domingo said:
I can only barely tell the difference between when HDR is enabled vs. off now, but I still leave it off unless a game needs it. Normal content still simply looks better with it off. A few games (like Elden Ring and RE Village) even turn it on automatically when launched. Ditto with MPC-HC/MadVR. Plus, in Windows 11 there's always Win+Alt+B to quickly toggle it anyway. I set it up as a macro on my keyboard so it's even easier.
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Probably depends a lot on the monitor
 
I went through the Hell of calibrating my 2021 55" LG 4K IPS LCD TV (w/FreeSync up to 120Hz - I use this as my primary monitor about 7 feet from my face at 200% zoom because my eyesight kinda sucks) manually based off of information I found on a review website online and combined with a static reference image on both my Dell 1440p IPS monitor (secondary monitor) and this TV, I got the HDR on/off really really close. After that I left HDR on anyway, but now it is pretty much indistinguishable in regular use whether it is on or off.

My 2017 Samsung "HDR" TV in the living room, though - ughhh. Nothing I do makes SD content look anything but completely washed out on that TV with HDR set to on.
 
Actually, just tried the HDR optimizer on that Samsung set and it made a tremendous difference. Not equal to the SDR, but close enough that I can use it now.
 
I guess I haven't played Resident Evil 8 in a long time, because I played yesterday and noticed something wrong with the HDR calibration in the game. I thought that maybe it was affected by this calibration tool, but it looks like it's affected by Auto HDR. RE8 first launches some intro videos in an SDR mode, which triggers Auto HDR if you have it enabled, the game then switches to native HDR mode after the intro videos and the game's HDR calibration is then buggered because Auto HDR is running on top of HDR. Disabling Auto HDR fixes the problem.

Since RE8 auto switches to HDR mode, I think the easiest solution is to leave Auto HDR enabled and not enable Windows HDR manually... let the game turn on HDR itself.
 
djoye said:
I guess I haven't played Resident Evil 8 in a long time, because I played yesterday and noticed something wrong with the HDR calibration in the game. I thought that maybe it was affected by this calibration tool, but it looks like it's affected by Auto HDR. RE8 first launches some intro videos in an SDR mode, which triggers Auto HDR if you have it enabled, the game then switches to native HDR mode after the intro videos and the game's HDR calibration is then buggered because Auto HDR is running on top of HDR. Disabling Auto HDR fixes the problem.

Since RE8 auto switches to HDR mode, I think the easiest solution is to leave Auto HDR enabled and not enable Windows HDR manually... let the game turn on HDR itself.
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Yeah, there are a few games like that. If you enable HDR manually, they look/act wonky. Elden Ring, Village, and the last Tomb Raider game are some of the ones in my library that do that. What's funny is that when HDR first game out in Windows, all HDR games did that. Netflix, too. It would just switch to HDR mode when you launched the app. Now it's a mix, although most newer games want you to toggle it yourself.
 
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djoye said:
I guess I haven't played Resident Evil 8 in a long time, because I played yesterday and noticed something wrong with the HDR calibration in the game. I thought that maybe it was affected by this calibration tool, but it looks like it's affected by Auto HDR. RE8 first launches some intro videos in an SDR mode, which triggers Auto HDR if you have it enabled, the game then switches to native HDR mode after the intro videos and the game's HDR calibration is then buggered because Auto HDR is running on top of HDR. Disabling Auto HDR fixes the problem.

Since RE8 auto switches to HDR mode, I think the easiest solution is to leave Auto HDR enabled and not enable Windows HDR manually... let the game turn on HDR itself.
Click to expand...
I've seen some games that require HDR be enabled on Windows to allow you to toggle the option. Initially most games just forced it as Microsoft didn't support it (yet), but nowadays games are just looking at the Windows setting to decide if the HDR options should be available.

Windows HDR support has certainly improved over the past year; they fixed the *very* longstanding bug where the OSD would kick everything back to SDR for a second, and you can generally leave HDR enabled in Windows and not worry about things being horrifically broken now.
 
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