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OLED Owners: How do you use HDR in Windows 11?

Gamezone

Gamezone

Gold Member
As a new AW3423DW QD-OLED owner I want to ask how you use HDR.

I've tried to enable HDR in Windows 11 and running the HDR calibration tool that's avaliable in the MS Store, but I think colors still looks better in Windows 11 when HDR isn't enabled. Is this normal?

Some games have their own HDR in settings, like Battlefront 2. These games will find the HDR signal without having to enable it in Windows.

But I don't know what's best.
 
poodaddy

poodaddy

Member
I wish I had my PC hooked up to my OLED, but I don't. My wife uses it too much for me to hook it up to it.....so here's hoping I can build a new PC altogether in about four years or so.
 
phant0m

phant0m

Member
Not oled, but HDR monitor (Razer Raptor 27). I leave it HDR on all the time with Auto HDR. Windows, browsing, general use looks fine/normal. It "kicks on" when a game that actually supports HDR is running.
 
zeomax

zeomax

Member
Gamezone said:
Because HDR looks bad in Windows? Did you try the tool for calibration?
Click to expand...
With this tool you only tell Windows what the max brightness your monitor has. No need to use it if you install the drivers. Windows will detect the correct settings automatically.
 
Last edited:
nikeboy94

nikeboy94

Member
Have HDR turned off in Windows, but enable HDR for every game that supports it (in fullscreen mode). This will mean you can browse Windows normally while enjoying HDR for games. Turning on HDR for windows is a not a great idea.
 
Last edited:
Bojji

Bojji

Member
Gamezone said:
As a new AW3423DW QD-OLED owner I want to ask how you use HDR.

I've tried to enable HDR in Windows 11 and running the HDR calibration tool that's avaliable in the MS Store, but I think colors still looks better in Windows 11 when HDR isn't enabled. Is this normal?

Some games have their own HDR in settings, like Battlefront 2. These games will find the HDR signal without having to enable it in Windows.

But I don't know what's best.
Click to expand...

Just like people before said, SDR looks better in "windows usage" but games that support HDR would (usually) look better with it enabled. Auto HDR based on my testing usually produced good results and some games (like RIME) can look much better with it.

Calibration will tell windows to tone map to your peak monitor brightness but i don't know how HGIG works (If it works) on Alienware monitors.
 
lukilladog

lukilladog

Member
I just leave it off, and for the stupid games that require it to be active on windows I use a batch file like this:

E Echo off

start HDRONOFF
timeout /t 6
StupidGame.exe
start HDRONOFF

Where start HDRONOFF launches a direct access to a vbs script (a text file saved as .vbs) which looks like this:

Set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
oShell.Run("""ms-settings:display""")
WScript.Sleep 1000
oShell.AppActivate "settings"
WScript.Sleep 100
oShell.SendKeys "{TAB}"
WScript.Sleep 60
oShell.SendKeys "{TAB}"
WScript.Sleep 60
oShell.SendKeys " "
WScript.Sleep 3000
oShell.SendKeys "%{F4}"

That works at least on win10.
 
Calverz

Calverz

Member
I have it on all the time but I use my ox for gaming. Occasionally il browse the web but even then I have it permanently in dark mode so not arsed about white levels.
 
GreenAlien

GreenAlien

Member
I only use HDR for HDR content. I turn it off if I'm just surfing or watching SDR stuff or for games that don't support HDR..

You can use SpecialK to get a pretty good HDR experience in a lot of games that don't natively support it, but it requires playing around with settings and that proved too time consuming for me..
 
Gamezone

Gamezone

Gold Member
GreenAlien said:
I only use HDR for HDR content. I turn it off if I'm just surfing or watching SDR stuff or for games that don't support HDR..

You can use SpecialK to get a pretty good HDR experience in a lot of games that don't natively support it, but it requires playing around with settings and that proved too time consuming for me..
Click to expand...

Isn't that why we have auto HDR? For games that natively doesn't support it?
 
captainpat

captainpat

Member
I look for reviews to see if the game has good hdr implementation and what settings I should use. If the hdr implement is bad I use special K or auto hdr.
 
Kuranghi

Kuranghi

Member
Using HDR on the desktop is silly, most of the content you are looking at is SDR so its just being put in an HDR container and will look worse overall. As others have said already, just turn it on when you're starting a game that supports HDR (shortcut listed above) and off when you stop.

If you want to view HDR content on Youtube, Netflix, Disney+, etc then buy a 4K Fire TV stick (or similar device) and stick that in one of the HDMI ports, then when you want to watch those things turn on the stick and it should auto switch to that input.
 
Gamezone

Gamezone

Gold Member
Kuranghi said:
Using HDR on the desktop is silly, most of the content you are looking at is SDR so its just being put in an HDR container and will look worse overall. As others have said already, just turn it on when you're starting a game that supports HDR (shortcut listed above) and off when you stop.

If you want to view HDR content on Youtube, Netflix, Disney+, etc then buy a 4K Fire TV stick (or similar device) and stick that in one of the HDMI ports, then when you want to watch those things turn on the stick and it should auto switch to that input.
Click to expand...
There are mixed comments about this on Reddit, where some people are saying that SDR will show as SDR, even with HDR turned on in Windows.

And what happens if the game doesn't support HDR or auto HDR? Will it look worse than SDR when HDR is on, just like Windows?
 
Last edited:
A.Romero

A.Romero

Member
Works fine on my end but too bright for every day use so I turn it off unless I'm gaming or watching something
 
Kuranghi

Kuranghi

Member
Gamezone said:
There are mixed comments about this on Reddit, where some people are saying that SDR will show as SDR, even with HDR turned on in Windows.

And what happens if the game doesn't support HDR or auto HDR? Will it look worse than SDR when HDR is on, just like Windows?
Click to expand...

I understand, I just wouldn't bother with the hassle, Auto-HDR is rubbish imo, just play games in HDR when they actually have it and use an external device for watching streaming apps like I said above. Thats my opinion anyway.
 
n0razi

n0razi

Member
HDR looking worse outside of HDR video and properly supported games is why I still use an IPS primary monitor and an OLED HDTV as a secondary monitor
 
LiquidMetal14

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
LG CX and C1, it seems like it doesn't enhance it as much as my Odyssey G7 monitor. I have left it on with auto HDR for the longest time and out up with the little issues as it mostly just works for me but nowhere near as seamless as consoles.
 
Kilau

Kilau

Member
Guess it depends on your display, I don’t have an OLED just a plain benq LCD and I leave HDR on all the time. Windows looks very flat in SDR.

Alien Isolation gave me issues with HDR though, had to turn it off in Windows or the game looked like a compressed blocky video. Couldn’t figure out special k so just played with HDR off and it was fine.
 
LaughingStock

LaughingStock

Member
phant0m said:
Not oled, but HDR monitor (Razer Raptor 27). I leave it HDR on all the time with Auto HDR. Windows, browsing, general use looks fine/normal. It "kicks on" when a game that actually supports HDR is running.
Click to expand...
Yeah, same. I leave it on all the time. I have the same monitor as OP.
 
Liljagare

Liljagare

Member
I have a annoying issue with it, so it's only on for HDR content, sometimes. The damn soundbar is getting old and doesn't allow full passthrough for some reason, so if I turn the TV off, and come back, turn it on, the computer doesn't find the TV, until I reboot everything. Is extra annoying as the TV after every software update just says "Enabling HDR for higher quality picture", not even a option to say "No thanks!", it just turns it on, and then I need to turn it off, and reboot.. Other than that, pretty dang nice to play on a 75" Oled, it can also run GeForce Now flawlessly, so sometimes I don't bother with the computer.
 
Kataploom

Kataploom

Gold Member
nikeboy94 said:
Have HDR turned off in Windows, but enable HDR for every game that supports it (in fullscreen mode). This will mean you can browse Windows normally while enjoying HDR for games. Turning on HDR for windows is a not a great idea.
Click to expand...
The only but major downside with this is that you don't know which games support HDR until you open it with HDR enabled and check for yourself on settings, I though the Auto HDR feature was for every game but it's just for supported titles, then it's not so "auto" lol
 
Robbinhood

Robbinhood

Banned
Huh didn't know about the shortcut for enabling it on Win 10. Thanks! I always had it off because I was lazy to toggle it but with a keyboard shortcut I'll give it a go.

Is Win 11 worth it now?
 
Puscifer

Puscifer

Member
Robbinhood said:
Huh didn't know about the shortcut for enabling it on Win 10. Thanks! I always had it off because I was lazy to toggle it but with a keyboard shortcut I'll give it a go.

Is Win 11 worth it now?
Click to expand...
I did the tweak for the right click menu and the alone made it more usable. They also finally fixed the sound panel (at some point) and made the UI less Mac/Tablet like and for more desktop usage. 10 is still overall the best OS they've ever released but 11 isn't bad anymore, just some really misguided design decisions they pulled back on and rectified.
 
ChoosableOne

ChoosableOne

ChoosableAll
Does it tire the eyes in oled too? Sunglasses are almost necessary while playing on my Ips lg monitor so I usually don't use it. Games look so much better with it though.
 
GustavoLT

GustavoLT

Member
Oled CX here...

Always on with maximum brightness (slide bar in hdr options on windows)!!!
 
Last edited:
JohnnyFootball

JohnnyFootball

GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
My C1 OLED looks great with HDR. My Samsung Odyssey G65B took quite a bit of tweaking to get it to look good. In the nvidia control panel I set the Brightness to 45, contrast to 90, gamma to 0.85 and digital vibrance to 45% and now I can keep HDR on at all times. I’m happy with it.
 
nemiroff

nemiroff

Gold Member
I don't have an OLED monitor atm but I do have an 32 inch HDR 600 monitor with enough dimming zones to make it work pretty well. W11 HDR works seamlessly for me (as opposed to W10 which didn't..). Auto HDR is also pretty neat btw.

But the usefulness of HDR is on a per game basis. Some games looks pretty good, some don't.

Once in a while it hitches and I use the xbox game bar to easily switch on and off to reset. Keep in mind that driver updates will also turn off the HDR function by default (does for me anyway).
 
Last edited:
O

old-parts

Member
TFT Central and PC monitors info have both reviewed the AW3423DW, for PCMI he suggested this for SDR, you might be using a profile or settings for SDR which is not accurate as SDR mode gives much more control over picture settings on the monitor.
* Preset Mode = Creator
* Color Space = DCI-P3
* Gamma = 2.4
* Brightness = 75 (according to preferences and lighting)
* Refresh rate = 175Hz

And for HDR (very limited settings)
* Vesa True Black 400 gives most consistent performance.
* Peak HDR1000 is brighter but much more variable due to ABL (this is not a Vesa spec HDR mode).
* Only at 144hz and below is native 10-bit possible for HDR, if using 175hz it uses 8-bit plus GPU dithering (both reviewers say the difference is indistinguishable).

Set monitor to True Black 400, run windows 11 HDR calibration app from MS app store, go into settings color management and check that the HDR profile it generated is applied to the display, that's about it.

There is also the Auto Actions software, this can set up HDR profiles for games, so when you launch the game it automatically engages the HDR mode if you prefer to keep the desktop in SDR mode, the Windows desktop emulates SDR within the HDR colour space and doesnt always get it right.
 
supernova8

supernova8

Banned
The colours on Youtube etc. on my ASUS OLED laptop go all weird (almost look inverted in spots) whenever I turn off HDR in the windows display settings. Not sure what I'm meant to do to stop it.
 
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