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PSA: Fix your PS5 HDR Settings. (HDTVTest)

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
So it seems the Sony HDR calibration tool isnt entire accurate. It tells the user to brighten or darken the image until it is barely visible when it should actually disappear entirely or your tv will not achieve its peak brightness.

Also, for LG CX owners, set Dynamic Tone Mapping to HGIG before doing this. ( I am not a 100% sure on what he meant when he was talking about the HGIG settings, waiting for clarification, but someone in the comments said that it increases input lag.)



Summary:
  • If your tv is HGIG compliant, set it to HGIG before adjusting HDR.
  • Increase or decrease the brightness slider for the first two screens until the Sun icon completely disappears.
  • OLED owners should set the brightness to minimum in the last screen. It needs to be completely black.
 
I may not be fully educated on this topic, but doesn't the game itself need to support HGIG for it to work properly? Otherwise the image is super dim. Seems a little inconvenient if so to have to switch back and forth between DTM and HGIG on a per game basis.
 
He was not clear if this would actually work on Sony TV's due to the HGIG thing. I did try it though on my 900h and it has made a difference. The colours pop and are more vibrant now.

I was gonna wait for people to post their personal impressions after changing the HDR sliders in the PS5 system menu before doing it myself (everything looks great to me already) but if you definitely noticed a difference I guess I’ll give it a shot
 

Blond

Banned
I may not be fully educated on this topic, but doesn't the game itself need to support HGIG for it to work properly? Otherwise the image is super dim. Seems a little inconvenient if so to have to switch back and forth between DTM and HGIG on a per game basis.
HGIG was accidentally set on my C9 and most games just look like SDR unless it’s supports it. Modern Warfare standard HDR looked like crap by comparison but it’s also one of those improvements that’s not noticeable UNLESS you can switch back and forth.
 

FrankWza

Member
OLED owners should set the brightness to minimum in the last screen. It needs to be completely black.

Just to add something, if you do this on your PS5 you’ll most likely need to recalibrate the rest of you settings on your PS5 input on yourTV. This affects contrast, brightness and black setting.
 

whyman

Member
I have the X900H (XH90) this is where I ended up.

On TV:

Brightness: Max
Contrast: 90
Auto local dimming: High
X-tended Dynamic Range: High

On PS5:

1/3: 20 steps from 0
2/3: 14 steps from 0
3/3: Set to 1 step from 0

As Sony don't have HGIG. Do these settings seem correct? (I'm noob at this)
 

sncvsrtoip

Member
refreshing topic as playing now Modern Warfare 2019 and it's another game that is too dark on my lgx cx with ps5 and hdr on, little tired of calibrating brightness of every game, wonder if sony is aware of hdr problem on ps5
 
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refreshing topic as playing now Modern Warfare 2019 and it's another game that is too dark on my lgx cx with ps5 and hdr on, little tired of calibrating brightness of every game, wonder if sony is aware of hdr problem on ps5
I’ve played plenty of this game on my PS5/C9 and never found it too dark.

I never have to adjust anything from game to game. It certainly sounds as though you have something configured incorrectly. For example, mismatched RGB will make everything too dark.
 
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I always questioned this, but I left it alone. I don’t know nothing. Ffvii looked bad if I scooched everything to barely visible icons. It does seemed crushed at times with these setting.
 

FrankWza

Member
I always questioned this, but I left it alone. I don’t know nothing. Ffvii looked bad if I scooched everything to barely visible icons. It does seemed crushed at times with these setting.
One I mentioned in the PS5 ot is trying tone mapping set to on instead of hgig. Give it a go and see if it helps.
 

sncvsrtoip

Member
I’ve played plenty of this game on my PS5/C9 and never found it too dark.

I never have to adjust anything from game to game. It certainly sounds as though you have something configured incorrectly. For example, mismatched RGB will make everything too dark.
nah, auto auto or low/limited, is configured correctly
 

TonyK

Member
I have a LG CX. If I put HGIG in the TV then it crushes the whites in the calibration screen (part of the controller image at the beginning disappears), so I'm not sure about using HGIG for calibration. I prefer to use OFF instead of Dynamic or HGIG.
About Input lag, I noticed added input lag with Dynamic Tone Mapping in ON, but I didn't test it for HGIG.
 

Dibils2k

Member
I may not be fully educated on this topic, but doesn't the game itself need to support HGIG for it to work properly? Otherwise the image is super dim. Seems a little inconvenient if so to have to switch back and forth between DTM and HGIG on a per game basis.
HGIG setting just means TV doesnt do any tone mapping, so even if games dont use HGIG it is still ok to use that SETTING. ofcourse it means you have to calibrate HDR ingame and it wont use anything from PS5s calibration
 
One I mentioned in the PS5 ot is trying tone mapping set to on instead of hgig. Give it a go and see if it helps.
I will! I think HDR looks great, but it just seems dark in a spot or two. Its probably the non HGIG games.

As far as i can tell, the reason to not follow the Sonys instructions is because HGIG is different and the steps are too big. With tone mapping, you follow the Sonys instructions and zero out the blacks.
 
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Nydus

Gold Member
I may not be fully educated on this topic, but doesn't the game itself need to support HGIG for it to work properly? Otherwise the image is super dim. Seems a little inconvenient if so to have to switch back and forth between DTM and HGIG on a per game basis.
Yes and no. Since even tone mapping off applies some degree of mapping, hgig is the only way to turn it completely off for the CALIBRATION. after the calibration you can enable tonemapping again.

It's just impossible to calibrate while the TV tries to dynamically tonemap the picture.
 

Gediminas

Banned
DTM should be always On, except for the games which supports HGIG. HDTV even made few videos on this topic alone.

and one thing more, HDR is not universal. if your game is looking bad with HDR, just turn it off. not every game has good HDR implementation.
 
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FrankWza

Member
nah, auto auto or low/limited, is configured correctly
On PS5? It’s better to just set it to limited vs auto
It's just impossible to calibrate while the TV tries to dynamically tonemap the picture.
I think this is the issue. You have 3 different
“Sources” of hdr settings and they get scrambled, for lack of a better word. I think DTM on or off and go from there is the simplest way to a more universal solution
 

Gediminas

Banned
On PS5? It’s better to just set it to limited vs auto

I think this is the issue. You have 3 different
“Sources” of hdr settings and they get scrambled, for lack of a better word. I think DTM on or off and go from there is the simplest way to a more universal solution
it is the best to set it on auto.
 

Gediminas

Banned
For Lg oled, limited is better.
it is not better or worst, it is just right set up or wrong. limited is good if you set it on low. while auto is best because it sets up whatever you are doing so you don't need to go and check your settings every time. there is a reason why everyone is recommending auto.
 

sn0man

Member
it is not better or worst, it is just right set up or wrong. limited is good if you set it on low. while auto is best because it sets up whatever you are doing so you don't need to go and check your settings every time. there is a reason why everyone is recommending auto.
I tepidly agree with that. In past tv setups you couldn’t trust auto. So far the LG X sets seem to get it right. No clue how many folks tested their WiiU or other esoteric setup to verify though.
 

sncvsrtoip

Member
On PS5? It’s better to just set it to limited vs auto

I think this is the issue. You have 3 different
“Sources” of hdr settings and they get scrambled, for lack of a better word. I think DTM on or off and go from there is the simplest way to a more universal solution
there is no much difference, important is it must be same setting on ps5 and tv (so auto auto, limited/limited etc)
 

DrDamn

Member
I have an LG C9 and followed this. Vast majority of stuff looks great except I get very strong blacks/black crush in Destiny 2. In general Destiny 2 looks fantastic, but dark areas are very, very dark. I went back and upped the black setting Vincent recommend having at the minimum value and I think that helps a little. Anyone got any other tips? I did the turn off HDR in game, reset graphics settings to default and turn it back on again approach but that didn't really help.
 
DTM should be always On, except for the games which supports HGIG. HDTV even made few videos on this topic alone.
I disagree. DTM will inevitably blow out bright areas by making the overall scene indiscriminately brighter. I can immediately see this in many games and is shown early in the video I link below.

HGIG enabled for “non-HGIG” games is fine. HGIG on the C9/CX displays a highlight brightness up to around 700-800 nits. There are few HDR games that do not provide native adjustments, and I suspect even fewer games that attempt to display over 600-800 nits on peaks. I have yet to even see an HDR game that defaults to higher than 600-800 nits*.

The worst that could possibly happen by using the HGIG on a non-HGIG game (or a game with no native HDR settings) is that anything beyond 800 nits is clipped. It is unlikely that any games are sending more than this, and even if they are, you won’t notice.

Summary: just use HGIG for everything. It will take a day or two to adjust to the slightly dimmer screen, but you will enjoy highlights that aren’t blown out and blacks that are black.

HDTVtest video showing blown out highlights when using DTM ON with a non-HGIG game (around the 4 minute mark):


*There are games with known broken/poor HDR implementation that blindly send 1000/4000 nits in the signal, but these essentially don’t matter as the HDR is “faked” anyway and aren’t expected to appear accurately.
 
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Gediminas

Banned
I disagree. DTM will inevitably blow out bright areas by making the overall scene indiscriminately brighter. I can immediately see this in many games and is shown early in the video I link below.

HGIG enabled for “non-HGIG” games is fine. HGIG on the C9/CX displays a highlight brightness up to around 700-800 nits. There are few HDR games that do not provide native adjustments, and I suspect even fewer games that attempt to display over 600-800 nits on peaks. I have yet to even see an HDR game that defaults to higher than 600-800 nits*.

The worst that could possibly happen by using the HGIG on a non-HGIG game (or a game with no native HDR settings) is that anything beyond 800 nits is clipped. It is unlikely that any games are sending more than this, and even if they are, you won’t notice.

Summary: just use HGIG for everything. It will take a day or two to adjust to the slightly dimmer screen, but you will enjoy highlights that aren’t blown out and blacks that are black.

HDTVtest video showing blown out highlights when using DTM ON with a non-HGIG game (around the 4 minute mark):


*There are games with known broken/poor HDR implementation that blindly send 1000/4000 nits in the signal, but these essentially don’t matter as the HDR is “faked” anyway and aren’t expected to appear accurately.

is he a gamer? no. also, he is not reviewing active gameplay, just pictures. for example, middle of the day, when it is sunny, view should be bright, but with HGIG, it is dimmer, what is not accurate at all, and when you play the game, you don't look at the sky how the sun is looking, it is so specific. also because of HGIG black crush occur, so you are missing a lot of detail all around. so it is game by game basis with SDR or HDR content. there are trade off which you have to decide. HGIG is not there yet to use in all games. but it is my opinion who is gaming on daily basis.
 
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is he a gamer? no. also, he is not reviewing active gameplay, just pictures. for example, middle of the day, when it is sunny, view should be bright, but with HGIG, it is dimmer, what is not accurate at all, and when you play the game, you don't look at the sky how the sun is looking, it is so specific. also because of HGIG black crush occur, so you are missing a lot of detail all around. so it is game by game basis with SDR or HDR content. there are trade off which you have to decide. HGIG is not there yet to use in all games. but it is my opinion who is gaming on daily basis.
I’m not going to refute each of your claims individually. I will only say that everything I write is accurate. I simply provided the video to show the effect that gamers will see when they enable DTM as it blows out highlights.
Use whatever setting you prefer, but on the PS5, it is ideal to leave HGIG enabled for every game. The only reason not to would be if you are the type who likes the “vivid”, overly bright image at the cost of blacks and highlight detail.
 

FrankWza

Member
it is not better or worst, it is just right set up or wrong. limited is good if you set it on low. while auto is best because it sets up whatever you are doing so you don't need to go and check your settings every time. there is a reason why everyone is recommending auto.
there is no much difference, important is it must be same setting on ps5 and tv (so auto auto, limited/limited etc)
As far as I know, Lg oled and PS4 or ps5 doesn’t play nice with full or auto because auto goes to full when connected to an lg oled so forcing limited on both is the way to go.
 

Rayderism

Member
So, what I get from this is to set first two settings NOT to barely visible, but to "just becomes invisible", due to how large of a change each tick up or down actually changes on the HDR setting screen of the console. On the last setting, I think cranking it all the way down would be horrible for games and that we should probably go for the "just becomes invisible" setting too. Sound about right?

I assume this should also apply to PS4 HDR settings too, right?
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
So, what I get from this is to set first two settings NOT to barely visible, but to "just becomes invisible", due to how large of a change each tick up or down actually changes on the HDR setting screen of the console. On the last setting, I think cranking it all the way down would be horrible for games and that we should probably go for the "just becomes invisible" setting too. Sound about right?

I assume this should also apply to PS4 HDR settings too, right?

I did that and now my HDR is simply perfect. Some have different results, not sure why. My set is 2016 4K HDR X70D from Sony, could barely hit 500-nits.
 
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TonyK

Member
What's your opinion about added input lag? I feel added input lag when enabling HGIG or DTM in a LG CX. In DTM OFF controller response is perfect, as I expect from a TV Gaming mode. But enabling those (or other TV post processing effects as sharpness) adds a bit of input lag I can feel : (
 

TLZ

Banned
I don't know if I should set my oled to high or low black. When I change this setting in PS5, auto, full or limited, there's no change at all. I only see a difference when I change it on my oled. This only happens in HDR.

In SDR this isn't the case. Changing settings in PS5 I can see whether auto is using limited or full.

I don't know what to pick in HDR.

Do I pick high or low on TV, then calibrate HDR on PS5 accordingly?
 
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sncvsrtoip

Member
As far as I know, Lg oled and PS4 or ps5 doesn’t play nice with full or auto because auto goes to full when connected to an lg oled so forcing limited on both is the way to go.
on ps4 is bug with auto detection so low/low is proper config, on ps5 no problem with auto/auto low/low or high/high doesn't change much(must be same on ps5 and lg cx) but auto/auto is recomendend by Vincent from hdtvtest (something aobut watching from blueray if I remember correctly)
 
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Gediminas

Banned
As far as I know, Lg oled and PS4 or ps5 doesn’t play nice with full or auto because auto goes to full when connected to an lg oled so forcing limited on both is the way to go.
i have LG oled and PS4, PS5. limited is a way to go if you set to Low, that is how it works. if you choose Full, you have to chose High.
 

Whitecrow

Banned
As far as I know, LG OLEDS handle better limited than full, as most TVs I think, as they are calibrated to give their best on movies and limited content. Color pop in limited is something to consider.

But it's not like Full looks awful or anything.
 
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FrankWza

Member
As far as I know, LG OLEDS handle better limited than full, as most TVs I think, as they are calibrated to give their best on movies and limited content. Color pop in limited is something to consider.

But it's not like Full looks awful or anything.
That’s what I thought but I guess based on the replies above it’s been better with PS5 than PS4. Im sticking with forced limited
 

Rayderism

Member
I did what I said in my above post and suddenly the HDR in Dirt 5 (PS4 Pro) no longer looks washed out on some tracks or too dark on others. It just looks correct now. Same with Star Wars Squadrons.
 

BR4DOKYBrazil

Neo Member
I bought my PS5 recently and went to follow Vicent's advice. As soon as I saw his video, I already guessed that the games would be dark setting the Minimum Luminance to 0 clicks. And that's what happened. All the games I tested are too dark and losing details in dark areas. I had to give 8 clicks up to get cool! Did anyone else have this kind of problem? I have the LG C2 and I use the HGiG.
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
The other method is to just use Dynamic Tone Mapping and calibrate with that. It results in 4000 nits tonemapping.
Write up on this other technique

hdtvtest way of doing it is good but Dynamic Tone Mapping is the standard in movie world. It straight up looks better in games with no HDR calibration. In games with HDR calibration like RE4, I just crank up the sldier to max, which again results in 4k nits tonemapped. I like the results.

So yeah, been using HGIG for 2 years but now I am kinda discovering the tv again.
 

thatJohann

Member
I bought my PS5 recently and went to follow Vicent's advice. As soon as I saw his video, I already guessed that the games would be dark setting the Minimum Luminance to 0 clicks. And that's what happened. All the games I tested are too dark and losing details in dark areas. I had to give 8 clicks up to get cool! Did anyone else have this kind of problem? I have the LG C2 and I use the HGiG.

well yea cause Vincent calibrates HDR in reference conditions (pitch black room) which rarely anyone has in their gaming setup. I crank up the minimum luminance screen on PS5 to the max and even then I struggle to see the symbol (my room is quite bright)
 
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OverHeat

« generous god »
The other method is to just use Dynamic Tone Mapping and calibrate with that. It results in 4000 nits tonemapping.
Write up on this other technique

hdtvtest way of doing it is good but Dynamic Tone Mapping is the standard in movie world. It straight up looks better in games with no HDR calibration. In games with HDR calibration like RE4, I just crank up the sldier to max, which again results in 4k nits tonemapped. I like the results.

So yeah, been using HGIG for 2 years but now I am kinda discovering the tv again.
P40L0 from resetera made this 🤢
 

BR4DOKYBrazil

Neo Member
I play in a dark room, especially at night. And yet I feel like I'm losing some details in dark scenes in the games. I come from a Sony LCD 950G. I don't know if I'm used to dark gray images or if I'm really losing details on OLED.

HGiG came with a huge promise and, in the end, didn't deliver anything?

Should I set DTM to ON and recalibrate HDR on the PS5 dashboard? With DTM ON, should I follow the first two steps just like what Vicent said: Until the sun disappears?
 

rofif

Can’t Git Gud
P40L0 from resetera made this 🤢
I don't know the guy and I don't 100% follow his recommendations but the usage of DTM is a refreshing idea but ONLY if you also calibrate with DTM I guess

I play in a dark room, especially at night. And yet I feel like I'm losing some details in dark scenes in the games. I come from a Sony LCD 950G. I don't know if I'm used to dark gray images or if I'm really losing details on OLED.

HGiG came with a huge promise and, in the end, didn't deliver anything?

Should I set DTM to ON and recalibrate HDR on the PS5 dashboard? With DTM ON, should I follow the first two steps just like what Vicent said: Until the sun disappears?
HGIG is relatively new and is created so a game and TV operate on the same settings. Like, You tell the game to output 800 nits and then you set tv to HGIG.
HGIG expect and REQUIRES you to have proper output from the game. It will cut off anything more than 800 nits (if that is max of your tv for example) and anything lower will be displayed properly.

Dynamic Tone Mapping just tries to use the most of your tv and works best with games without any calibration.
Be aware that 99.9% of games totally ignore ps5 hdr system level calibration. But the proper way to use DTM if you want to use it, is to calibrate that screen with DTM enabled it seems.
Or if a game is ignoring ps5 calibration but got it's own calibration screens and you still want to use DTM, the proper way would be to calibrate those screens with DTM. If the game gives you numbers,. then you can just max out the sliders when using DTM or put it at 4000 nits
 
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