New Windows HDR calibration app

This isn’t ideal but OTOH it’s a 1000% improvement over the prior tools and is the closest you can get without buying a color calibration tool such as a Spyder.

Three observations or advisories.

  1. This only will be helpful/useful on a VESAHDR400 certified or greater display. Any display that claims HDR and can’t hit 400 nit brightness isn’t worth the trouble and you will get far better image quality staying SDR.

OTOH the default calibration for virtually every HDR display with Windows, frankly sucks.

  1. The first thing that most notice and object to is that when you turn on HDR, the display will seem noticeably darker. This is normal to allow the fuller dynamic luminance range of HDR. You will get used to it after a bit.

  2. This is a bit more arcane, but a lot of HDR content especially on streaming services like Netflix and HBO Max also relies on an expanded color gamut, typically DCI-P3 95% or greater.

Dependent on the monitor manufacturer, you want at bare minimum 99% SRGB coverage and even then, you are likely to see banding in very dark and/or large color gradients, especially blues and greens.

That all being said, this is still orders of magnitudes better than what was available before.

How to use Microsoft’s new Windows HDR Calibration app - The Verge.

PS: It’s highly likely that you may be disappointed regardless, with most of the consumer level displays on the market :frowning:

PPS: OTOH if you are lucky enough to have something like Samsung’s new Odyssey ARK, or an LG C2 OLED, the results are amazing

1 Like

This is also why Windows stinks. It should run in SDR and not dim the display unless the content is HDR. Otherwise, you are sending gray levels that should be white to the display, leaving a dirty look. Apple does it right. MadVR on Windows also does it right. Windows, per the norm with things multimedia, does it wrong.