[SOLVED] HDR: washed out colors in every game. Videos works fine.

Jan 25, 2019
2
0
10
Whenever I enable HDR in any games be it Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Destiny 2 and others. It seems to work in Far Cry 5 where I can choose to display it in HDR10 or scRGB. I know that my monitor supports HDR10.

I looked in the dxdiag and found this: Monitor Capabilities: HDR Supported (BT2020RGB BT2020YCC Eotf2084Supported )

specs:
res.: 2560x1440
ref. rate: 144Hz
monitor: Samsung C32HG70
Videocard: GTX 1060 6Gb
OS: Win 10 (1809)
 
Solution
If you're comparing a shot with HDR to one without, the top one by far looks more vibrant in color. It's probably not the best scene to show it, but there are clear differences, and I only have a 1080p IPS display with CCFT lighting. The difference should show even more on a 4K HDR capable VA panel display, which have the high contrast to show it better.

You say you have a capable display on proper settings with appropriate cables, but something must be wrong on your end if you don't see the differences there. Maybe try another game like Mass Effect Andromeda if you have it. The in game HDR was broken at the time I tried it on a Sony X900E, and the W10 HDR still had a bug where the desktop washed out when it was enabled, not to...
It seems this may be mostly fixed by installing the latest firmware update for this monitor, which Guru3D says made it able to play most HDR supported games in HDR10, and they say it looked fantastic. Note that Guru3D says the firmware version for the 32" model is 1016.2, but it's now 1019.2.

https://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/samsung_c32hg70_freesync_2_hdr_monitor_review,2.html

https://www.samsung.com/ca/support/model/LC32HG70QQNXZA/#downloads

That said, the washed out look of HDR in W10 has been mostly fixed by a W10 update last fall, so make sure you have the very latest build version of W10 (Build 1809 version 17763.253) in case some games won't run via HDR in game (less likely with the firmware update).

To check what build version you're on, type CMD into the search bar, then type winver into the command prompt and hit Enter.



 
If you're comparing a shot with HDR to one without, the top one by far looks more vibrant in color. It's probably not the best scene to show it, but there are clear differences, and I only have a 1080p IPS display with CCFT lighting. The difference should show even more on a 4K HDR capable VA panel display, which have the high contrast to show it better.

You say you have a capable display on proper settings with appropriate cables, but something must be wrong on your end if you don't see the differences there. Maybe try another game like Mass Effect Andromeda if you have it. The in game HDR was broken at the time I tried it on a Sony X900E, and the W10 HDR still had a bug where the desktop washed out when it was enabled, not to mention the game crashing when you hit Esc once HDR was enabled, but even inside the ship it looked fantastic and was very noticeable.

What exact brand/model of display do you have? I'll take a look at the manual to compare notes on what settings you're using. With some displays the required settings for proper HDR aren't so clear. On my Sony X900E, believe it or not no one I talked to at Crutchfield even knew what settings were needed, and when I proved it to one of them after getting it via a YouTube review that SHOWED what I was referring to in the menu, he had nothing to say. So double check everything, and don't listen to so called "expert salesmen".
 
Solution
No. Still not good :( I updated the firmware, already had the newest win 10 build. The colors are still washed out.
Here are 2 pictures for comparison:

https://ibb.co/tJM5b4P
You need to fix those links, both say page does not exist, and the second one isn't even an active link.

[Edited]
Oddly the 2nd URL shows as an active link where I quote it, but not in your post. Still says page does not exist though.