Windows 10 what exactly is the option under Display settings: "HDR and advanced color"?

[Windows Central Question]

When I enable the option the only difference is that my screen is dimmer. I do not know what else it may do nor is there any explanation anywhere. Also it was turned on after the creators update. There is a link to learn more about it but it leads to a page that has nothing to do with that.

Please help ?

 

[Tempest790]

re: Windows 10 what exactly is the option under Display settings: "HDR and advanced color"?

The quick answer is that HDR (High Dynamic Range) allows for more colors and better color depth. Most new UHD Blu-Ray and UHD TV's support the HDR standards.

That said, good luck trying to figure out the Windows 10 implementation of HDR. I have my PC (with and nVidia GTX 1050) attached to my Vizio P75 TV. Enabling HDR on both my TV and Windows dims the display some, makes the text seem blurry, but video seems fine. If I play and HDR video from say YouTube, am I really seeing HDR quality? Frankly, I don't know.

HDR comes in two formats - HDR10 and Dolby Vision. My TV supports both. Blu-Ray supports HDR10 as the UHD standard with 10 bits per channel color support (over 1 billion total colors). Dolby Vision is optional on Blu-Ray with 12 bits per channel color (over 5 billion colors).

However, there is very little information on setting up HDR and support material. I did a lot of research in the past few weeks on the subject, but it's so new there doesn't seem to be any good definitive test video. Watching UHD non-HDR and UHD HDR video sample both look excellent on my TV. In fact, one UHD Blu-Ray (Rocky Mountain Express) is not in HDR actually even though it claims it on the box.

How can I tell? The only way on my TV is using the included smart remote and going to the Display Information setting. From there I can see the framerate (24p for example), resolution, and whether HDR is active or not. But is it HDR10 or Dolby Vision? There is no way to know.

Even though movie studios and TV manufacturers are touting the benefits of HDR, people may or may not even know if they are actually watching HDR. That's pretty pathetic in my book.

Take for example the movie Deadpool. I watched it when I got my new TV and UHD player. It looked fantastic. The video quality, colors, detail were astounding. Imagine my surprise weeks later that I didn't even watch it in HDR because my TV has that option turned off by default. ???

So back to your original question on Windows 10 HDR mode. I'm assuming that it will be used for gaming since DirectX supports 10 bit color. There is no documentation from Microsoft what the HDR does or even if it's calibrated properly.

Hopefully soon we'll see more information on HDR. I really want to see a calibration disc like Disney's Wow or something so I can be sure I'm watching HDR video correctly.