HDR washed out / crushed blacks on Philips 436M6VBPAB

[Windows Central Question]

Hi everyone,
I'm going crazy. One and a half months ago I bought, for the black friday deals, the combo Philips Momentum 43" 436M6VBPAB and a Xbox One X. I'm struggling with the HDR mode on this monitor, and Philips' assistance is evading my emails and requests.
In short, whenever I run a game on the Xbox One X that is HDR enhanced, the monitor goes into HDR mode correctly but the colors in this mode look really washed out, everything seems greyish and black do not generally match. I know there's a problem because in SDR mode everything looks 1000x better.
Browsing the web (Reddit, mostly) it seems a problem of HDMI black mismatch. The problem is that I do not have any settings related to that on the Philips monitor! I can only change "color depth" on the Xbox settings, and both "Limited (Recommended)" and "PC-RGB" do not solve the problem: HDR looks extremely grey/desaturated.
I know Windows Central reviewed this monitor recently and I hope to get some assistance from anyone, because the Philips customer support behaviour is really outrageous.

 

[pkcable]

Have you tried calling? Are you in the US? This website (GetHuman), lists a number and the procedure for getting to a live operator ASAP.....

https://gethuman.com/phone-number/Philips-Electronics

 

[Dimitri Creus]

hello, I encounter the same problem, I use an "xbox one x", but on the PS4 the problem is less obvious and the colors more beautiful. Did you find a solution ?

 

[Ryujingt3]

I would recommend calling them, like @pkcable says. It's better to speak with a real person for these types of matters, instead of email.

 

[dharrison80]

Hey there. I have the same monitor. I think I've even seen your post on another forum. If you set your color depth to 8-bit, with standard color space, then and only then will you see the illusive "closed eye" during calibration for brightness settings. I read an article recently about needing to set the Xbox X in 8-bit color depth for everything. HDR will continue to send 10-bit regardless even if it's in 8-bit depth (which is indicated by the fact that somehow I have all green check marks despite setting in 8-bit) But setting it in 10-bit depth causes an error within HDMI that hasn't been addressed yet. Also set chromo supsampling at 4:2:2 ONLY during playing games in HDR; nothing else. ALSO, know that this monitor for non-HDR specs oversaturates everything into the red. So when comparing the two, HDR will look "flat" in comparison. Lastly, if you want true HDR experience you'd have to pay 3 to 4 times the price than this monitor costs. I will say, that Star Wars Fallen order, Forza horizon 4, and tomb raider all look really nice in HDR. Usually the most recent games with HDR settings built in are the best. Other "older" games I have look like **** in HDR. All in all this monitor's non-HDR settings look fantastic. HDR settings are hit or miss. Oh, lastly, if switching to non-HDR during games you must also change it on the Xbox settings as well, not just the game, or else it causes an RGB error tinting everything in washed out yellow.

 

[Ryujingt3]

Hey there. I have the same monitor. I think I've even seen your post on another forum. If you set your color depth to 8-bit, with standard color space, then and only then will you see the illusive "closed eye" during calibration for brightness settings. I read an article recently about needing to set the Xbox X in 8-bit color depth for everything. HDR will continue to send 10-bit regardless even if it's in 8-bit depth (which is indicated by the fact that somehow I have all green check marks despite setting in 8-bit) But setting it in 10-bit depth causes an error within HDMI that hasn't been addressed yet. Also set chromo supsampling at 4:2:2 ONLY during playing games in HDR; nothing else. ALSO, know that this monitor for non-HDR specs oversaturates everything into the red. So when comparing the two, HDR will look "flat" in comparison. Lastly, if you want true HDR experience you'd have to pay 3 to 4 times the price than this monitor costs. I will say, that Star Wars Fallen order, Forza horizon 4, and tomb raider all look really nice in HDR. Usually the most recent games with HDR settings built in are the best. Other "older" games I have look like **** in HDR. All in all this monitor's non-HDR settings look fantastic. HDR settings are hit or miss. Oh, lastly, if switching to non-HDR during games you must also change it on the Xbox settings as well, not just the game, or else it causes an RGB error tinting everything in washed out yellow.

There's some good advice here, thanks for sharing. Here's hoping the OP read it.