HDR Video Looks Washed Out on Your PC? How to Fix It

HDR video looks grey and flat when nothing between the file and your screen translates it - and the fix is usually two settings, not new hardware.

A 4K HDR film that looks dull, milky or greyish is one of the most common playback complaints on Windows.

Nothing is wrong with the file, and usually nothing is wrong with your screen either.

HDR stores brightness and colour in a different way from ordinary video, and something has to convert it for the display you actually have.

Why HDR Looks Washed Out

Ordinary video, called SDR, is made for screens around 100 nits bright with a standard range of colour. HDR10 and HLG video describe brightness on a much bigger scale, up to 10,000 nits, with a wider colour range on top.

If a player sends that HDR signal straight to an ordinary screen, the screen reads it as SDR. Bright parts get squashed, colours lose their strength, and the whole picture turns grey.

The cure is called tone mapping: squeezing HDR down into the range your screen can show, so the picture keeps its contrast. A good player or video renderer does it for you, once it knows it has to.

First, Work Out Which Case You Have

Not sure the file is HDR at all? Open it in MediaInfo and look at the video section. An HDR format line, or PQ or HLG under transfer characteristics, means it is.

Fix 1: Convert HDR for an Ordinary Screen

This is the case on most laptops and office monitors. The best free tool for it is MPC Video Renderer, which version 0.11.1 gave a new Measured mode that adjusts the conversion to every frame.

It works inside MPC-BE, the player it is built alongside, and in MPC-HC and PotPlayer too.

1. Install MPC-BE and MPC Video Renderer. Unpack the renderer to a permanent folder and run Install_MPCVR_64.cmd as administrator, or the 32-bit one if your player is 32-bit.
2. Select the renderer. In MPC-BE open Options, then Video, choose MPC Video Renderer under Video renderer, and click Properties.
3. Tick Use Direct3D 11. The HDR features need it, and any graphics card from the last ten years supports it.
4. Turn on Convert to SDR. It sits in the HDR box, under the line that says what to do if passthrough is impossible or disabled.
5. Set Method to Measured. It reads the real peak brightness of each frame, so dark and bright scenes both keep their detail.
6. Fine-tune SDR display nits. This tells the renderer how bright your screen is - try a few positions until the picture looks natural, then click OK and restart the video.

The other two methods are there if Measured does not suit a film. Metadata follows the brightness information stored in the file, and Fixed applies one setting to everything.

Press Ctrl and J during playback to show the renderer's statistics, which confirm the conversion is active. Our MPC Video Renderer setup guide covers the rest of the settings.

Fix 2: Let an HDR Screen Show Real HDR

If your monitor or TV supports HDR, it can show the film properly instead of a converted version. Windows only sends HDR to it when HDR is switched on, in Settings, System, Display, HDR.

You do not have to leave it on all the time. In MPC Video Renderer, set Windows HDR to Allow turn on/off (fullscreen), and the renderer switches HDR on for the film and back off when you close it.

Leave the HDR setting on Passthrough to send the film as it is. On budget HDR monitors that cannot get very bright, a tone-mapping curve can look better: try Spline, new in 0.11.1, or BT2390, with Nits set to your screen's peak brightness.

Fix 3: Everything Looks Dull With HDR On

With HDR switched on in Windows, ordinary SDR content such as the desktop, web pages and most YouTube videos can look too bright and faded, or too dim. That is a Windows setting, not your player.

In Settings, System, Display, HDR, move the SDR content brightness slider until white web pages look comfortable. On laptops the same slider can be labelled HDR content brightness.

Microsoft's free Windows HDR Calibration app from the Microsoft Store then measures what your screen can really show, so HDR films and games look right too.

Fix 4: Grey Blacks on Every Video

If ordinary videos look washed out too, the cause is usually a colour range mismatch. Video uses a limited range of shades, and when one part of the chain expands it and another expects it already expanded, blacks turn dark grey.

Check the output range in your graphics driver's control panel. Recent drivers from NVIDIA, AMD and Intel let you set it to Full for a PC monitor; a TV connected by HDMI may expect Limited instead.

Other Players That Handle HDR

• VLC Media Player converts HDR to SDR automatically, with no settings to change, which makes it the easiest choice.
• mpv has high-quality tone mapping built in and is a favourite for HDR films, though it has almost no menus.
• madVR gives the most control over HDR conversion, but needs a strong graphics card and some patience to set up.

Our comparison of the best video renderers explains when each one is worth it.

When the Film Will Not Play at All

A washed-out picture is a renderer problem. A black screen, no picture at all or an error message is a decoder problem, and our guide to decoders and renderers shows how to tell them apart.

Most HDR films are encoded in 10-bit HEVC. If Windows apps will not open them, the free HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer adds the missing decoder, and LAV Filters does the same for MPC-BE, MPC-HC and other DirectShow players.

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