Apps and the desktop look washed out with HDR on
How do I fix apps looking dim compared to full-screen video when HDR is on?
Written by The CommonFixes team · fact checked by CommonFixes review desk
Last updated
Short answer
With HDR enabled, ordinary content is mapped into the HDR range using a brightness setting most people never see. If that SDR brightness slider is low, all normal apps are drawn dimmer than the HDR video playing beside them. The quickest thing to try first: raise the sdr content brightness — Settings, System, Display, HDR, open your display, and drag 'SDR content brightness'. Set it while a normal white page is visible until it matches how the screen looked with HDR off. This is the fix in most cases. Most people are done in about 10 minutes.
Full walkthrough below: 6 steps for Windows, rated easy.
Sounds like this
- •HDR video looks great but everything else looks grey
- •Whites look dull on the desktop
- •Turning HDR off makes it normal again
Why it happens
With HDR enabled, ordinary content is mapped into the HDR range using a brightness setting most people never see. If that SDR brightness slider is low, all normal apps are drawn dimmer than the HDR video playing beside them.
Work through these in order
0% done- 1
Raise the SDR content brightness
Settings, System, Display, HDR, open your display, and drag 'SDR content brightness'. Set it while a normal white page is visible until it matches how the screen looked with HDR off. This is the fix in most cases.
- 2
Set the display brightness high first
HDR panels only reach their intended output near maximum backlight. Put the screen brightness up before adjusting the SDR slider, or the balance will drift once you brighten it later.
- 3
Turn off auto brightness and content adaptation
Settings, System, Display, Brightness, and switch off 'Change brightness automatically' and 'Help improve battery by optimising the content shown'. Content adaptive brightness dims flat bright pages aggressively.
- 4
Keep HDR on while plugged in only
Settings, System, Display, HDR, and untick the battery option that disables HDR on battery, or leave it ticked deliberately so unplugged work uses normal SDR.
- 5
Use Auto HDR selectively
In the same HDR page turn Auto HDR off if older games look flat or oddly grey. It guesses at conversion and often looks worse than plain SDR.
- 6
Calibrate properly
Install the free Windows HDR Calibration app from the Microsoft Store and run all three patterns. It sets the correct peak and black levels for your specific panel, which no slider alone can do.
If none of that worked
If your panel is under roughly 600 nits peak, HDR will rarely look good for desktop work. Leaving HDR off and enabling it only for films is a legitimate answer, not a defeat.
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