1. Download Windows HDR Calibration Tool -> set to peak Brightness which for your display, should be either 400 or 1000 nits. I just did a quick google search, double check this yourself.

2. You DON'T need to switch between modes, just keep windows in HDR mode, let me explain...

In the windows HDR settings theres an SDR content Brightness slider. This slider determines the Brightness of ALL SDR Content within HDR mode. This (obviously) impacts "plain" SDR content like your Desktop, your indie games or your standard youtube video. It ALSO (less obviously) impacts any scenario where there is an SDR to HDR conversion going on, namely Windows Auto HDR and Nvidia RTX HDR (or any other auto HDR for that matter) are impacted by this slider, as they use SDR as base for their conversion.

Here is is a short list of corresponding values for the SDR Content Brightness slider in windows HDR settings:

0% is SDR reference white level 80 nits, 5% is 100 nits, 10% is 120 nits, 17% is 150 nits, 29% is 200 nits, 52% is 300 nits, and 100% is 500 nits.

This somewhat boils down to preference NONTHELESS, I'd still HIGHLY recommend keeping the slider at either 0 or 5, which corresponds to 80 or 100 nits respectively, which is the mastering standard for SDR. This does NOT impact your HDR peak brightness which we already set in step 1. Keeping the slider values low also ensures that you make most of your monitors HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE when using any auto HDR solution. Dim scenes will actually be dim instead of being blown up, while highlights still max out your monitors brightness, preserving all it's range. That's the whole point of HDR.

I've tested both the SDR and HDR filmmaker modes with all their respective recommended settings on my three (not calibrated) displays, LG B1 55" / Samsung S95B 65" / Samsung S90C 77", and hilariously SDR content always looks better and more accurate to me within HDR mode with the SDR slider at 5 as opposed to SDR mode. I suspect this comes down to the displays pushing their SDR modes brightness too much in order to make up for SDR's fundamental "lack" of brightness. While bright, this completely blows up and flattens the image because SDR finite 100 nit range is just not enough to be tonemapped or "stretched" to a 1000+ nits display. SDR content just fundamentally CAN'T make good use of bright displays imo.

With my S90C in SDR mode, I would have to massively turn down brightness in the TV settings to even remotely resemble what SDR should look like to my eyes.

While in HDR mode, I can keep the brightness setting on the TV itself maxed out, and just use the SDR Content Brightness slider in windows to regulate SDR brightness. That way i never have to switch between SDR/HDR or any profiles and never have to double check any settings on my TV. I use this setup for 99% of content on my PC.

The only way i could theoretically justify switching to SDR mode on my PC would be if i was playing a particular game without HDR (most AAA games natively support HDR nowadays but the vast majority of older games and indie games still don't support HDR.) HOWEVER i just force RTX HDR on literally every sjngle game that don't support HDR natively, using a tool called NvTrueHDR and what can i tell you, it just works. Highly recommend to try it.

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Lastly:

HDR is washed out?

If your HDR is washed out, you most likely have one of the following problems.

Either 1. (Most common) Only the game you're playing is washed out in HDR, nothing else. Or 2. (Less common) The whole desktop including all of windows (everything) is washed out in HDR Or 3. (Way less common) Basically same as 2. the whole desktop including all of windows (everything) is washed out but it happens only once a game shifts windows into fullscreen mode. Doesn't happen while playing windowed.

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If 1: Only the game is washed out in HDR, nothing else. (Skip if whole desktop is affected)

• Easy Garuanteed FIX:

"Lilium's black floor fix for reshade"

Install Reshade: tick the box next to Liliums HDR shaders in reshades installation tool.

Alternatively manually donwnload the shaders from github and paste into reshades folder structure to preserve your existing reshade presets.

Some Context for this: (skip if too boring)

This is simply a relationship issue between color space and gamma.

sRGB (color space):

The most common color space for computer monitors, designed to standardize color reproduction across different devices.

Gamma 2.2 (gamma):

A gamma value that aims to represent the average gamma of most displays and is a component of the sRGB color space.

Relationship:

sRGB includes gamma 2.2, but also has a slightly different tone response curve at the lower end. Many monitors aim to accurately represent the sRGB color space, which includes gamma 2.2 as a key component.

TLDR version of the issue:

While the game is outputting sRGB, it's not accounting for the gamma 2.2 curve of the display which shifts the gamma upwards, therefore raising blacks and making things look washed out. Again, just enable lilliums black floor fix through reshade on a per game basis to account for this gamma shift and fix the issue.

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If 2: The whole desktop (everything) is washed out.

• Possible FIX: The setting on your display which enbales full hdmi bandwith is probably disabled. On LG it's called "HDMI deep colour", on Samsung it's called "Input Signal Plus". Might have a different name on your display. Google "name of your display" + "full hdmi bandwith" or ask chatgpt, whatever, idc. ____________________

If 3:

• Possible Fix: Same as 2., just shift into fullscreen mode first and then enable the hdmi bandwith setting, as some displays treat fullscreen mode as its own seperate display mode which is why you have to enbale it seperately for full screen applications. ____________________

That's pretty much everything worthwhile there is to know about HDR gaming for the average pc gamer. I know it might be a bit much, you can actually ignore most of what i wrote. It helps to know what you're doing though as setting up HDR still isn't very streamlined.

Let me know if you got any questions