Windows 10: Can't enable HDR on multi monitor system when all SDR displays are disabled

I have a multi monitor setup with 1 HDR-capable display connected via HDMI cable and two non-HDR capable displays connected via DisplayPort. I use HDR display for gaming and two others for work. I usually just switch between displays when I want to change my activity. My problem is I can't enable HDR on HDR display when all my SDR displays are disabled in Windows.

If only HDR display is enabled, when I press "Use HDR" in display settings, the screen blinks and then I see "Use HDR" switched off. If any non-HDR display is enabled, everything works fine. I found out that even display capabilities on "Windows HD color settings" page are different depending on whether my other displays are enabled or not. If only HDR display is enabled, it shows that my HDR display is not capable of streaming HDR video, but if I enable any other display, it becomes capable.


This seems kinda weird. I would expect HDR not working right when any other non-HDR display is enabled, but not the opposite. Probably anyone knows what can I do to enable HDR when all non-HDR displays are disabled?


I use Windows 10 2004, Nvidia GTX1060 video adapter with the latest drivers.

:)

 

Windows 10 HDR & SDR

Hi i would like to know is it possible in windows 10 to watch a HDR content on a SDR monitor so it looks like a proper SDR content.

Because more and more movies is HDR and on my HDR tv it is all great even in windows playing HDR content AND SDR content on HDR screen works properly. Problem is when playing HDR content on normal pc monitor picture is way to dark contrast is all wrong.
Yea i can fix it in some way in the players with the brightness and gamma sliders but it still doesnt look like the original sdr content.

I would like to fix this issue because soon al my video content will be in HDR but i am not always vieving this on HDR screen. Sometimes i would like to watch it on my phone or my pc or my friends house and in all those places with SDR screens looks way
worse than a normal SDR content.

 

Windows 10 HDR & SDR

Hi, jursleglov

If I understand correctly, you want to play HDR content on your PC with an SDR display. This may be possible, but it will depend on the app and probably also on hardware.

The Movies & TV app in Windows can support this on non-HDR laptops that have a sufficiently-bright display. The reason why it is limited to laptops is that there needs to be OS control of brightness settings (not available for external monitors) and some
OS influence of LCD backlight operation (Windows doesn't control the backlight but gives suggestions to the display driver based on the kind of content being shown).

 

HDR fullscreen problems

Version: Windows 10 17134

GPU: NVIDIA 1080 Ti (Driver 397.31)

Display: LG OLED 55" B6P

Problem: Windows HDR implementation barely works properly. Here's a list of issues I've seen so far:

1: SDR applications that are not exclusive fullscreen start in HDR mode, distorting the colors. If an OS overlay [such as the volume overlay] come up, the display will go blank until the overlay dissapears.

2: SDR applications that are exclusive fullscreen go blank. From what I can see, my display is in SDR mode, so I'm guessing there's a mismatch between Windows trying to output HDR content and the display receiving it. [And no, the problem is on Windows
end; the display can handle HDR just fine on other systems]

3: I've had a case where an SDR application, on exit, somehow resulted in the system HDR setting being disabled. I've also had another case where on exit the system is reporting its in HDR mode, but outputting SDR even on the desktop.

So in short: Windows is not managing HDR properly.