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HDR monitor low brightness after exiting full screen SDR application

Anonymous
2023-02-01T18:10:42+00:00

Good day all,

Context:

I have 3 identical monitors running in "Extended display" mode that support HDR. "Use HDR" is turned on in Windows Display Settings, and "SDR content brightness" is set to 55.

Issue:

When I launch an application in full screen that doesn't support HDR (thus runs in SDR), my monitor adapts and everything is fine. But when I'll exit the SDR application and I get back on my desktop, the "SDR content brightness" seems to resets back to 0 and my monitor turns as dim as it can get. For example, I'll launch Minecraft (Java edition), play for a bit, then when I quit the game: my monitor's brightness drops to 0.

Every time I exit a full screen SDR application, I need to go back in Windows Display Settings and put "SDR content brightness" back to 55 where I like it.

This annoying process makes my Windows HDR experience bad enough for me to disable HDR entirely and use my monitor in SDR mode. What's more, this issue doesn't happen when I'm using my monitors with Mac OS, leading me to believe that this is a problem with Windows's HDR implementation.

Illustration (please note that I've edited the screenshots to better illustrate my experience):

Before I launch an SDR application in full screen

Using the application

After quitting the application

Solutions tried:

  1. I installed my monitor's manufacture's latest drivers;
  2. I keep installing the latest Windows updates in Windows Settings;
  3. I keep installing the latest NVidia drivers for my video card;
  4. I tried enabling / disabling "Auto HDR" in Windows Display Settings;
  5. I tried enabling / sisabling "FreeSync" in my monitor's settings and in NVidia Control Panel;
  6. Since I run a 3 monitor setup, I tried a variety of combinations including: enabling HDR only on my centered monitor, running my SDR apps (ex: Minecraft) on my left or right monitor instead of on my centered one, etc...

Specs:

  • Monitor: 3 x LG 27UL580-W (4k, 60Hz, HDR 400) - Extended desktop mode
  • OS: Windows 11 22H2
  • CPU: Ryzen 9 3900X
  • GPU: NVidia 3080 ti
  • RAM: 32GB DDR4
  • Storage: 2TB Nvme SSD

Would there be any solution to this issue?

Thank you in advance!

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Devices and drivers

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-12-18T16:00:57+00:00

    Hi,

    I recently enabled HDR on my Samsung monitor and have the exact same issue that you're experiencing.

    Although I haven't found a permanent fix for this, I have found a way to make it less annoying.

    When it gets dim, instead of going into HDR settings and manually readjusting the SDR content brightness, I use the shortcut to reset the graphics driver

    "Windows + Ctrl + Shift + B"

    This brings the monitor back to the correct brightness without having to go change anything in the settings.

    Not a fix unfortunately, but it makes it a lot less annoying and a lot easier to deal with!

    Hope this helped

    100+ people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2024-03-24T13:33:06+00:00

    I have this problem as well (Minecraft in my case as well), and I found a fix (NVIDIA only) that someone commented on the corresponding Minecraft Bug Report.
    You can go to your NVIDIA Control Panel, then to 3D-Settings, and set "Vulkan/OpenGL present method" to "Prefer layered on DXGI Swapchain".

    I do not know what it does, and it could probably potentially break things or crash games sometime, but it works for me, and it also allows me to tab out of fullscreen games a lot quicker.
    But use at your own risk.

    50+ people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2023-02-02T02:43:45+00:00

    Windows has known HDR issues (what's new? lol). You'll probably have to wait for an update someday to fix it. If they ever do manager to make HDR work well.

    There's too many odd problems that I can't remember all that I've seen about HDR. The Nvidia driver docs state to put the Windows HDR setting and the Nvidia control panel HDR setting to the same for a possible HDR solution:

    https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5072

    You may just have to live with whatever. That's HDR for you :)

    10+ people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2024-02-15T03:20:05+00:00

    Can confirm, same issue is happening to me, seems like SDR content brightness is being set to 0. Annoying this is still happening a year later.

    7 people found this answer helpful.
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  5. Anonymous
    2024-01-18T23:57:27+00:00

    I have the exact same issue. I find that if I move around the "SDR content brightness" slider it corrects the issue, but I have to do this every time I exit this application (Minecraft Java Edition in my case as well).

    6 people found this answer helpful.
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