Win11 Low Quality HDR. A Widespread Issue.

Copper Contributor

ProblemHDR Games and Desktop images display a gamma curve that shifts too much toward white, resulting in washed out images.

WhereWin11 23H2

Why:

"Windows 11 uses what's called the piecewise sRGB transfer function, originally intended for computer/web use. This curve is technically the tone response that gamma 2.2 approximates, but for various reasons it wasn't commonly used as an actual display EOTF. Gamma 2.2 took over as the pseudo-standard, and almost every computer monitor still uses it to this day.

Because it's so prolific, almost all web content and computer games are color graded using a gamma-2.2 outputting monitor, intentionally or not. For Microsoft to decide using piecewise sRGB as the virtual SDR curve was a mistake; it forcibly renders almost all apps and web content to look incorrect, some more than others." Source 

CommentsThe Windows HDR Calibration Tool tries to correct for this, but the calibration is overridden in many monitor, graphics card configurations.

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