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Let's say I have a display which is HDR-capable with a max brightness of 1000 nits in HDR mode, and a max brightness of only 400 nits in SDR mode. I have the display connected to a HDR-capable Windows machine. As an example of SDR content, I've set the Windows desktop background to white color. Since the Windows desktop isn't HDR content, the desktop white appears as 400 nits on the display. Is it possible to force the display to show it at 1000 nits instead?

What I've tried: Some web searches pulled up this hardware being used to show content as HDR, but I haven't been able to test this. Or, there is the option to choose HDR under color settings in the NVIDA control panel (not relevant for my computer since my graphic card is Intel, and the Intel graphics command center doesn't seem to have the option to choose HDR).

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    What would you hope to gain? There is no enhanced gamut in the signal, anything you add would just be guesswork processing, i.e. not representative of the intended image. 1000nits on a white 'paper' would be eye-searing. 1000nits is for extreme highlights, not entire screens.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Jul 21, 2022 at 16:48
  • You are right, this is not practical for viewing or any typical use of a monitor, but it happens to be relevant for a task.
    – KAE
    Commented Jul 21, 2022 at 20:09
  • Are you even certain your screen can generate 1000nits across the entire display? I know the new Apple Studio displays can, but I don't think it's common. I'm still trying to figure out what you want to measure. I have fully calibrated displays here & they're calibrated & profiled to be accurate at 120nits [cd/m]
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Jul 22, 2022 at 9:37
  • The actual numbers aren't important: substitute whatever fullscreen max brightness the display could produce in HDR mode, say 700 nits, and assume that in SDR mode, the fullscreen max brightness is much lower, say 300 nits. So, how do I get the HDR-capable display to display a (mostly) white screen at 700 nits when it is generated by a non-HDR utility, such as setting the Windows desktop to white?
    – KAE
    Commented Jul 22, 2022 at 13:36
  • I'd still love to learn what you are actually trying to achieve here, because this is really starting to feel like an XY Problem. A screen's maximum brightness is not controlled by 'HDR'. HDR is a widened gamut, it does not give the screen 'magical' abilities to be brighter than otherwise. That's a profiling issue.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Jul 22, 2022 at 14:01

1 Answer 1

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Assuming you are using Windows 10 or 11:

In the Windows display settings, enable HDR mode. This has the effect of always sending HDR10 to the display, even if HDR apps aren't used. Output from SDR apps will be converted on the fly so that they are displayed accurately in HDR mode.

Once HDR is enabled, in the advanced options you will get access to a "HDR/SDR brightness balance" slider that allows you to customize the brightness level of SDR content. Using this slider you can make SDR apps as bright as you like, up to the HDR brightness limit of your monitor.

Note that this will only work for brightness, not gamut mapping (i.e. color saturation). I'm not aware of any way to change the way Windows gamut-maps SDR apps to the HDR10 BT.2020 "container".

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  • This made a Windows white window, which is SDR content, 500 nits instead of 400 nits, so it's a good boost. I wanted to compare it to "real" HDR brightness, so I played a HDR video with a white region. That was 600 nits, so a bit higher. You have a good caveat on the gamut: I would like to use the full gamut that my HDR display can produce. I'll think about how.
    – KAE
    Commented Jul 26, 2022 at 15:56

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