Can 16" Intel MBP with 8GB 5500m not send HDR signal to TV?

[Ahheck01]

I'm running a 2019 Macbook Pro 16", Core i9, 8gb 5500m. It's connected to a 2017 Vizio e65-e0 which supports HDR10 input on HDMI1, through my eGPU, an 8GB RX 580.

When I connect a PC with an RTX 3070 and enable HDR mode in Windows 11, the Vizio switches into the much brighter HDR mode.

When I connect my MBP and switch to HDR mode, the TV doesn't notice, and everything just gets washed out. Is this expected behavior? Is the HDR mode effectively just non-functional?

 

[Dochartaigh]

I'm running a 2019 Macbook Pro 16", Core i9, 8gb 5500m. It's connected to a 2017 Vizio e65-e0 which supports HDR10 input on HDMI1, through my eGPU, an 8GB RX 580.

When I connect a PC with an RTX 3070 and enable HDR mode in Windows 11, the Vizio switches into the much brighter HDR mode.

When I connect my MBP and switch to HDR mode, the TV doesn't notice, and everything just gets washed out. Is this expected behavior? Is the HDR mode effectively just non-functional?

I don't know about the eGPU part, but YES, this is how regular Mac's work on most non-Apple external monitors/TV's in my experience (I've tested 6x 4K HDR-compatible TV's, by 4 different brands so far... oh, and 1x HDR monitor too).

You can see my posts here about it – which seem to be pretty silent in replies on this Mac-only forum which I find to be super weird... but I digress:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/hdr-non-hdr-content-works-on-macbook-pros-screen-but-not-on-external-monitor.2380374/

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/its-2023-still-no-working-hdr-video-players-iina-optimus-movist-all-fail.2380543/

TLDR thing to check: Use a HDR-compliant player (which there is also NO good one btw) with HDR content and you'll see that HDR content itself is in fact super bright and proper... it's just EVERYTHING else which is messed-up, grayed out, washed out, and lacking in color intensity too... so the TV DID notice HDR mode... but only for HDR content, nothing else, at the detriment of your entire computer.

 

[Ahheck01]

Well, that's a bummer.

Thanks for the reply. Hopefully MacOS 14 fixes this, but not holding my breath.

 

[Dochartaigh]

Well, that's a bummer.

Thanks for the reply. Hopefully MacOS 14 fixes this, but not holding my breath.

Probably not. People have reported this issue (from what I've seen/remember) since CATALINA... so ~4 years and 3 macOS releases later and still no fix...

The funny/sad part is according to Apple's (AppleCare) 'Senior Advisors' AND their engineering (higher level) counterparts they've never, ever, even heard of this problem.... despite a cumulative 2,045 posts and "me too" count on their very own discussions.apple.com...

...and I even told them... probably, what? If they're lucky maybe, just maybe, 1 out of every 100 people actually care enough to even google this, find those posts and hit the "me too" button, let alone make a special account there to post about their similar issue and/or contact Apple about it and open a case. I literally think probably more like 1 in a 1000... but regardless, I'm pretty confident there's easily at least a couple hundred thousand+ people with this issue... yet Apple STILL won't fix it, and denies it's even an issue seemingly...