I don't suppose you could send me the settings you're using to get the PA32UCX to play ball with MacOS HDR, please? I unboxed mine yesterday, but am really struggling to get HDR looking anything other than rubbish.
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Washed-out colours in the macOS Interface When Enabling HDR
- Thread starter JippaLippa
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Tested this with LG C3 TV - LG TV shows that Mac is sending SDR even when HDR is selected in MacOS. Suspect it is either a bug in MacOS Catalina as it is not actually sending HDR signal. When I try the same thing on M2 Mac Studio it shows HDR is sent from Mac Studio. Cable is HDMI 2.1 have RX 580 video card.
Not sure about Mac, but I just discovered that the same happens to macbooks and if you close MacBook and use only the external screen, the HDR works like a charm.
HDR may be trying to balance the colors from the retina screen with the actual external one in this case.
HDR may be trying to balance the colors from the retina screen with the actual external one in this case.
I didn't see your message until now. I came back to this thread to report something.
Under Image>Input Range> - try "auto".
Under ProArtPalette>Color>Gain - set all to 100.
The combination of these two settings make the PA32UCX look correct to me on HDR on Mac. You may find that only the Input Range setting is necessary, I haven't tried it alone.
No worries, thanks for the info!
Having spent some time, I've just gotten used to only enabling HDR to watch films. Iina playback isn't washed out at all, and looks incredible with good quality HDR content.
While I could just get used to the desktop colours, I find it very bloomy on my preferred dark mode themes on various websites, so stick to SDR most of the time.
There's also a 'Toggle HDR' button in a toolbar menu with BetterDisplay, so I haven't got to dig through settings each time. It'd be nice to have the best of both like the XDR displays, but I can live with toggling, as I don't watch HDR movies/TV all that often.
I wouldn't use HDR if I had to switch it on and off, including switching my main display between Windows and Mac. I'm way too lazy for that. The bloom, yeah I wouldn't use a mini-LED with a dark theme probably.
After reading this thread I took a look at the settings options on my DIY home-built iMac 27" 5K monitor - which has an iMac Pro 27" screen driven by an R1811 driver board sold by the Chinese specifically to work with an iMac or LG Ultrafine 5K screen.
This drives the iMac Pro screen exactly as one would hope for, producing a gorgeous display for my Mac mini M1.
As expected, enabling HDR in Display Settings on the Mac produces the washed out screen.
But buried in the R1811's internal settings menu (under Advanced) is an HDR - Off/Auto/HDR toggle (for HDR10).
Which I've just set to Auto and tested with YouTube, and it works amazingly!!
The Mac HDR button has to be unchecked (setting it on produces a doubled/garish effect), so the monitor driver board is handling the HDR detection.
One of the Chinese specs of the R1811 I had read says the HDR10 setting only works with 4K, not 5K, and the colour accuracy is probably somewhat inaccurate, but all the R1811's menu settings all still function and I can definitely get a good-enough picture to watch the YT movies.
And all the desktop colour settings for normal windows/wallpaper etc look as usual.
Very impressive.
This drives the iMac Pro screen exactly as one would hope for, producing a gorgeous display for my Mac mini M1.
As expected, enabling HDR in Display Settings on the Mac produces the washed out screen.
But buried in the R1811's internal settings menu (under Advanced) is an HDR - Off/Auto/HDR toggle (for HDR10).
Which I've just set to Auto and tested with YouTube, and it works amazingly!!
The Mac HDR button has to be unchecked (setting it on produces a doubled/garish effect), so the monitor driver board is handling the HDR detection.
One of the Chinese specs of the R1811 I had read says the HDR10 setting only works with 4K, not 5K, and the colour accuracy is probably somewhat inaccurate, but all the R1811's menu settings all still function and I can definitely get a good-enough picture to watch the YT movies.
And all the desktop colour settings for normal windows/wallpaper etc look as usual.
Very impressive.
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If the Mac is set to HDR "off" in HDR display settings, the display will never be sent HDR. AFAIK and from everything I understand, the fact that a YouTube video may have HDR will have no effect on the Mac or on the display unless the Mac is set to HDR on.After reading this thread I took a look at the settings options on my DIY home-built iMac 27" 5K monitor - which has an iMac Pro 27" screen driven by an R1811 driver board sold by the Chinese specifically to work with an iMac or LG Ultrafine 5K screen.
This drives the iMac Pro screen exactly as one would hope for, producing a gorgeous display for my Mac mini M1.
As expected, enabling HDR in Display Settings on the Mac produces the washed out screen.
But buried in the R1811's internal settings menu (under Advanced) is an HDR - Off/Auto/HDR toggle (for HDR10).
Which I've just set to Auto and tested with YouTube, and it works amazingly!!
The Mac HDR button has to be unchecked (setting it on produces a doubled/garish effect), so the monitor driver board is handling the HDR detection.
One of the Chinese specs of the R1811 I had read says the HDR10 setting only works with 4K, not 5K, and the colour accuracy is probably somewhat inaccurate, but all the R1811's menu settings all still function and I can definitely get a good-enough picture to watch the YT movies.
And all the desktop colour settings for normal windows/wallpaper etc look as usual.
Very impressive.
For me, with HDR set to on in Mac settings, and the display properly set to adjust to the Mac's admittedly wonky color levels and the monitor set to HDR on as well (auto would be fine if the Mac is set to on), the desktop looks pretty much identical to the SDR desktop next to it (or a bit better, bit higher contrast) but playing a YouTube video even if not maximized has the correct dramatic effect of dark darks and very bright brights.
It is a distinctive and unmistakable effect. Note this will only work (currently) on mini-LED and OLED displays, or at the very least one with older pre-mini-LED FALD. A regular backlight cannot produce the HDR effect, least of all in a situation where it it just a small window on the screen like for an unmaximized youtube video.
And it will only work if your display is capable of adapting to the Mac's color output. macOS doesn't have the settings Windows does to adjust SDR balance (the appearance of SDR while HDR mode is active).
Really HDR should be on all the time. There's no reason it cannot be (except maybe for photo editing work in 10-bit color or that kind of thing). And what about when it is just in a small part of the screen like a youtube video?
Apple is slow to add such quality of life features especially if they are not relevant to their own hardware. HDR works properly on their displays, and on third party ones with the settings adjustments to handle the macOS color levels, so Apple probably sees little reason to spend the time providing support.
The list of features that macOS ought to have could go on for many many pages. I notice something like that all the time that seems like hey, that wouldn't take a lot of effort to add or fix. It's just not their style to add new features unfortunately. Guess it's confusing to users if something new shows up?
I have to say, going back and forth between Windows and Mac, and looking at SDR screens next to the HDR screen, it is 100% correct as of Sonoma 14.0 on a PA32UCX. Anything else is probably a defect/shortcoming of a given display. It's 110% correct. Given the proper settings in the monitor's OSD that is.