2022 Jun

How to Enable HDR on Windows 10?

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. It is used to add a dramatic upgrade in brightness, color, and contrast of videos and pictures qualities compared to SDR, also known as Standard Dynamic Range. If we compare HDR to SRD then one can clearly say that HDR content looks more brilliant and detailed. You can deferentially notice an unmistakable difference while watching a movie, TV show, or even while playing games if you choose HDR over SRD.

HDR differs from SRD as unlike the traditional content provided by SRD, HDR provides a brighter, vibrant, and extensive range of color details for punchier image quality. You must have heard about HDR (HDR10, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, etc.) from different sources, nowadays this feature is supported by most of the newly launched devices. To enable this feature, you just need to confirm that your computer meets all the minimum requirements that are needed to turn it on.

Windows HD Color is a feature on Windows 10 which permits you to play High Dynamic Range (HDR) content on an HDR10 compatible display that is connected to your computer, whether you have a built-in screen on a laptop, external monitor, or TV.

In this article, we will share the steps to change a display from a traditional SRD to an HDR playback for apps and games. This article contains the detailed steps to the following topics:

Confirm HDR support on Windows 10
Enable HDR settings on Windows 10
Can’t see the Windows HDR toggle?

Confirm HDR support on Windows 10

If you want to see your videos in HDR mode, there is a minimum requirement of a few specific hardware and display for your laptop or desktop to enable this feature. So, let’s see about that specification to avoid the problems that can occur later.

Requirements for built-in displays

The minimum requirements to enable and play the content in HDR on your PC and laptop is mentioned below:

The April 2018 Updated version or even higher version of Windows 10.
A better Processor like Intel 7th Generation or even better.
Graphics with PlayReady support, graphics can be integrated or discrete.
A better Display of 1080p (1920 x 1080 pixels) or higher than that.
A display having 300 nits or better brightness.

Requirements for external displays

The minimum requirements for external displays to enable and play content and videos in HDR on Windows 10 device is mentioned below:

An HDR display that can support HDR10.
DisplayPort 1.4 or HDMI 2.0 or higher.
It is recommended to have a DisplayHDR certification, but yet it is not required.
Graphics with PlayReady support, graphics can be integrated or discrete. For example, you can use an Intel UHD Graphics 600 series or higher, or you can use Nvidia GeForce 1000 series or higher, or you can even go for AMD Radeon RX 400 series or higher.
You will also need HEVC or VP9 codecs so that you can decode 10-bit video.
You also need to install a WDDM 2.4 or higher driver on Windows 10.

Checking device information

Now if you are not sure about the version of Windows 10 or any other processor that is installed on your device, then you can follow the steps mentioned below:

Go to Settings.
Select the “System” option.
Next, click on the “About” option.
Now from the next projected option, under the “Device specifications” section, specify the type of processor your system have.
And for the next step, confirm the version number of windows 10 you have, under the “Windows specifications” section.

After you complete these steps, you can next proceed to the next steps to determine the further settings like HD Color Settings, etc available in the installation.

Determining HDR support

Now for the further steps, to get confirmed about whether you can play content on HDR or not, follow the steps mentioned below:

Go to Settings.
Select the “System” from the option.
Next, choose “Display”.
Now, from the given section, under the “Windows HD Color” section, confirm that the Pay HDR games and apps setting is available there.

Now, after you complete the above-mentioned steps and get confirmation about the “Pay HDR games and apps” setting that whether it is available or not, you can now watch all the supported videos in HDR.

How to enable HDR settings on Windows 10

You should be knowing that Windows 10 supports HDR as its default setting and has for several years. But now, Microsoft has planned to release an Auto HDR update option and if it is available once, it will automatically detect an HDR display and after detecting it, it will automatically adjust Windows accordingly. But, we need to do it manually till it is not available in the market by Microsoft. So, let’s see the steps to turn the HDR mode manually:

Go to the Windows 10 Start Menu.
Choose the Settings option.
Now from the Settings window, select the System option.
Now you will see Display settings and now after scrolling down, you will find the Windows HD Color section.
You will see a toggle button showing “Use HDR”, toggle it to On.

No, after this, when you will toggle the value to on, you will be forced to turn your monitor off and back on, or flicker. Do not get panic, it will only take a few seconds.

Can’t see the Windows HDR toggle?

The current version of Windows does not turn on the HDR mode automatically, but it is still able to automatically detect that the display you are using supports HDR or not.

The option of HDR toggle will not appear if Windows fails to detect an HDR-compatible display. To see if HDR is supported by the system or not, you can refer to the monitor’s specifications. To use the HDR feature, one needs to have specific hardware. Now you would be thinking of what specific hardware, then let me tell you that it includes an HDR-compatible display.

Not only display but your graphics solution must also support HDR. some examples of it include Nvidia added HDR with the GeForce GTX 900-series, AMD embraced HDR with the Radeon R9 300-series, and Intel threw HDR in with the Intel UHD Integrated Graphics which will be found on seventh-generation Intel Core processors. Further released GPUs will also support HDR monitors.

Now if you are sure that your hardware is compatible enough to support HDR but you still don’t see the HDR toggle option, then try using the steps mentioned below to tackle this problem:

In case you are using a laptop, then first of all connect it to power.
Now, turn it to refresh your monitor by turning it off and then on again.
Disconnect the monitor’s video cable to your PC and reconnect it.
Now, the next step is to swap out the HDMI or DisplayPort cable.
If in case, you are using an adopter to switch from one to another then you can try this with a different adapter or just find a way to connect the cables without an adaptor.
Now, check if the Windows 10, and your PC’s video drivers, are updated, if not, update it.
By using its on-screen menu, you need to manually toggle the value of HDR mode. It may vary from system to system. So, you need to do it accordingly.

How can fix HDR on Windows 10?

After reading the above section you get the idea of HDR which is used to improve the contrast and color of the video you see on the screen. Now discuss how can you fix the HDR when it is not turning on. The first thing you have to ensure that the display is compatible with HDR content. Try different sources to turn on HDR.

Use Registry Editor to turn on the HDR option

To open Run Press Windows key+R then type on run text box regedit and click OK button.
Go to the following location in the Registry Editor-
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\VideoSettings
Now you have to right-click on the EnableHDRF or Playback and click on Modify.
In the Data value field, type 1 and click on the OK button.

Use Command Prompt to turn on the HDR option

Type cmd. on the search box.
Click on Open as Administrator to open Command Prompt.
Enter the given below command and hit enter to execute
reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\VideoSettings” /v EnableHDRForPlayback /t REG_DWORD /d 1
After executing the command you have to exit the command prompt.

By rolling back the software on the device, HDR can be fixed. Additionally, you should check the ports for HDR and Display.

Conclusion

In this article, you have seen all the details of the HDR feature, how to turn it on, and what are the specific requirements we need to arrange to turn it on. Though it is still not a feature that can turn automatically till now, in this article steps are mentioned below, to turn it manually. We hope that your doubts would be clear after reading this article and it will be helpful to you.