HDR Monitors: What You Need to Know Before Buying

What is HDR Monitor?

What does HDR do on a Monitor?

• Boosts Contrast Ratio: HDR monitors can produce substantially brighter whites and deeper blacks than regular panels. This greater range results in a more dramatic contrast, letting the image stand out and appear more lifelike. Consider a scene with a bright sunlit landscape; HDR allows the monitor to show the sun's brightness while also exposing details in the dark shadows.
• Expands Color Gamut: Standard monitors typically display a limited range of colors. HDR monitors may display a significantly wider color range, similar to what our eyes see in the actual world. This results in richer, more bright colors on your screen, making games, movies, and even images appear more spectacular.
• Improves Detail in Bright and Dark Areas: By increasing brightness and deepening blacks, HDR shows greater detail in both highlights and shadows. This is especially important for content with contrasting features, as it prevents you from missing tiny alterations in gloomy settings or losing detail in brilliant explosions during gameplay.
• Enables Smoother Color Transitions: Many HDR monitors use 10-bit color depth, which allows for a greater variety of color variations than regular 8-bit monitors. This produces smoother transitions between hues, avoiding banding - a color banding effect in which colors appear blocky rather than gradually changing.

Video related to HDR Monitors

How Does HDR Work?

1. Increased Peak Brightness: Compared to conventional monitors, HDR displays have a higher peak brightness level. This helps them to recreate brighter highlights, such as the sun or a camera flash, more vividly. Consider a scene with a firework exploding; an HDR monitor will show the explosion's peak brilliance more precisely.
2. Deeper Black Levels: HDR monitors attain deeper black levels, allowing them to display darker areas with less backlight bleed. This results in a larger contrast ratio, or the difference between the brightest and darkest regions of an image. Deeper blacks make shadow details more visible, resulting in a more nuanced image.
3. Wider Color Gamut: Standard monitors have a restricted range of colors that they can display. HDR uses a broader color gamut, which encompasses a bigger fraction of the color spectrum visible to the human eye. As a result, colors appear richer and more brilliant, making them more realistic. Consider lush green landscapes or blazing sunsets; HDR portrays them with a wider and more accurate color range.
4. Tone Mapping: Not all HDR content is made equally. To achieve accurate visual display, HDR monitors use tone mapping. This method adjusts the brightness of the HDR material to meet the monitor's capabilities. Tone mapping guarantees that details are neither lost in highlights nor squashed in shadows, resulting in the highest image quality from the original material.
5. Panel Technology: An HDR monitor's panel technology also influences its performance. OLED displays, for example, have outstanding contrast since each pixel generates its light and can be turned off to get pure black. LED panels with Full-Array Local Dimming (FALD) can achieve comparable results by dimming backlight zones to produce deeper blacks.

HDR vs SDR Monitor

• Brighter Highlights: HDR monitors can show substantially brighter whites, which adds realism to scenes with high light sources, such as explosions or sunlit landscapes.
• Deeper Blacks: On HDR panels, blacks appear deeper and richer, leading to better image clarity and detail in dark regions.
• Wider Color Gamut: HDR monitors can display a wider range of colors than SDR panels, resulting in a more brilliant and realistic image palette.

Video related to HDR vs SDR Monitor

Things to Consider Before Buying an HDR Monitor

• HDR Standards: There are several HDR standards, each with unique characteristics. Popular standards include HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma). Not all displays and content adhere to all requirements.
• Peak Brightness: Higher peak brightness levels result in a more powerful HDR experience. Aim for at least 400 nits for basic HDR, with 1000 nits or above providing a superb HDR experience.
• Local Dimming: Local dimming technology boosts contrast and enhances HDR pictures. However, the number and quality of dimming zones may differ between monitors.
• Color Gamut: Wider color gamuts, such as DCI-P3 or Rec. 2020, provides a broader range of colors displayed, but material must be mastered for these specific gamuts to fully benefit.
• Refresh Rate: The refresh rate is how many times per second the image on your screen refreshes. For a smooth HDR gaming experience, choose a display with a refresh rate of 144Hz or above.
• Content Compatibility: Not all HDR content is made equal. Streaming providers such as Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime provide HDR content in a variety of formats. Similarly, certain games and Blu-ray discs support HDR. Ensure that the content you intend to consume is compatible with the HDR monitor and format you've chosen.
• Calibration for Optimum Performance: Out-of-the-box HDR performance on monitors varies. Calibration tools and software can help you fine-tune brightness, contrast, and color accuracy to get the optimum HDR experience. Some high-end monitors even include built-in calibrating functions.
• Price: HDR monitors are often more expensive than their SDR counterparts. Determine whether the visual enhancement is worth the additional expense.
• Hardware Compatibility: Make sure your graphics card (for PC) and source devices support the HDR format that your chosen monitor uses.

How to Turn off HDR on LG Monitor?

1. Right-click on a space on your desktop and choose Display settings.
2. Click on Advanced Display Settings.
3. Locate the display you wish to change (if you have numerous monitors connected).
4. Under Display properties, select Display adapter properties.
5. Go to the Tab section and select the HDR tab (if available). You might have to scroll down to locate it.
6. If the HDR tab is there, there should be an option to turn the HDR on or off. Disable HDR and then click Apply.

1. Download and install the most recent LG On-Screen Control software for your specific LG monitor model from the LG website.
2. Launch the LG On-Screen Control program.
3. The available settings may vary based on your monitor model, but look for a section titled Picture or Display.
4. There may be an HDR option available in the Picture/Display settings. Disable HDR and apply your adjustments.

Is HDR Right for You?

• Content Consumption: If you primarily use your monitor for web browsing, document editing, or simple productivity programs, an HDR monitor may not be a game changer.
• Budget: HDR monitors are often more expensive than their SDR counterparts. Determine whether the visual enhancement is worth the additional expense.
• Hardware Compatibility: Make sure your graphics card (for PC) and source devices support the HDR format that your chosen monitor uses.

Conclusion