System: latest server and windows app. Windows 11, HDR enabled.
Expectation: When playing SDR content via Plex Web or Plex for Windows, the brightness of the content will adhere to Windows’ “SDR content brightness” slider setting.
Actual experience: Plex Web (firefox) follows the setting, the setting, Plex for Windows ignores it
Here you can see I’ve moved the slider to either extreme, and Firefox Web follows the setting, whereas Plex for Windows ignores it and uses some sort of middle setting.
Ignore the weird screenshot tonemapping due to taking a screenshot while HDR is enabled; it illustrates the point that Plex Web (and all other apps) follow the SDR brightness setting, whereas Plex for Windows does not.
The SDR content brightness setting is super useful when it works, and allows me to keep Windows in HDR all the time, because then I can then decide how SDR content gets mapped. Watching SDR videos on YouTube or other websites, VLC, video editors, etc all works as expected. Plex for Windows is the only app that isn’t following the setting.
I double checked to ensure that my Nvidia drivers are not doing the tonemapping, and can see no indication that it is.
The brightness of any regular SDR TV screen is still much higher than the brightness of a typical PC monitor.
And that in turn is for good reason too.
So there are at least 3 peak brightness levels to distinguish.
1 PC monitors for regular work
2 SDR TV screens
3 HDR TV screens
Plex for Windows (and Plex HTPC too) are using number 2 for SDR content.
And that is perfect in my opinion.
Using 1 would be much too low for video content. But 1 is perfect for long, actual “work” sessions. Because if you dial in a brightness for 1 that is similar to a SDR TV screen, then your eyes will tire very fast.
It means that the simplistic Windows method for brightness adaption is not wholly suited for video playback in particular.
I am doing the same as you. Leave HDR mode in Windows activated all the time.
And I am using the same computer and screen to do office work, gaming, and video watching.
And it is a blessing that the slider is reducing the brightness of all conventional apps down. So that one can use a Light color scheme in Windows for regular work, without getting your eyeballs burned out due to their mostly white background.
At the same time it has been clear for years that the brightness you use for office work is not enough for a fully enjoyable “sit back” video experience. (I am talking about SDR video here.)
So you need at least 3 brightness levels. The Windows settings are only providing 2.
You are asking for shoehorning number 2 from above 2 into number 1.
And I am saying that this is a very bad idea and will only lead to more bad compromisies.
Someone desiring or not desiring it are subjective things and do not qualify something as a bug or not. In fact, I’m not even disagreeing as to whether there are use cases where it’s coincidentally helpful. That is just not the topic.
The topic is:
Fact: There is non-standard behavior. SDR content is ignoring SDR content settings.
Unanswered question: Is the behavior intentional (ie. is it documented? has a dev said anything about it?)
If it is intentional, can the brightness be controlled somehow, or are we stuck with whatever it defaults to?
If it is unintentional, should a bug report be filed? Does it have something to do with my hardware/drivers/OS?
