Server Version#:1.41.3.9314
Player Version#:1.105.2.269-12a32491
I’m running into an issue where Plex for Windows is making the video darker when HDR is enabled…but only only sometimes. Let me explain:
If I launch Plex with HDR DISABLED, the Windows player applies no adjustments to the video, it looks identical to when it’s pulled up in VLC:
If I launch Plex with HDR ENABLED, the Windows player adds some sort of adjustment to the video. It’s generally making the whole thing significantly darker, but it also seems to be making the colors a bit more vibrant:
Now, If I launch Plex with HDR ENABLED, start playing, but then pause and turn HDR OFF, I get what I’m assuming the video feed should look like with HDR turned on. Highlights pop and the colors look more vibrant (please note, this is a different result than if I were to launch plex with HDR disabled):
This issue manifests across two different desktops, each connected to an HDR 400 and HDR 600 display respectively.
To further complicate things, it seems to be functioning as intended when I use my laptop’s internal display (HP Spectre 2024 OLED). On the laptop, if I launch Plex with HDR DISABLED, Plex applies no adjustments to the video, but if I launch Plex with HDR enabled, I get what I assume is the expected result, where highlights pop and colors are more vibrant (looks very similar to the last screenshot).
For reference, the source content is SDR and enabling/disabling HDR tone mapping on the sever does not change the behavior at all. I experience this across my entire library.
I’m not even sure if the Plex Windows Player should be applying any sort of filter when HDR is enabled either. When it works (like on my laptop), the end result looks absolutely gorgeous, so I assume it’s intentional, but I haven’t been able to find whether that should actually be happening.
