HDR Monitors

[SharpeXB]

Just upgraded to one of these myself. An LG in signature below.

Although DCS doesn’t support HDR I have other games which do.

But wow, even in DCS a monitor which meets the specs for HDR performs really well. The contrast ratio alone is quite outstanding. Obviously the task of spotting and ID ing other aircraft is aided greatly by a display that generates a high level of brightness and contrast.

Many people I’m sure are running DCS on a 4K HDR TV already and can see what a benefit this is. I guess the point here is if you’re wondering whether an HDR monitor is worthwhile in a non HDR game like DCS the answer is yes. The real HDR spec requires a contrast ratio of 20,000:1 which isn’t achievable for an LCD without local dimming, a feature I don’t think you’ll find on monitors. In any case I don’t know how well that handles the small specks we are always trying to see in a flight sim.

In all the reviews of monitors I see that criticism of meeting the 1,000 nit brightness level not being achieved but remember this is about contrast not necessarily brightness. It’s possible for HDR monitors to meet the brightness level and still have a low contrast ratio so it’s worth researching. Again without local dimming an LCD wont get to a 20,000:1 ratio. So a good static contrast ratio is worth looking for.

Regardless if a bright screen is capable of a very high static contrast ratio it will perform really well in DCS.

HDR has to be enabled in Windows 10 through the Systems menu. 10-bit color should be selected in the video card control panel.

It will switch off automatically when DCS is launched and return the display back to its non HDR mode. Games handle this differently, some require Windows desktop to be running in HDR, others will possibly switch it on or off automatically within the game.

Windows desktop performs a bit odd in HDR as it probably wasn’t designed with it in mind. I experienced some really off colors and dithered text but found a preset on the monitor which fixed that.

 

PS a mistake I now realize, it should have been obvious, but you shouldn’t run the HDR mode in Windows with SDR content. It will just look off. Some games will require you to manually switch this on and some will do it automatically. Hopefully in the future Windows makes this more streamlined.

Edited January 1, 2019 by SharpeXB