I hate HDR

[Doc69]

Am I the only one that hates anything related to HDR?

I've started using Apple TV app lately to watch some shows and all of the shows have HDR. On my MacBook the screen is too bright and it takes me out of the story.

I understand it's a technical innovation to have brighter peaks etc., but it's truly a gimmick to me.

I constantly have to change my MacBook Pro's display from XDR > Apple Display to get rid of HDR.

I enjoy old movies without HDR much more.

You're not the only one! I also don't like it and definitely prefer SDR. But I also don't like super bright displays in general. And it's especially bad on the iPad or iPhone. It's like a super bright flash of light hitting you straight in your eyes if you suddenly play an HDR video, on Youtube for example, after viewing SDR.

 

[bozzykid]

Because it's related to HDR on Apple TV specifically. Whether it's the macOS/iOS/iPad OS App or hardware.

I have all of them and disable HDR on Apple TV shows/movies.

Your original post is about mac OS and the Apple TV app. This forum is specific to the Apple TV hardware not the Apple TV streaming service.

 

[SDAVE]

Your original post is about mac OS and the Apple TV app. This forum is specific to the Apple TV hardware not the Apple TV streaming service.

It was ment for Apple TV/HDR overall. Hardware works in tandem with macOS version of Apple TV

 

[Baseiseough]

I love HDR and specially Dolby Vision. Can't watch anything without it anymore. On an OLED tv, it's phenomenal. Bear in mind Dolby Vision is made to be watched in a pitch-black room.

With OLED and Dolby vision, brightness is not uniform on the whole screen and it reproduces reality in a much better way.

You can see all the subtle details in dark areas and feel the brightness of a light source in another area just like real life. Twilight scenes are beautifully real with the dim colors of the sky and the vivid bright colors of artificial lights of buildings or lamp posts altogether. You can feel the light falling on characters faces and how the positioning and size of it's source are casting soft or hard shadows. Backlights look really real too, blinding you a little so you can't quite clearly see the subject in front. It's an amazing technology. With HDR and Dolby Vision, you can feel the energy of light and the void of darkness.

When I watch something in SDR or an old movie filmed in 35mm, I feel like the image is really lacking compared to modern digital Dolby Vision content. With Dolby vision, I feel like the action is right in front of me. In SDR or an old film lacking dynamic range and full of grain, I just see a rapid slideshow of old photos. It breaks the immersion.

HDR on YouTube though, I agree, it looks bad. They should call it SDR with the brightness knob set at 2000%.

 

[TumbleDryer]

Im a graphic designer and I can't get my head round it half time. Just setting my AppleTV to HDR on my HDR capable TV simply washes out the entire UI and it looks terrible. If I set my Mac monitor to HDR it casts a red hue over anything HDR and SDR stuff looks fine. I've messed with colour profiles and calibration (stuff I use for work so I know how they work) but I just get completely inconsistent results so I too just turn it off as I need colour consistency for my work.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

I'm confused as to why this was posted to the Apple TV section. You can disable HDR in the settings if you don't want HDR on an Apple TV.

Doesn't work for me. When set to 4K SDR display, my TV still flashes an HDR indicator when playing HDR content through Apple TV 4K.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I've found it frustrating overall for many of the reasons already listed in this thread.

I tend to just prefer normal SDR versions of things, even often being just fine with a very clean 1080p version (BluRay).

To my eyes, a BluRay 1080p SDR version of something, on my OLED, is fantastic.

I think I'm getting old enough to just not care as much on some of this.

 

[bozzykid]

Doesn't work for me. When set to 4K SDR display, my TV still flashes an HDR indicator when playing HDR content through Apple TV 4K.

That means you have Match Dynamic Range set to on then. It will not switch to HDR without this setting.

 

[cynics]

MacBook Pro has a factory calibrated display...

The output device doesn't matter....

An HDR video signal is using a different and larger space plus wider dynamic range that engulfs SDR. The "HDR" part of the video signal doesn't "look" like anything, think more of it as coordinates for the display to interpret.

The only way it can "look" worse is if the coordinates are not being properly mapped to the display (calibration) for a variety of reasons.

I can't speak for a MacBook Pro however with TV's this is generally due to a mismatch of signal and display, for example the signal is REC2020 color space with the display mapping it to a REC709 color space.

 

[stikle]

HDR on my LG widescreen was washed out and sucked (Win11), so I turned it off.

HDR/Dolby Vision on my 77" LG OLED in my pitch black theater is AMAZING.

 

[Mrbobb]

I have my HDR TV turned down to its lowest brightness, they say HDR purpose is to mimic the outdoors, I say that's why I am indoors! Outdoor is too bright, washes out colors, that's why photographers say the best photos is taken at sunrise/sunset.

 

[chrono1081]

HDR pictures annoy me. I have some pictures of Switzerland that look fine on one screen and completely blown out on another.

 

[Lee_Mac]

With nearly 20 years in film and TV as a camera operator specialising in Steadicam and drone work, I've seen firsthand how HDR can transform visuals, or fall flat when mishandled.

One of the biggest issues with HDR content is improper exposure during capture. Shooting for HDR requires a completely different approach than traditional Rec.709 (SDR) workflows. HDR demands careful management of a much wider dynamic range, different bitrate considerations, and altered chroma subsampling. Too often, footage is captured using Rec.709 exposure settings resulting in clipped highlights or crushed shadows—then incorrectly graded and output in a wider colour space like Rec.2020 (also known as BT.2020).
Even when shot in 10-bit or 12-bit formats (common today), that higher bit depth alone doesn't guarantee proper HDR exposure. If the material isn't captured with HDR's expanded dynamic range in mind, and the post-production pipeline mismatches color spaces (e.g., ingesting Rec.709 footage but mastering to Rec.2020), the result is frequently an overly bright, washed-out image with desaturated colors and poor contrast.

Another major factor is display quality and calibration. Professional editing suites rely on high-end reference monitors—often costing tens of thousands, or more, that accurately reproduce HDR colour profiles, peak brightness, and wide gamuts when properly calibrated. A consumer-grade £1,500 monitor (or even many mid-range TVs) typically can't handle true HDR faithfully: it may lack the necessary brightness, colour accuracy, gamut coverage, or automatic colour-space switching. Many don't calibrate correctly or default to the wrong settings.
In our suites, we often use mid-range LG or Samsung TVs as secondary reference displays for Dolby Vision or HDR10 checks mainly to spot glaring issues and ensure basic compatibility for TV deliverables rather than trusting them as primary references.
When both capture and viewing are done right, HDR is far from a gimmick it delivers genuinely superior contrast, detail in highlights and shadows, and richer colours. However, simply toggling an "HDR" output setting in editing software (as many YouTubers do) doesn't magically create true HDR content.
Without proper exposure, colour-space management, and viewing on capable hardware, it often just looks worse than well-executed SDR.

In short HDR's potential is real, but poor implementation on set, in post, or at home undermines it and gives the format a bad reputation it doesn't deserve.

 

[LionTeeth]

With nearly 20 years in film and TV as a camera operator specialising in Steadicam and drone work, I've seen firsthand how HDR can transform visuals, or fall flat when mishandled.

One of the biggest issues with HDR content is improper exposure during capture. Shooting for HDR requires a completely different approach than traditional Rec.709 (SDR) workflows. HDR demands careful management of a much wider dynamic range, different bitrate considerations, and altered chroma subsampling. Too often, footage is captured using Rec.709 exposure settings resulting in clipped highlights or crushed shadows—then incorrectly graded and output in a wider colour space like Rec.2020 (also known as BT.2020).
Even when shot in 10-bit or 12-bit formats (common today), that higher bit depth alone doesn't guarantee proper HDR exposure. If the material isn't captured with HDR's expanded dynamic range in mind, and the post-production pipeline mismatches color spaces (e.g., ingesting Rec.709 footage but mastering to Rec.2020), the result is frequently an overly bright, washed-out image with desaturated colors and poor contrast.

Another major factor is display quality and calibration. Professional editing suites rely on high-end reference monitors—often costing tens of thousands, or more, that accurately reproduce HDR colour profiles, peak brightness, and wide gamuts when properly calibrated. A consumer-grade £1,500 monitor (or even many mid-range TVs) typically can't handle true HDR faithfully: it may lack the necessary brightness, colour accuracy, gamut coverage, or automatic colour-space switching. Many don't calibrate correctly or default to the wrong settings.
In our suites, we often use mid-range LG or Samsung TVs as secondary reference displays for Dolby Vision or HDR10 checks mainly to spot glaring issues and ensure basic compatibility for TV deliverables rather than trusting them as primary references.
When both capture and viewing are done right, HDR is far from a gimmick it delivers genuinely superior contrast, detail in highlights and shadows, and richer colours. However, simply toggling an "HDR" output setting in editing software (as many YouTubers do) doesn't magically create true HDR content.
Without proper exposure, colour-space management, and viewing on capable hardware, it often just looks worse than well-executed SDR.

In short HDR's potential is real, but poor implementation on set, in post, or at home undermines it and gives the format a bad reputation it doesn't deserve.

This is terrific insight thank you very much for posting about it. Really cool read

 

[Lee_Mac]

This is terrific insight thank you very much for posting about it. Really cool read

No problem. Hope it dispels some of the myths about the subject 🙂 It's not an easy subject for us in the industry to truly understand so I can see why people get frustrated with watching content.
One thing I will add is HDR is not just about brightness. It's basically about a wider exposure range so you can bring details out in the shadows is one of the biggest advantages, especially in very bright scenes. And oppositely bring out details in very dark scenes. It's not about crushing the blacks and some people seem to think it is, that's more to do with the screen tech.

 

[Böhme417]

I will say that I don't particularly care to watch HDR content on my MBP, but it is near perfection watching it on my OLED TV. As someone else said, you are just too close to your monitor to watch it, so it comes off way too bright a lot of the time and is somewhat fatiguing. When you're watching HDR content on a TV at the proper distance and in a room lit for the purpose of watching the TV, it's a much better experience.
I will add that it also depends on the content itself. Media that has been tweaked just to have "HDR" slapped on it can look like crap. It can look artificial and definitely takes away from the content—something you might get from older titles repackaged to sell (including content that has been upscaled to 4K instead of native 🤮).
Lastly, while I know we are in the tv forum, you can't beat a proper 4K disc and player for watching 4K and HDR content.

 

[jonku]

delete

 

[Lee_Mac]

Lastly, while I know we are in the tv forum, you can't beat a proper 4K disc and player for watching 4K and HDR content.

And that is down to the bitrate difference between Blueray and streaming. Although I seem to remember ATV is at a higher level than say Netflix or Paramount etc, would need to pull the spec sheets up for the exact figures. Still, Blueray is at minimum around twice the bitrate over streaming/downloads. It of course has a massive impact on picture quality, especially in darker scenes.

 

[mtbdudex]

Definition of hate:
“Hate is an intense emotion of dislike, loathing, or animosity, often accompanied by rage or disgust. It involves a strong aversion or a desire to avoid, destroy, or cause evil toward someone or something. As a verb, it means to passionately dislike, while as a noun, it refers to the feeling of deep hostility. “

@SDAVE Wow, there are so many things in life, but come on now, “hating” HDR ?


Seems what you “dislike” are some content you watch (movies - disc / streaming / etc, YouTube, etc) done “wrong” in the 3 workflow phases for HDR;

1) Pre-Production & Shooting
2) Post-Production (Editing & Grading)
3) Rendering and Delivery

Each needs to be done correctly & carefully.

Definition of HDR:
HDR (High Dynamic Range) is an imaging and display technology that expands the contrast and color range between the brightest whites and darkest blacks, creating more realistic, detailed visuals compared to Standard Dynamic Range (SDR). It preserves shadow and highlight details simultaneously, offering a more lifelike, vivid image for TVs, gaming, and photography.

Key Aspects of HDR:
HDR is used to enhance 4K video streaming, UHD Blu-ray discs, smartphone photography (capturing high-contrast scenes), and PC/console gaming.
Synonyms/Related Terms: High Dynamic Range, Enhanced Contrast Imaging, Extended Dynamic Range, HDR Imaging.
Common names include HDR10 (standard), HDR10+ (dynamic), and Dolby Vision (dynamic).
Visual Impact: It prevents washed-out highlights and crushed shadows, making the image look closer to what the human eye sees.