Full Screen HDR Video playback with extremely pale color and dark image using AMD CPU and MadVR output

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800H
GPU: Vega Graphics
OS: Windows 10 20H2/21H1 (Also in Windows 11)
Windows HD Color / Windows HDR: On
Output - DirectShow Video: madVR

The problem only occurs when in full screen. The color and brightness become normal in windows mode, or full screen mode when there's anything over the video canvas, such as right-click menu, seek bar, etc.

Some settings to try:
1) Enable fullscreen exclusive mode in madVR settings
2) Change hardware decoding setting in LAV Video Decoder from DXVA2 native to DXVA2 Copyback

If that doesn't work, I will give additional suggestions.

Admin wrote:Some settings to try:
1) Enable fullscreen exclusive mode in madVR settings
2) Change hardware decoding setting in LAV Video Decoder from DXVA2 native to DXVA2 Copyback

If that doesn't work, I will give additional suggestions.

I tried both but neither worked. Here are 2 pictures I took with exact settings. Both are set to maximum screen brightness, one is window mode and the other full screem mode.

Open madvr settings and look at the devices list.

If any of the devices are duplicated (a bug on Windows 11), then right-click on the duplicate entries to remove them.

Then look at "identification" page of your output device. Check if "hdr formats" has a value other than "none".
Then look at "properties" page. Set native display bitdepth to 10bit or higher.
On the "hdr" page, select "passthough HDR to display". Now test playback.

If it still doesn't work, then you could select "tone map HDR using pixel shaders" as a solution. Then madvr will handle the HDR tonemapping instead of your TV/Monitor.

Admin wrote:Open madvr settings and look at the devices list.

If any of the devices are duplicated (a bug on Windows 11), then right-click on the duplicate entries to remove them.

Then look at "identification" page of your output device. Check if "hdr formats" has a value other than "none".
Then look at "properties" page. Set native display bitdepth to 10bit or higher.
On the "hdr" page, select "passthough HDR to display". Now test playback.

If it still doesn't work, then you could select "tone map HDR using pixel shaders" as a solution. Then madvr will handle the HDR tonemapping instead of your TV/Monitor.

Set native display bitdepth to 10bit or higher.

Only this one worked, thanks!

Good to hear it is working!

Does the "identification" page say your device is 8-bit? Or is the value unknown?

In the Windows display settings, check if the output is also set to 10-bit (or 12-bit). It might be 8-bit, which could explain why madvr auto detection did not work properly.

Admin wrote:Good to hear it is working!

Does the "identification" page say your device is 8-bit? Or is the value unknown?

In the Windows display settings, check if the output is also set to 10-bit (or 12-bit). It might be 8-bit, which could explain why madvr auto detection did not work properly.

Yeah, the madVR identification page says 8 bit. The Windows display setting recognizes 10 bit, otherwise it won't let me enable HDR mode.

I'm experiencing the same issue here. In my case, I'm running the monitor in HDR mode via 8 bit with dithering. 10 bit isn't available at the max refresh rate. Setting to 8 bit or 10 bit doesn't work. The only thing that seems to fix it for me was enabling tone mapping. But at same time, target peak nits had to be 540 nits or less. Going above that causes the issue to reoccur.

Is this a bug with the monitor? The display I'm using is the Alienware AW3423DWF which is still very new and is expected to receive firmware updates.

More likely a bug in Windows or in the graphics driver.

Do you have any ideas on what specifically might be triggering the issue? Knowing that could be helpful if I encounter a similar bug elsewhere.

Try if you can get 10bit at slightly lower refreshrate, like 120Hz.

Admin wrote:Try if you can get 10bit at slightly lower refreshrate, like 120Hz.

Switching it 10 bit at a lower refresh rate didn't make a difference. However switching the monitor to enable "source tone mapping" fixes the issue without having to enable MadVR tone mapping.

Thanks for the feedback. Good that problem is solved now.