The Swap 2 helps HDR, at the least in principle. The place older tech leans on extremes, HDR captures the gradients between extremes higher, which creates vivid colours whereas additionally making certain that brighter and darker parts of the picture don’t lose finer particulars. The truth, nevertheless, is that the settings the Swap 2 supplies to customers are practically not possible to correctly configure, even when you observe Nintendo’s directions to the letter. The outcome? The upgraded graphics on Swap 2 may seem extra washed out than they’re meant to.
Luckily, YouTube knowledgeable HDTVTest breaks down precisely what you must know to get HDR working to the fullest extent.
The very first thing the Swap 2 asks you to do is to regulate the brightness till a portion of the solar picture is not seen. The issue is that this check solely applies to TVs with the choice to show HGiG on, which your set could not help. With out it, you may find yourself over-tuning the brightness of the picture to make one of many suns disappear.
One other hurdle to attaining the right settings is that the arrows don’t correctly replicate what’s altering in your display. As HDTVTest reveals, you may click on on them and nothing will occur typically.
When the Swap 2 asks customers to set its “Paper White,” followers are more likely to get it mistaken as a result of the console’s personal reference level doesn’t match the precise common commonplace for that setting, which ends up in a flatter picture.
HDTVTest goes over the issues in nice element within the video, diving into the technical features with gusto. However what are you really imagined to do with this info?
First, activate HGiG tone mapping, in case your TV or show helps it, after which regulate the suns. For paper white, issues get difficult as a result of probably the most correct setting requires understanding the precise values you used for the earlier display. When you’ve got an Xbox Sequence X, that may be a possible method to determine what numbers you’re really coping with — the console’s HDR sport calibration setup shows this info whilst you set brightness. Hilariously, you’re nonetheless going to must do some precise math with this workaround to have the ability to get a correct paper white setting.
In case your TV doesn’t have HGiG, you may depend on a extra normal rule of thumb; your max TML ought to be round 1,000 nits, and your paper white ought to land round 200 nits. The YouTuber additionally suggests counting on the joystick over the D-pad, because the buttons are weirdly imprecise. He additionally suggests setting your Swap 2’s HDR output to “appropriate software program solely,” as in any other case your console may introduce visible artifacts, and to show off display burn-in discount, which may additionally distort the graphics.
That’s…lots, simply to make sure you’re getting the very best colours on the Swap 2. The convoluted course of additionally illuminates why it’s really easy to get all of it mistaken. One YouTube touch upon the video summarizes it effectively: “What a large number. How is the typical shopper imagined to find out about this?”