Home games Xbox Series X: Auto HDR Mode Tested – What Works and What Doesn’t

Xbox Series X: Auto HDR Mode Tested – What Works and What Doesn’t

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Back-compat support is a huge boon to Series X at launch – allowing us to revisit games going all the way back to the original Xbox. Auto HDR is a new mode on Series S and X that lets us enhance classic games – from Panzer Dragoon Orta, to Arkham Knight – that never received a true HDR option from the developers. How does it fare in practise? And does it always work across a wide spread of titles?

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48 comments

@chrisvillan88 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

It's a pleasure watching this video now when I have a TV that has the peak brightness capabilities and good black levels. As opposed to my old £350 TV which was too dark and had awful blacks

@Squishmallows24 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

It’s rare that a game has good hdr implementation. Some games are too dark and have a wash out look to them and others look great but have eye scorching huds.

@HikingFeral May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

Auto HDR has come a long way. I use it on PC with the SDR game Final Fantasy 14 and the difference is incredible. It takes a little tweaking to go from too bright and gaudy to amazingly enhanced but once it's done it looks amazing permanently. At one point the snow capped hills of Coerthas were burning my eyeballs out it was so bright but it's easy to tune.

@KillSwitchNY May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

Just started replaying the Gears Of War series. The 1st one remaster was good but i thought it would ruin 2 and 3 for me. Not so, once i discovered how to switch to HDR and enhanced FPS. They hold up amazingly with the upgrades.

@dpptd30 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

7:06 Jesus Christ my eyes!

@svenk5221 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

I own a series s and a ps4 pro and since a week a nice LG 4K Tv with HDR10. And it’s just amazing what a difference good HDR makes. I’ve seen it before at friends places but I must say I wasn’t impressed with my new tv it’s crazy

@mateuszbuczma1956 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

Game name in 3:46?

@kovalveli May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

Auto HDR is good but for those with precised TV settings is absolutely useless, I'd played some games with it enabled and found it overblown and oversaturated to the point of sticking out like a sore thumb.
Proper SDR settings and games with native HDR that's how the games should be played. Also none of that Dynamic Tone Mapping nonsense.

@Captain-Chats May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

This is so cool im just about to play Arkham Knight

@gex581990 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

FF15 didn’t have HDR on Xbox? It was native HDR on PS4 or they just using it as a HDR example?

@Stop_Elitists_Wars May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

Microsoft embraced Backwards compatibility because it sells Consoles & Games Pass services & they knew they could.
Meanwhile, Sony ignored the requests of Gamers for a long time.
So, when will we have Need For Speed 2 made availible for replay on a Console???? 🙂

@dingo535 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

Really enjoyed this video Tom hope to see you on more directs, Love that you guys put Panzer Dragoon on here!

Didn't even think about how it could help original X box titles and with a title I've wanted to play so long this makes the prospect of a series s quite appealing!

@spacemarine8289 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

This is burning my retina not to mention my screen. Some games do look unnatural though as post apocalyptic games should not be bright with neon lights like Cyber Punk is.

@GlennQuagmireVI May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

Me watching in 480p

@davidludwig7501 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

My auto hdr keeps turning off after coming back the next day or switching to ps5 then back on series s and i have to re calibrate my tv with it each time. It will say your tv is not 4k compatible when it is. Have to go to tv settings turn hdr off then back on and recalibrate in settungs on xbox before it comes back on. Not sure what i am doing wrong.

@v1kt0us May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

@DF You failed big in this one: Where are the comparisons between modes?

@TheAlienGangster May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

What is the song from the intro?

@luedriver May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

hdr sounds more like making white stand out than making colours overall more realistic? or am I just misunderstanding something?

@Lead_Foot May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

There's officially auto-hdr support coming for windows 10. It's already in insider preview build 21337

@chrishansen8836 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

BloodRayne 2 has Auto HDR and it looks great

@GamingSeriesShorts May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

Auto HDR just makes everything dark for me 🙁 Forza looks great with the update but then other games seem to go too dark

@cmadigan May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

If you had the choice between HDR or VRR which one are you choosing?

@chrisdale2625 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

Just a little tip auto HDR only works if your screen or TV is set to game mode auto that's what I've experienced anyways

@hazy33 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

I've been banging on to friends about the joys of HDR but just like VR unless you experience it for yourself you just can't understand how great it is.

@honkyjesuseternal May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

This is just me, but I have tried like twenty games with Auto HDR and haven't run into any where it didn't make the game look better. I think with RE4 they took it off because the lighting was exactly how the developer wanted it to begin with, but I disagree. I have yet to run into a game where the brights were too bright or the color gamut messed with the best vision/version of the game.

@danielpedraza6455 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

The Witcher 2 has it?

@Lukas_QV22 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

Anyone else having trouble playing WRC 9 in HDR on Xbox Series X? My tv switches to HDR Mode for every game but not for WRC 9.. anyone who can help?

@jimmymac333 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

Sounds like he’s saying HGR

@Phyziacom May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

Buying Xbox is a waste of money .. too many good titles are not available on this platform .. especially if you are into RPG's. PlayStation gives you unparalleled gaming experience with its exclusives … Demon Souls, Bloodborne, Ghost of Tsushima, God of war, Nioh .. on Xbox I played Sekiro for over 12 playthroughs because there are no other interesting titles for me on this platform and yet . Sekiro's performance on Xbox is abysmal

@DanielBlaney May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

If you are having issues with games getting overblown you might need to go into the xbox system settings and do calibrate hdr. The auto hdr system uses that for the settings since the games don't have it built in.

@uberkull9326 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

Wish DF would have talked about the HDR calibration app that MS has on the consoles now. It’s my understanding that the HDR calibration app is used by the Auto HDR feature to apply the HDR changes to SDR games. The HDR calibration app doesn’t seem to do anything to games that already have HDR implemented. Can DF confirm?

@littlemonkey993 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

Now we can watch YouTube 4K hdr on iPad Pro on iOS 14.

@JP-jc7tr May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

I got some bougie ass roku tv, and I’ve notice the game looks so much better w/ hdr off! Def need to upgrade my tv now

@SuperEddzz May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

The HDR on my LG is crap, so I usually keep it turned off 😑

@edwardstark6817 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

I tried it, makes the lighting great but it oversaturates the colors. It changes the color scheme to BT.2020 when the original game was not designed that way. Arkham knight looks good outside but once you go into indoor environment everything is oversaturated with cartoon colors.

@huntii May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

took me forever to find out that i have to enable hdr on my tv for each hdmi ports. thought that hdr is automatically on from the get go.

@ronanfaria3239 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

Does Yakuza Like a Dragoon use auto hdr?

@pissyourselfandshitncoom2172 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

Only things series x needs in my opinion:
Built-in motion interpolater to 60hz or 120hz (fixes 30fps)
4k upscaling algorithm (fixes 1080p)

Then all the 1080p30fps games could be 4k60 or 4k120

@sEaNoYeAh May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

Wow, Dark Souls 2 is still beautiful. This feature is very cool though, I can see this only becoming a bigger deal as time goes on.

@pedrovieira8602 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

Man, I just launched Halo 5 on my series x and I thought it had been updated for series. Had to plug in my one x in the same tv and switch inputs to find out what was up. Eventually realized it was auto HDR. It made a HUGE difference in halo 5, the game looks fenomenal.

@honkyjesuseternal May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

This was the video that removed HDR from Dark Souls 2? Shame on you! I literally booted this up as my first game played on Series X and was devastated that they took out the Auto HDR.

@retropulse03 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

I should still have the option to force it to on.
I'm PISSED that this control is taken away from me.
With no launch games, I was very much looking forward to Ghostbusters in HDR – FINALLY.

@TehObLiVioUs May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

thanks for upload in HDR, THIS is what I was looking for.

@GeminiFate May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

In the future, how about not being stupid and having ads in SDR constantly in an HDR video, so our tvs don't switch back and forth 20 times… Thaaaanks…..😒

@KingGameReview May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

is there a list somewhere of the games that have auto hdr disabled?

@seantds619 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

I've never played Crackdown 3
But after seeing the gameplay here, I'm going to play it

@ratguts1985 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

This is incredible. I love when old games take on a new life with modern tech. Superb

@mohammadgm1247 May 18, 2024 - 12:51 am

It's hard to believe but yeah xbx sx is better than ps5

Comments are closed.