You May Need to Change Your HDR Settings on the Switch 2
If you have a Switch 2 , you may remember adjusting your HDR settings during the initial setup. This is a big new feature for the Switch 2, as many modern games take advantage of HDR to enhance the contrast of their visuals. When set up correctly, HDR games can look great. Unfortunately, it seems like the Switch 2 is quite difficult to set up correctly, and unless you’re an HDR expert, you may not have it set up properly.
If you recall, the Switch 2’s setup screens showed two sun icons for the HDR settings. You were asked to increase the screen’s brightness until only one sun was visible. This might work if you had the right TV with the right settings, but if not, you might have been misled. YouTube channel HDTVTest took a closer look at this issue in a video posted on Monday . As they explain, the Switch 2’s “sun” HDR setting only actually works properly if your TV’s Dynamic Tone Mapping is set to HGiG , the gaming-focused HDR standard. (Your TV might call it something like “Game HDR.”) You can see the difference when HDTVTest toggles the setting on and off: With HGiG off (or missing entirely), you need to crank up the brightness significantly to follow Nintendo’s instructions. With HGiG on, it takes much less brightness to achieve the correct HDR settings.
But that’s just one of two pages of settings in the Switch 2’s HDR settings. On the next screen, Nintendo asks you to adjust the HDR reference white level, or paper white level, though the company simply calls it “brightness.” If you move too quickly through the setup, you may even have missed this screen, since you have to press the Y button to raise the adjustment slider. HDTVTest found that the default paper white setting produced a much flatter image than you’d expect from HDR, even when comparing it to SDR video.
But the Paper White adjustment screen relies on the settings on the first page of the Dual Sun HDR settings. When you change the brightness on that first screen, you change the number of nits by which the slider on the second screen adjusts the picture. I’m skipping over a lot of technical details here, but the short answer is that these HDR settings are confusing and depend heavily not only on your TV, but also on how you’ve set up that TV (and the Switch 2).
Is it possible to properly calibrate HDR on Switch 2?
Setting up HDR on the Switch 2 isn’t easy , according to HDTVTest. First, you’ll need to determine if your TV supports HGiG. If it does, be sure to enable the feature, then adjust the Switch 2’s HDR settings. You’ll need to carefully adjust the brightness on the dual-sun test until the sun on the right disappears. Click Next, then press the Y button to bring up the white level slider. At this point, HDTVTest recommends finding your TV’s MaxTML value, which can be found using the Xbox Series X, and then doing some math to figure out the correct slider position. If the number is less than 1400, divide 6000 by the number. This will tell you the number of clicks it takes to move the slider. They recommend setting the white level to 200 nits, but for users playing in brighter rooms, 250 nits may be a better choice.
For users without a TV, HGiG HDTVTest recommends setting the sun test to 1000 nits and the paper white setting to 200 nits. Based on the video, it looks like this can be achieved by moving the sun test a few clicks further, where the sun on the right becomes invisible, and then moving the slider to about 40%.
Here’s the thing. I don’t have a way to measure nits because I don’t have an Xbox Series X, and I don’t have a separate meter to measure specific brightness levels on my TV. (I also don’t have a Switch 2, but that’s beside the point.) If you don’t have that separate console, or don’t want to go through all those convoluted steps just to play your games the way they’re supposed to look, that’s a shame. The HDTVTest video was posted to the Nintendo subreddit , and there are already over 300 comments in the thread at this point, with some raving about the HGiG setting, others asking about settings for their specific TV models, and still others wondering if those recommended settings make their Switch 2 display too dark.
I’m far from an HDR expert, but when I inevitably get a Switch 2, I think I’ll do my best with the information provided by HDTVTest. My TV doesn’t support HGiG, so I might bump up the sunlight test a bit above what Nintendo recommends, then set the slider to where the video sets it, and call it a day. If my picture looks too wonky, I might play with the sliders. But I think this speaks to a bigger problem with HDR in general — companies like Nintendo, as well as display makers, need to figure this out on their end. Consumers shouldn’t have to become HDR experts and manually adjust every setting to get their games looking right. We should be able to follow simple setup instructions and play.