cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

2022 X13 no HDR

mario64
Level 7
I just purchased the 2022 X13 from Best Buy. This is the model with 6900HS, RTX 3050 Ti and FHD 120hz display. Windows 11 doesn't show HDR as available even though the Asus page for this laptop indicates Dolby Vision HDR as do some reviews I've watched. Can anyone confirm if HDR is supported? Thank you
3,459 Views
9 REPLIES 9

jorismak
Level 8
Z13 owner here, not X13. But I think it's the same thing.

There are 'two modes' of HDR support. One for 'playing back HDR media through supported device', and one for actually producing HDR content in things like games.

Although Asus says 'HDR! Dolby Vision' that actually only means 'media playback HDR', and that is enabled in my HDR page. Which means apps like Netflix or others detect that you have HDR support and they playback the content like that. But gaming-HDR is not a thing on it, as far as I can see.

It's just a bit of marketing gimmicky... basically the same as saying a $500 TV has HDR, while it can't produce anything that resembles good HDR conditions anyway.

This is a checkbox so they can say 'HDR', but it doesn't actually mean 'gaming in HDR' :(.

jorismak wrote:
Z13 owner here, not X13. But I think it's the same thing.

There are 'two modes' of HDR support. One for 'playing back HDR media through supported device', and one for actually producing HDR content in things like games.

Although Asus says 'HDR! Dolby Vision' that actually only means 'media playback HDR', and that is enabled in my HDR page. Which means apps like Netflix or others detect that you have HDR support and they playback the content like that. But gaming-HDR is not a thing on it, as far as I can see.

It's just a bit of marketing gimmicky... basically the same as saying a $500 TV has HDR, while it can't produce anything that resembles good HDR conditions anyway.

This is a checkbox so they can say 'HDR', but it doesn't actually mean 'gaming in HDR' :(.

I was actually trying to get YouTube to recognize HDR. Wasn't gaming at all. YouTube does not detect the laptop as being HDR compatible.

I believe it has to be a Windows Store app to support the Win11 HDR way of doing things.

I get it to work in the Dolby Access app by seeking a demo of Dolby Vision. It only works while playing on the laptop screen (of course) and when fullscreen.
A clear sign of it being active, is if suddenly the display brightness is at max. So set it to 50%, start a Dolby Access demo and full screen, now press the Windows key and click on the quick-access flyout next to the clock, bottom right. Your display brightness should be at 100% all of a sudden.

I don't have any other app that might support it, I stopped looking for it (max 500nits is not a really good HDR experience anyway).

There are loads of people complaining that 'the new Edge broke HDR support', but that is because the old edge is an UWP app, and the new one is a native Windows app (Chrome clone). If you manage to get the old Microsoft Edge installed, it'll probably work.

tlk00
Level 7
Same laptop (2022 ROG Flow X13 GV301RE), same problem.

TLDR - currently this laptop DOES NOT support HDR. Asus needs to fix this if it's a software problem or it's false advertising. Period. Someone please prove me wrong!

Now the details.

First, to address what others have said about panel support for 'Stream HDR Video' being what Asus was talking about when they said it supports 'Dolby Vision HDR'. This is not correct. Any non-HDR display can enable 'Stream HDR Video'. There's no documentation but it's a setting that appears to allow windows to fake HDR playback on a non-HDR display. Maybe. It doesn't really seem to do anything. But you can turn it on for maximum HDR on any old monitor!

Next, this is NOT a windows UWP / Microsoft App Store compatibility problem. It's a system level issue. As far as windows is concerned, the display does not support HDR. Here's the relevant portion of a DxDiag System Information Dump:

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: AMD Radeon(TM) Graphics
Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Chip type: AMD Radeon Graphics Processor (0x1681)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Type: Full Device (POST)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_1681&SUBSYS_1D8C1043&REV_01
Device Status: 0180200A [DN_DRIVER_LOADED|DN_STARTED|DN_DISABLEABLE|DN_NT_ENUMERATOR|DN_NT_DRIVER]
Device Problem Code: No Problem
Driver Problem Code: Unknown
Display Memory: 8300 MB
Dedicated Memory: 486 MB
Shared Memory: 7814 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1200 (32 bit) (120Hz)
HDR Support: Not Supported
Display Topology: Internal
Display Color Space: DXGI_COLOR_SPACE_RGB_FULL_G22_NONE_P709
Color Primaries: Red(0.648438,0.330078), Green(0.320312,0.597656), Blue(0.155273,0.065430), White Point(0.312500,0.328125)
Display Luminance: Min Luminance = 0.005000, Max Luminance = 525.252014, MaxFullFrameLuminance = 351.198395
Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor Model: LQ134N1JW55
Monitor Id: SHP1558
Native Mode: 1920 x 1200(p) (120.003Hz)
Output Type: Internal
Monitor Capabilities: HDR Not Supported
Display Pixel Format: DISPLAYCONFIG_PIXELFORMAT_32BPP
Advanced Color: Not Supported

It's very clear that as far as Windows is concerned this is NOT an HDR display. This means that you'll never be able to play HDR content from anywhere. Except possibly the Dolby Access app. Not sure what that app is doing but it's complete garbage and seems to be faking HDR by adjusting video brightness to me.

Ultimately Dolby Vision HDR displays should also support HDR10 and need to play well with Windows. Because if Windows can't tell that the display is HDR then you're not going to be able to use HDR.

For those still here, I've also tried enabling the MUX and running just the 3050Ti, disabling all power saving settings, uninstalling all the Dolby junk and updating everything. The laptop panel is persistently not HDR.

More for those still here - I've also played around with the new Dell Inspiron 16" 4k OLED 2 in 1 laptop. Its brightness is also 400 nits, but it properly supports HDR out of the box and content from the YouTube HDR Channel looks amazing. If Dell can do it, it can't be that hard. What gives Asus?

1) I agree that it's a bummer, and a nasty way of describing things

2) 'Stream HDR video' _is_ something different. Playing with the Dolby Vision demo app for instance takes control of your brightness settings, just like a HDR TV does when HDR content kicks in.

3) I don't know what the reason is why the 'Use HDR' thing is disabled. I don't know the requirement list and what would be missing. The maximum nits is OK, the GPU is ok. Maybe it's because of 8bit display-mode (since most HDR requires 10bit). Maybe it's a driver thing on the intel GPU side, the Nvidia GPU side or both?

Maybe it's just a bit of metadata that is wrong , and Asus needs to release/update a 'monitor INF' 'driver' to tell Windows what the screen is capable of?
Could it be that the requirement for 'Displayport 1.4 or HDMI 2.0' goes wrong in our eDP connection, thinking that the display isn't properly connected for HDR?



4) Has anyone raised a ticket with support out this? Talking about it in a forum isn't going to solve much, most of the time. If you don't agree and you want Asus to know about it, contact support. Me personally, I don't care about it to go through support (again).

I stand by my assertion that Asus calling the X13 display HDR as currently sold is false advertising. By any objective measure of what a typical buyer of this laptop would expect from HDR, it does not deliver as advertised. To state this is not 'nasty', it is simply true and to the point.

Why post here? (Begin off topic rant) In general, tech support is nearly universally a waste of time. If you somehow manage to reach a person they're going to be level 1, likely have little to no knowledge about the product or tech in general, they won't be empowered to do anything useful and any promise of follow up is simply a delay tactic to devalue the problem using time. Specifically, I did make an attempt to contact Asus, but it resulted in a run around that landed me at Best Buy since that's where I bought the laptop. And I'd rather waste time typing here than talking to them (end rant..)

I believe this HDR issue has a simple fix. An external monitor connected via DP USB C has no problem being recognized as HDR so it's probably a small driver or firmware issue that prevents the built in panel from being detected correctly. But fixing it would require someone at Asus who is knowledgeable and empowered to care about it. Maybe we'll get lucky and that person will stumble across this thread.

Had a few more thoughts about this computer and this seemed like as good a place as any to post them...

I ended up returning the X13. It was for my better half, and there were just too many issues. Besides not actually being HDR, it wouldn't wake from sleep most of the time and it would only connect to a docking station about one out of every ten attempts (tried 4 different docking stations, same result). Her frustration becomes my frustration so the X13 had to go.

The main reason that I'm posting here though, is because I picked up a Flow X16 for myself. It's been 100% flawless so far and guess what? HDR works out of the box. Windows supports it. YouTube plays HDR. It's beautiful. I haven't even opened the stupid Dolby Vision app.

So what happened with the X13? Only Asus knows. I have a hard time believing that the same company made these two laptops let alone that they're supposed to be in the same product family...

cl-Albert
US Customer Loyalty Agent
tlk00 wrote:
Had a few more thoughts about this computer and this seemed like as good a place as any to post them...

I ended up returning the X13. It was for my better half, and there were just too many issues. Besides not actually being HDR, it wouldn't wake from sleep most of the time and it would only connect to a docking station about one out of every ten attempts (tried 4 different docking stations, same result). Her frustration becomes my frustration so the X13 had to go.

The main reason that I'm posting here though, is because I picked up a Flow X16 for myself. It's been 100% flawless so far and guess what? HDR works out of the box. Windows supports it. YouTube plays HDR. It's beautiful. I haven't even opened the stupid Dolby Vision app.

So what happened with the X13? Only Asus knows. I have a hard time believing that the same company made these two laptops let alone that they're supposed to be in the same product family...


Thanks for the feedback and update.

Haven't had a chance to look into it more myself or talk to more people about it, but if you search online for Dolby Vision HDR as below, it appears to be just one of many current HDR standards and apparently doesn't qualify by itself to be considered by Windows to support HDR which is probably expecting one of the other HDR formats to be supported.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/what-is-dolby-vision-hdr-for-tvs/


"There are five major HDR formats to discuss for home use: Two static formats and three dynamic ones. The two static formats are HDR10, the version that every HDR-capable TV supports, and HLG, a version designed for broadcast applications. Static in this case means that the data required to show HDR content is determined once based on the entire movie or TV show. Once the video starts to play, that information doesn't change.

The three dynamic formats include Advanced HDR by Technicolor, and two much more commonly known formats for the home: HDR10+, a license-free format developed in part by Samsung, and Dolby Vision."

================

While we're talking about it, wanted to mention there are two different types of ROG Nebula Display which have different kinds of HDR support, so watch out for this. The brightness in nits is different between the two types of displays as well.

Below is the link to our global site and you can change the region at the bottom of the page if needed.

https://rog.asus.com/rog-nebula-display-hdr/

Thank you so much for the explanation! Was struggling with the same question and my Flow x 16. Now everything is in its place. Netflix using Dolby vision plays HDR correctly. Bottom line - the whole mess will be over when Microsoft adds Dolby Vision support to Windows.

One of the few times a support person laid everything out in 1 post and closed the issue with that xD