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I'm using BetterDisplay's "Brightness Upscaling" on my 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro to increase the maximum brightness of the built-in XDR screen in bright environments. How does this interact with HDR content? Should I turn it off and set the brightness to 100% when watching HDR videos for maximum or "proper" HDR levels? Or can I leave brightness upscaling enabled and HDR will still look how it's supposed to? What brightness level should I set it to while watching HDR video if I leave it enabled? |
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It depends. If you use native upscaling, you can leave it on. But you might want to decrease brightness a bit so that the content is not skewed too much to the bright side (this is true even with the standard XDR preset). If you use software upscaling (see a 160% scale), you should turn it off to avoid clipping HDR content. it is better to use native upscaling. |
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Yes, I'm using the native upscaling since I figured that was best if supported (not sure why one wouldn't). So in the scenario where I have brightness at 100% with native brightness upscaling enabled, what is happening exactly? In SDR content (like the MacOS UI), brightness of "white" is increased from ~500 nits to ~1000 nits, correct? So say a frame in an HDR movie is expecting to show at 500 nits, is it now showing at 1000 nits? The maximum the display can do is 1600 nits but I'm still having trouble understanding what happens in the middle range. |
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HDR content should mostly be fine but the gamma will be tweaked in a way so midrange and darker things will get brighter as that is what an user expects when increasing the brightness. I think the simplest way for you to figure out the effect is to check a HDR brightness pattern and see for yourself when adjusting the brightness: |
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Thanks, I'll take a look. So what would be the most "accurate" system brightness level (whether brightness upscaling or not) for viewing HDR video? |
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It depends. If you use native upscaling, you can leave it on. But you might want to decrease brightness a bit so that the content is not skewed too much to the bright side (this is true even with the standard XDR preset). If you use software upscaling (see a 160% scale), you should turn it off to avoid clipping HDR content. it is better to use native upscaling.