Washed-out HDR gameplay recordings: the documented settings.

Why it looks washed out

Two documented facts explain almost every grey, flat recording of an HDR game. Microsoft’s HDR page says that with HDR on, standard dynamic range content and apps can appear too bright or too dark on an HDR-capable display, because the display interprets an HDR and an SDR signal differently and the result varies by make and model. And OBS’s HDR Configuration page lists the settings an HDR recording needs; a recording made without them is an SDR file. Put an HDR picture into an SDR file and the highlights and colours have nowhere to go: that is the washed-out look. The picture was not wrong on your screen; the file is a different kind of picture.

Everything on this page is a documented setting from the OBS Knowledge Base or Microsoft Support. Nothing here was measured, and the page does not claim to have fixed any particular recording.

The decision list

1. 01Do you need HDR in the file?

   If the recording is for a platform or a player you have not confirmed handles HDR, the answer is no, and Route A is the whole fix. If you know your destination plays HDR, Route B.

2. 02Route A: record SDR with Windows HDR off for the session.

   The HDR switch is in Settings → System → Display; Auto HDR is a second switch inside the same HDR section. Both off, the game renders SDR and OBS records SDR with its ordinary settings.

3. 03Route B: record HDR with OBS’s documented settings.

   Settings → Advanced: Color Format P010, Color Space Rec. 2100 (PQ), Color Range Partial; Game Capture properties: sRGB Color Space set to Rec. 2100 (PQ); Settings → Output → Recording: a 10-bit HEVC/H.265 or AV1 encoder, Main10 profile if offered.

4. 04Check the Windows controls that change the look without touching OBS.

   The SDR content brightness slider, the battery option, duplicated displays. Below.

5. 05Make a short recording and judge the file, not the preview.

   The OBS preview is drawn on a display that may itself be in HDR; the file is what your viewers get.

Route A: record in SDR

1. Windows: Settings → System → Display. With more than one display, select the HDR-capable one at the top. Turn HDR off for the session. If Auto HDR is on, it is a switch inside the HDR section; Microsoft documents that Auto HDR raises the colour range and brightness of older DirectX 11 and 12 games to HDR, which is the opposite of what an SDR recording wants, so turn it off too.
2. OBS: Settings → Advanced. Leave the Color Format, Color Space and Color Range at the values you had before you ever tried HDR; the HDR page’s P010 and Rec. 2100 (PQ) are for Route B only.
3. Game Capture properties. Leave sRGB Color Space at its default, not Rec. 2100 (PQ).
4. Record a moment and look at the file. Skin tones and the HUD’s white should look as they do in the game with HDR off.

Route A is the one to prefer while Founder Alpha is early-access: the Broker’s overlay is a web page in your scene, and how it renders on an HDR canvas is not documented by OBS or by the app.

Route B: record in HDR

These are OBS’s own steps from its HDR Configuration page, dated 1 September 2026, in its order.

1. 01Settings → Advanced.

   Color Format: P010. Color Space: Rec. 2100 (PQ). Color Range: Partial.

2. 02Game Capture source properties.

   Set sRGB Color Space to Rec. 2100 (PQ). This is a Game Capture setting; the page does not give one for Window Capture or Display Capture, so this page does not either.

3. 03Settings → Output → Recording.

   Choose a 10-bit HEVC/H.265 or AV1 encoder and select the Main10 profile if it is available. OBS shows the choice in both Simple and Advanced output modes.

4. 04Windows HDR on.

   Settings → System → Display, HDR on for the display the game runs on; Microsoft notes that HDR is not supported while a laptop duplicates its desktop onto an external display, so extend the displays instead.

What the documentation does not say, and this page therefore leaves out: whether a given upload platform accepts the file as HDR, what the SDR fallback looks like on a viewer’s SDR screen, and how the Browser source overlay appears on a Rec. 2100 canvas. A short recording played on the destination answers the first two; nothing documented answers the third.

Windows controls that matter

SDR brightness

Under the HDR settings, the SDR content brightness slider sets the balance between SDR and HDR content on an HDR display; Microsoft documents it as the control for SDR looking too bright or too dark with HDR on. It changes what you see on the display; whether it changes a capture is not documented, so do not rely on it for the file.

Auto HDR

Inside the HDR section: turns older SDR-only DirectX 11 and 12 games into HDR on the fly. Off for Route A; your choice for Route B, with a test recording.

Battery

A laptop can turn HDR off on battery and back on when plugged in; the option is a checkbox in the HDR settings. A recording that changes look halfway through may be this.

Duplicated displays

HDR is not supported while Windows duplicates the desktop onto an external display; extend the displays.

Calibration

Microsoft offers a Windows HDR Calibration app for HDR displays. It is named here because Microsoft links it from the HDR settings page; this page gives no steps for it.

The Broker in an HDR scene

Two product facts, both from the app’s own pages. The release notes for Founder Alpha 1.0.0-alpha.7 say that native fullscreen coverage does not include DirectX 12, Vulkan, OpenGL, HDR or protected games: that is the in-game overlay on your own screen, and in an HDR game it may not appear there. The Browser source in OBS is a separate surface: the overlay shows his avatar and spoken captions on a transparent background, and nothing in the app’s documentation describes its appearance on an HDR canvas. His voice is unaffected by any of this; it reaches OBS through Desktop Audio.

So: Route A keeps the Broker on documented ground; Route B is documented for the game and undocumented for the overlay. If you choose Route B, make the test recording with the Browser source in the scene and judge him in the file.

Check with a short recording

1. Pick the route, apply only its steps, and record a moment of the game with the Browser source in the scene.
2. Play the file on the device your viewers will use. Grey and flat: you recorded SDR of an HDR picture, so either finish Route A (HDR off) or finish Route B (all three OBS settings plus the encoder).
3. Fine in the game, wrong only in the file: Route B’s Game Capture colour space is the usual missing step.
4. Fine in the file, wrong on your screen: that is the display, and Microsoft’s SDR brightness slider is the documented control.

Then run the pre-recording check, which has the HDR decision as one line, and keep the capture choice in mind: which OBS capture shows what.

Limits

• Documented settings only: nothing on this page was measured, and no recording is claimed to have been fixed by it. Results vary by display, driver and game.
• How the Browser source overlay renders on an HDR canvas is not documented by OBS or by the app; the release notes say the app’s native fullscreen coverage does not include HDR.
• Whether a streaming or video platform accepts an HDR upload is that platform’s documentation, not covered here.
• Founder Alpha is early-access software; the commentary can be wrong, repeated or badly timed, and it is sold to customers in the United States only.