Find HDR playback settings for Surface Pro 8 on YouTube.
Find HDR playback settings for Surface Pro 8 on YouTube.
Hello! Your Surface Pro 8 runs Windows 11 Pro and supports HDR10 and Dolby Vision. You’re seeing streaming HDR videos work in Chrome or Edge but not in YouTube, which suggests the issue might be specific to Windows Store apps. It seems the feature is available for those apps but not for general web playback. To enable HDR outside of Windows Store, you may need to adjust settings in the app itself or check if your device supports external HDR playback via other means. If games don’t work in HDR either, it could be a hardware limitation.
Yes, you can manually select HDR during YouTube playback settings. For Netflix, look for a show titled "test patterns," go to season 4, which is intended to evaluate HDR performance. Verify that the central character shows accurate color tones and the brightness indicator at the bottom right matches HDR luminance levels.
I don’t own an SP8, yet based on what I know: You must download the Dolby Access app from the Microsoft Store. Also, ensure you have the correct codecs installed—HEVC, VP9, and AVI are required. Of course, use Netflix’s official Windows Store app or a compatible video player to view HDR content. Try those options. Regarding the SP8 part, it seems similar; laptops often need power to enable HDR properly. It’s unclear if testing has been done, but reviewers haven’t actually used the feature yet.
Absolutely! Here’s a rephrased version of your thoughts:
This isn’t really a detailed discussion about HDR beyond RTINGS. They mostly mention it’s lacking, mainly in terms of AdobeRGB support and insufficient DCI-P3 coverage. It doesn’t seem like they’re providing comprehensive information. For my purposes, that’s enough. Even basic Auto HDR in older titles would suffice for me; what I need is a simple way to turn it on. YouTube doesn’t offer an option to manually enable HDR. I usually check the settings icon labeled “HDR.” It appears on other devices too. I own the Dolby Access app, and the demo videos work well since it’s a Windows Store application. From what I understand, any Windows Store app that streams video counts as HDR-enabled. The Dolby Vision app supports Dolby Vision IQ, which aligns with HDR content. My screen is very bright, and HDR looks similar to my LG OLED, but I’m far from the display. All Windows Store apps should function properly. It’s the non-store applications that need attention. I’ve explored the registry—there’s an address bar in the Win11 regedit—and HDR playback is active. But what does “playback” actually mean? No other settings seem to work. DxDiag doesn’t show HDR or advanced color options, and the Intel GPU drivers only support 8-bit color. This device claims HDR features but struggles to display them properly. The maximum luminance listed is 450 nits, which is just 50 nits above the lowest VESA rating. I’m confident it should work.
It seems the 450nits level is important here. HDR400 offers only modest improvement, while SP8 does provide a noticeable upgrade over previous versions. My own display is HDR1400, and there’s no difference between “stream” or “use” HDR settings in the options. You might try using another screen to see if the feature disappears on higher-quality displays.