Cyberpunk 2077 HDR is Broken on PS5 & Xbox Series X Regardless of HDR Settings

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We analysed the HDR presentation of Cyberpunk 2077 on both the Sony PS5 and the Xbox Series X using the HDR analysis toolkit on a Canon DP-V2411 4K reference monitor, and discovered the HDR black floor to be elevated (possible video level mismatch in game tone-mapper?), and many clues suggesting that it may be scaled from an SDR base.

Problems with the in-game [HDR Settings]:

1) Increasing [Maximum Brightness] will scale entire HDR picture and brighten the midtones plus shadows in an almost linear manner, leading to an overexposed picture with little depth;

2) Reducing [Tone-Mapping Midpoint] is essential to achieve deeper blacks, but doing so will also darken midtones (and if excessively, the highlights) and shadows, causing an unnatural transition from shadows/ midtones to bright highlights.

Using [Black Level] “Low” on TVs (video range) together with [RGB Range] “High” or “Full” on consoles would make blacks inky, but would also crush a significant amount of shadow detail, and so is not an acceptable solution.

For the best picture quality while playing Cyberpunk 2077 (CB77), we strongly suggest playing the game in SDR.

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47 thoughts on “Cyberpunk 2077 HDR is Broken on PS5 & Xbox Series X Regardless of HDR Settings”

  8. I managed to fix it a good amount on ps5. Pretty dramatic difference. Had to use ps5's hdr over cyberpunks. Not as easy as one would think. I had to boot up cyberpunk when the ps5 had hdr turned off. Then I had to turn the hdr on the ps5 back on while the game was running (and adjust the gamma from the in game menu). This way the game doesn't ever register that hrd is possible. If you do it any other way-if the game ever knows you have hrd-it will look like butt again. Pretty odd.

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  9. You should have compared HDR off completely (in game AND in PS5 settings) vs HDR off in game but ON in PS5 settings… does that cause the PS5 to internally tonemap the output in a different way than the game does, perhaps in a superior way? It would still be an SDR to HDR transform, so not ideal, but perhaps it could hit higher peak brightness levels and keep 0 for black output, and offer better mid-tones?

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  13. I'm personally not seeing the lack of HDR highlights. The HDR might not be perfect. It's not nearly as bad as RDR2 pre-HDR patch. I find the peak brightness highlights in this game look like REAL HDR, especially on indoor lamps which look as bright as any HDR peak highlight I've seen on my TV (LG CX). I find most HDR games other than Crackdown 3 suffer from raised blacks. My personal fix if your gaming on OLED. For all HDR games with grey blacks lower the brightness down to 45, it takes away the greyness and gives you that more contrasty pop that you get with a proper HDR image.

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  19. Yes, I can also confirm that HDR10 is not supported for that software. Check under technical capabilities in Xbox Store. That technology is unavailable for Cyberpunk 2077. HDR parameters under Settings within the software are available, if HDR10 is on on the system. These can help to create a highlighted image from limited black to white range only. In other words, this is a sub-optimal solution versus the HDR10 technology. However, its SDR Mode is definitely the better choice in almost every possible situation. You can use it while HDR10 is off, on the system. Then set Gamma parameters in the software's Settings, to make the left image barely visible (this is important). Sadly, no HDR10 support in Cyberpunk 2077.

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  20. Great video analysis, I noticed the same the moment I fired up the game, but without the tools you used. The temporary solution I found on my LG OLED C8 was to use a Picture mode I never used (Standard in this case) and redid all the calibrarion of brightness, contrast and color. Normally for deep perfect blacks on Bluray on Technicolor picture mode I had to set the brightness to 57, on Cyberpunk I had to get it down 10 point to 47 to achieve true blacks (checked for that on the start up screens with are black with reddish text at night with all lights of on the room)
    Looks much better now although I have to change notr only windows to HDR (when other games make the swith themselves automatically) but also set my TV to the newly adjusted "Standard"mode.
    A bit of a hassle but the best I could set it up right now.

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  21. What helped me on my lg oled c9 was changing black level from auto to low and the blacks are a lot darker with HDR still turned on. It also doesn’t seem to crush the blacks.

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  28. Found an odd solution for CX and PS5. Tv settings – PC input, game mode, HGIG, black level set to low. PS5 – all auto settings. Technically this shouldn’t work since ps5 is outputting rgb to low black level but it completely fixed the washed out look of the game and lighting looks natural.

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  38. Ghost Recon Breakpoint seems to have problems on my xbox1x. HDR often doesn't kick in when I start the game so I end up quitting and rebooting it. It also happens if I let the game go into stand by mode ie pause it for 30 minutes or so. It's not a big problem except when going from outdoors into buildings in daytime, the interior scenes become too dark to see around. I don't think it's the TV and I don't think it's the xbox as bluerays with HDR play fine. 🤷‍♂️

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  41. Don't wrestle with HDR in this game for now. You won't get a result that's better than SDR. This will remain the case until CDPR fixes their HDR. And unfortunately, since "broken HDR" isn't something keeping the game from being played to completion, this will probably be fixed last. With that having been said, the crappy black floor problem is not exclusive to HDR. It has to be squashed out of existence by the gamma adjustment (set it to something between 1.15 and 1.20). For whatever braindead reason, gamma control gets removed in Cyberpunk 2077 if you turn HDR on.

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