Dolby Vision for Games - Sky high expectations, Mediocre results (Patreon)

When Microsoft and Dolby announced their extended partnership in bringing Dolby Vision support for Gaming on Xbox consoles, other than for movies, I was one of the first that jumped from the chair and started to think and share how a big improvement Dolby Vision for games could have been compared to HDR.

It already is a big improvement for movies as, thanks to Dolby Vision native dynamic metadata processing, things like "DTM" algorithms or "HDR10+" formats got easily surpassed with something more accurate, starting from the source, which always provides the proper luminance, contrasts and color accuracy on a frame-by-frame and scene-by-scene basis for the real capabilities of the TV panel in use.

On paper that could have been huge also for games, making "in-game HDR settings" not needed anymore and just having DV doing its thing starting from the source and landing on the TV panel in the best way possibile...

...but then real world results arrived.

What actually happens when enabling Dolby Vision for Games on Xbox consoles?

• 99% of all HDR games will be "auto-converted" (and contained) on the fly from the classic HDR signal (with no metadata) to a standard Dolby Vision signal (also with no dynamic metadata but stuck to a 1.200 nits tone mapping EOTF on LG OLEDs);
• This means that if you had to set in-game Peak HDR Luminance to 4.000 (for DTM: On based on LG series) and 800 or 1.000 or 1.500 nits (for HGIG) for best results, you need to set it around 1.200 nits (for DV) for the games to look good there (or 10.000 nits on LG 2017 OLEDs!);
• That said, the actual noticeable differences between properly setup HDR games and DV ones are very marginal. Games will look identical to HGIG in most cases, while in others may look even a bit more dim when using DV except on G3 which will look like DV Cinema Home preset
• The only game actually "native" in DV is Halo Infinite , which does seem to use some metadata...but providing even worse results than auto-converted games (with lower Peak HDR Brightness, less contrast, raised blacks and posterization artifacts). Which is even more disappointing...
• The Xbox HDR Calibration app will still launch in HDR, but the values you put in there will still be applied for the games which are supporting it and will apply also when using Dolby Vision, making it even more confusing to setup (as you should ignore what the patterns will show you there and set them to 1.200 nits too when using Dolby Vision);
• I've found that the DV Game preset may noticeably increase input lag compared to HDR Game preset too. It may not seem this way using external equipment, but when playing actual games you can also "feel it" by trying for yourself;
• I've also found additional "quirks" where Dolby Vision goes in conflict with the "YCC 4:2:2" option on Xbox Advanced Video settings, which should remain DISABLED to avoid DV luminance to tank and colors getting muted.

For all the reasons above, enabling Dolby Vision for Games on Xbox is pointless.

You will achieve more accurate, more pleasant and less problematic results by just disabling Dolby Vision for Games altogether and stick with regular HDR for them, while only keeping Dolby Vision for Movies enabled (which will look noticeably better there instead) and be sure to UNCHECK/DISABLE the YCC 4:2:2 option to avoid severe visual bugs.

NOTE: YCC 4:2:2 on Xbox in the end is just a "compatibility option" for older, cheap and/or problematic HDR TVs which can't handle an uncompressed signal...and it shows. Enabling it on high-end TVs like LG OLEDs will just do more harm than good.