I’ve been fiddling with picture settings on my new TV and I noticed when I take a screenshot of an HDR game, the screenshot appears way brighter and more vibrant than when I switch back to the actual in-game image. They’re both being viewed with the same TV settings and HDR enabled, but the screenshot looks noticeably better. Is there some kind of “bullshot” post-processing going on with the Xbox screenshot viewer when it shows HDR?

Maybe? I'd imagine they want the screenshots to be shared between people that can't actually see the effects so there's some approximation at hand?

@shindig: I think you're right. It was driving me crazy because I kept thinking I wasn't getting the full HDR effect in-game. I tested it with a Halo 5 (which is SDR) and the screenshot vs. in-game look identical.

Check your tv brightness settings when viewing the picture it may be auto lifting the brightness and then pulling it back during gameplay. Tv could be switching to a different viewing mode (game, cinema etc) automatically too when viewing the photo. Also if the game has hdr settings for brightness they may not register with the photo(like if you turned the brightness down).

This is all stuff i had issue with on pc with a cheaper 4k sony so it could just be Microsoft adding effects to the screen shot.

@oursin_360: Thanks for the suggestions. I double checked and the TV stays in Game mode with the same brightness when I switch between the game and the screenshot viewer.

I'm even more confused now because the screenshot actually defaults to SDR - which is what I thought looked better than the actual game. You have to choose Show HDR at the top, then when it switches the image more closely resembles what I'm seeing in-game. I just don't understand why the SDR screenshot would look better.

Maybe HDR is overrated?

Since HDR requires hardware for it to work properly, video capture and screenshots probably approximate what HDR would look like on a monitor or TV without HDR. I'm not sure if any HDR information gets coded into the picture files (jpg, bmp, png), so I assume that the approximated HDR effect gets baked into the actual visual screenshots themselves.

@dharmabum: Well it could be the TV if it doesn't have the peak brightness and wide color then it just excepts an hdr signal but the picture may end up washed out. If you have OLED then i don't really know, could just be the games implementation is bad.

@dharmabum: I noticed this also on PS4, when viewing screenshots and videos taken in HDR mode. I think it is just like you said: It's making best of capturing and showing HDR picture in SDR. Even though the end result isn't the best.

SDR definitely shouldn't look better than HDR, provided it's properly calibrated. Honestly, I've found HDR more impressive than 4K with the leap to the One X. @oursin_360 is giving some solid advice. Definitely check the game settings and the HDR slider if it has one. There might be something that needs to be done on the TV's HDR settings as well.

What game is it and what TV are you playing it on?

@crazybagman: HDR is a bigger deal than 4k to me. I don't have a technical mind and can't really count the colours, but it adds a level of depth to the image that makes it feel 3D. Each world become a physical space.

@notnert427: HDR in-game looks way better than SDR (if I manually turn it off via the TV picture settings). Screenshots were the issue, but now I think when I view a screenshot on the console it's showing a brighter and more vivid version because it's being viewed through the Xbox menus. The same screenshot when viewed on Xbox.com looks similar to what I'm actually seeing in-game. So this goes back to what @oursin_360 was suggesting about making sure the TV isn't changing settings between the game and the screenshot viewer.

I'm playing on a Sony X900E and I've tested Gears of War 4, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Forza Horizon 3 and Assassin's Creed Origins. I was just worried I wasn't getting the full HDR effect, but now I'm pretty sure viewing through the Xbox menus was causing the issue.

I have the same TV. You may have already done this, but for HDR, make sure you're using HDMI 2 or HDMI 3 as the input, then select the Enhanced Format.

Only HDMI ports 2 and 3 allow for the Enhanced Format. I can provide the full calibration settings I'm using when I get home if you'd like. I used the ones at https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/sony/x900e/settings?uxtv=a5bc as a starting point and tweaked a bit (I prefer a cooler temperature profile), and the HDR really shines (figuratively and literally) on some games like HITMAN and Rise of the Tomb Raider, but I did have to go into each game's settings to optimize them to get the full effect of those.

Also, Forza Horizon 3's HDR is currently half-hearted, as the in-game menus presently aren't HDR and the already-great lighting in the game isn't as awesome as it should be, but there is a Jan. 15th "Xbox One X Enhanced" update for the game that should get FH3 to where it should be. Also, AC: Origins has a known bug on HDR screenshots.

@notnert427: Well that explains why AC Origins was the most egregious example. Thanks, duder! I might PM you to get some details on your picture settings since we have the same TV.

Thanks to everyone who responded