HDR tone mapping on an ordinary monitor

A 4K film can be HDR or SDR. It is not brightness: it is range, and what your player does with that range on an ordinary monitor decides whether the picture looks rich or grey. That job is called tone mapping.

SDR playback is free with no time limit. HDR playback is part of AIX Pro. The free app includes 180 HDR playing minutes once per install; only playing time counts, and the allowance covers tone-mapped playback on an ordinary display. What happens when the HDR trial ends?

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Windows 11 & 10 · Guide reviewed 28 October 2026

What HDR actually adds

A standard-range (SDR) file describes a limited span between its darkest and brightest point. HDR describes a far wider one, so a lamp in a dark room can be genuinely bright while the shadows around it keep their detail instead of crushing to black.

Why it can look worse, not better

Most monitors cannot show that full range. Sent the file untouched, they clip the top and bottom, which is the flat, washed-out look people blame on HDR itself.

What tone mapping does

Tone mapping remaps the film’s range onto what your screen can actually show. Highlights roll off gradually instead of being chopped off, and shadows stay readable. On an SDR screen, AIX Player tone-maps HDR, so an HDR film looks like a film rather than a grey wash.

The tone-mapping controls in AIX Player

• The free HDR Tone-Mapping switch is in More → Video settings; it defaults to off, which keeps automatic tone mapping; on selects the chosen curve.
• HDR tone-mapping strength, how strongly HDR is mapped onto an SDR display, is in Settings → Video and is part of AIX Pro.
• Brightness and contrast are free, for a film that is still darker than you like. Saturation, gamma, hue and the video modes are part of AIX Pro.

Why HDR looks different on every screen

HDR describes a range far wider than most screens can produce, so every display has to interpret it. A bright modern panel shows most of it; a laptop screen shows a fraction. That is why the same film can look superb on one machine and murky on another with no setting changed. Reshaping the picture for the screen it is actually on is what keeps both watchable.

10-bit colour, and why it travels with HDR

HDR widens the range between darkest and brightest; 10-bit increases how finely the steps between them are described. Without the extra depth, a wide range would arrive as visible bands across a sunset or a dark wall. They are separate things, but they travel together for that reason.

HDR10, HDR10+, HLG and DV HDR

HDR10 is the most common HDR format. HDR10+ adds information that changes from scene to scene, HLG comes from broadcast television, and DV HDR is a further format some films use. AIX Player counts all four as HDR. The 4K HDR player page covers what plays and what is free.

On your TV

When you cast to a TV, HDR stays HDR when the TV can play the file directly; otherwise the picture is converted to SDR for the TV.