Tone Mapping and Colour Space.

[MiCo1972 6]

Hello,

I use Emby on Windows 11 and have a projector. I would therefore like Emby to perform tone mapping for HDR films and output SDR as a result. How do I need to configure Windows and Emby so that the content is still output in the BT.2020 colour space?        
 

Thanks!

Kindly regards

 

Michael 

[softworkz 5065]

On 10/25/2025 at 7:30 AM, MiCo1972 said:

Hello,

I use Emby on Windows 11 and have a projector. I would therefore like Emby to perform tone mapping for HDR films and output SDR as a result. How do I need to configure Windows and Emby so that the content is still output in the BT.2020 colour space?        

Normally,. you don't need to do anything. When you enable HDR in Windows, the whole desktop will be switched to BT.2020 and the Emby Windows app will output HDR videos as HDR.

When there are monitors which are not HDR, Windows will do the tone mapping for those, so they get BT.709. Monitors which do support HDR will get the signal as HDR.

When HDR on Windows is disabled, the desktop colorspace will be BT.709 and the Emby app will do tone mapping of HDR videos while playing. When there are any monitors connected which do not support BT.709, Windows will perform colorspace conversion for those.

The only relevant settings are Windows HDR (on/off) and then in the graphics driver settings, there's usually an option to switch between RGB and YBrCr - you typically want the latter for video playback.

[MiCo1972 6]

Hey,

perhaps I didn't express myself clearly. I would like Emby to do the tone mapping. However, the result should be output SDR in the BT.2020 colour space. When I output HDR, my projector does the tone mapping, and I think Emby can do it better. But I want to retain the large colour space, just not the dynamics of HDR.

Thanks a lot.

Michael

[softworkz 5065]

Michael,

As mentioned, the primary way to switch the whole Windows desktop to BT.2020 is to enable HDR mode  in settings, but then, the embedded MPV player will output HDR and the monitor (projector) will need to do tone mapping.

Another way on recent Win11 versions is to enable this option:

Then, the mebedded MPV player will see BT.2020, but I'm not sure whether the player or Windows will do tone mapping in that case.

Anyway, it also depends on Windows color management (whether enabled) and the signal between your GPU and projector. It's a long path:

Emby App >> D3D VA >> DXGI SwapChain >> Windows per-App Color Management >> Windows Desktop Composition >> Windows Desktop Color Management >> GPU Driver >> GPU >> Display Connection >> Display

Let's start in reverse order:

• How is your projector connected?
• Which color mode is active for this connection?
• Which GPU do you have?
• How did you configure the output in the GPU driver settings
• Please show a screenshot from
  • Windows Settings >> System >> Display >> Advanced Display
  • Windows Settings >> System >> Display >> Color Management

In the Emby Windows app, during playback, you can click on the gear icon and choose "Stats for nerds" in order to see the current output mode for video playback

 

 

[MiCo1972 6]

Hey,

I was able to solve the problem by turning on HDR. Now the tone mapping is done in the projector, but it works fine there.

Thank you very much!

Kindly regards 

 

Michael

[softworkz 5065]

Ok, great, thanks for letting us know.