Fix Your Switch 2’s HDR Settings: A How-To Guide

Switch 2 HDR settings, huh? What a trip. I mean, imagine expecting to just plug in and play, but nope, here we are diving into HDR hell. HDR, by the way, paints pictures with pretty colors—like, way more vivid—except when it doesn’t. Apparently on the Switch 2, it’s a bit of a mess, despite Nintendo’s fancy guidelines. Follow ‘em to a T, and guess what? Graphics might still look like someone left them out in the rain. Classic.

Anyway, good old YouTube guru HDTVTest comes to the rescue. Sort of. They unravel this HDR mystery, which feels like decoding hieroglyphics sometimes. Step one? Brightness. Adjust until a part of a sun image vanishes. Sounds simple, right? Not if your TV can’t switch on HGiG. Mine doesn’t. So I end up cranking the brightness until one sun decides to exit, stage left. Over-tune much?

Then, those arrows—what’s up with them? Click, click, nada. Makes you wonder if the Switch 2 is secretly laughing at us as we fumble.

Oh, “Paper White.” Not paper towels, though equally baffling. The reference point on the console doesn’t match universal standards, leaving images… flat? Yeah, flat. HDTVTest takes this for a spin in their deep dive. Technical jargon galore, but boils down to turning on HGiG if your TV wields it. Adjust suns accordingly. Paper White? Tricky business. If you own an Xbox Series X, it’s a handy workaround for tracking down those numbers—you’ll be doing math. Yep. Math. Who said gaming wasn’t educational?

No HGiG on your telly? No sweat. Aim for max TML at around 1,000 nits, paper white at 200 nits. Sounds almost simple, but you’ll definitely spend a good chunk of your life tweaking.

And did I mention the joystick’s the hero here? D-pad, not so much. Skip it. Set HDR output to “compatible software only” or get ready to welcome unexpected visual artifacts. Screen burn-in reduction? Off. Avoids graphics getting weirdly twisted.

Honestly, it’s bonkers—all this just to savor vibrant colors on Switch 2. Someone on YouTube nailed it—“What a mess. How is the average consumer supposed to know about this?” Yep, no kidding.