I just got a 50” TCL Roku TV. Whenever I watch certain shows, they come on in HDR and it looks bad….washed out, less defined, etc. I also just upgraded my Netflix to get the best quality, not knowing that meant they were going to force HDR on me instead of just 4K.
Is there any way to turn it off? When I click picture settings while I’m watching it, I’m only seeing the option to pick between HDR Light, HDR Medium, and HDR Dark.
There used to be a hidden menu with some additional HDR settings for TCL RokuTVs. (only works on some versions/models).
There are two variations for the below command.
Using the Roku remote, try pressing Home at least 5x, followed by Rewind, Play, Fast Forward, Play, Rewind.
Alternatively, try pressing Home at least 5x, then Rewind, Down, Fast Forward, Down, Rewind.
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When the above works, it should stay working until the RokuTV receives the next OS update. When that occurs, you may need to do the menu trick again. (that is, if this workaround is still working/available).
Many of the newer TCL RokuTVs are supposed to automatically configure itself for the best viewing experience, which many claim it doesn't, so users are left to the light, medium, and dark settings.
If the process @AvsGunnar provided doesnt work or you dont want to disable HDR in general, the NF app has a specific setting to disable HDR: Open NF/select profile/Menu/Get Help/Video = HDR Off
The only way I've seen HDR content washed out is when watching it on a non-HDR set. Is your TCL a 1080 or 4K set? Since it has HDR settings, I must assume it's 4K and as such supports HDR. But as @StreamerUser shows, you can disable HDR within the Netflix app itself.
As I'm not a Netflix user, I can't comment on how well they do HDR. But I watch HDR/Dolby Vision on the Disney app and it looks fantastic, as well as the 4K/HDR movies I've ripped to my media server. If it looks washed out, something somewhere is set wrong. And it might very well be on Netflix's side, not your TV.