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Do you have an HDR monitor and are you annoyed by it constantly switching between SDR and HDR? There's a tool that can solve this problem! Smart HDR Manager automatically enables HDR when launching selected games and playing videos, then restores the standard display mode afterwards. Best of all, the program is completely free!
How does it work?
Smart HDR Manager is a small application created by independent developer VantaCode420. It runs in the background on Windows and removes the need to enable HDR manually in the settings or via the Win + Alt + B shortcut. The program automatically searches for games in the Steam, Epic Games, GOG, Xbox, Ubisoft Connect, EA and Rockstar Games Launcher libraries. The user can then select which titles should launch with HDR enabled. After closing a game, the application automatically reverts to SDR. The latest version, 2.5.1, also adds a Launch with HDR feature, which turns HDR on even before the game starts. This is important because some titles check for the availability of this feature only at startup.
HDR also on YouTube and when watching videos
The application's capabilities are not limited to games. Smart HDR Manager also works with VLC, MPC-HC, PotPlayer and mpv, and thanks to an additional Tampermonkey script it can recognise HDR videos on YouTube. Support for NVIDIA RTX Video HDR is also included, a technology that allows converting ordinary SDR material to HDR on compatible GeForce RTX cards. An interesting addition is the ability to block automatic HDR when using OBS, which can help avoid colour issues in recordings.
Smart HDR Manager can be downloaded free from GitHub. The program is released under an open-source licence but remains in beta. The developer mainly tested it on Windows 11 with an NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti and a single HDR monitor. Its behaviour on AMD and Intel cards and in multi-monitor configurations has not yet been thoroughly verified.
Sources: Videocardz, Reddit
