Why is my PS5 screen suddenly too dark?

If you‘ve enabled HDR on your shiny new PS5 only to be greeted by a dark, gloomy image instead of a bright vibrant display – don‘t panic. The main culprit is likely an issue with how the PS5 and your television are interpreting HDR brightness levels. Let me explain what‘s going on and how you can adjust settings to get your PS5 picture looking stellar again!

What causes a suddenly dark PS5 image?

So what exactly is HDR and why might it look too dark when you enable it on PS5? HDR stands for High Dynamic Range, and is an enhancement over standard video (SDR) that greatly expands the range of colors, contrast and brightness a display can produce.

• HDR TVs can achieve peak brightness up to 1000 nits versus just 100 nits on SDR TVs
• This allows more precise control over backlight and highlights
• You get deeply dark shadows and incredibly vibrant colors

The catch is that HDR is backwards compatible with SDR televisions. So if you enable HDR on PS5, the signal is interpreted differently by an SDR TV resulting in a darker dimmer image.

Even with an HDR-capable television, if the PS5 settings don‘t align properly with the TV‘s capabilities you can still end up with less than ideal picture quality.

Other factors that could cause a suddenly dark PS5 screen include:

• Rest mode bug causes black screen on wake
• Changing default video settings like RGB range
• Faulty or bandwidth limited HDMI cable connection

But the main offender is misconfigured HDR settings between the PS5 and TV. Let‘s talk about how to get them synchronized properly.

Adjusting HDR settings for optimal PS5 picture

Getting truly stunning image quality means making sure your PS5 and television are both calibrated and cooperating when it comes to HDR.

Here are the key settings to check on your PS5:

• Enable HDR under Settings > Screen and Video
  • Cycle HDR off and on if already enabled
• Run Adjust HDR calibration
  • Tweak brightness levels based on prompts
• Check supported Color Depth and RGB Range

And your television:

• Make sure your TV input is set to HDMI mode
• Enable UHD Color or equivalent
• Set optimal Picture Mode
  • Cinema, Game, Calibrated modes best

For LG OLEDs specifically:

• Use Game Optimizer menu
• Set OLED Pixel Brightness higher
• Adjust White Balance as needed

Getting these synchronized will allow your PS5 to take full advantage of your television‘s HDR-enabled brightness.

Before calling Sony Support…

If adjusting settings still leaves you with a dim screen there are a few additional things you can test before contacting Sony:

• Try a different HDMI cable, port, and input
• Connect PS5 to another TV or display
• Power cycle console and TV
• Factory reset PS5 to rule out data corruption

Hopefully with a few tweaks to align those HDR video settings you‘ll be greeted by the stunning colors and highlights that really make next-gen games shine. Let me know if these steps resolved your PS5 black screen issue! And be sure to subscribe for more gaming tips & tricks.