HDR video playback comes to Firefox on Windows

[asher-fx]

Hi everyone,

We're excited to share that starting with Firefox 153, Firefox plays High Dynamic Range (HDR) video on Windows. If you have an HDR display, HDR content on sites like YouTube now plays with the full brightness, contrast, and color range it was made with. Previously, videos were flattened down to standard dynamic range. This is on by default: update to Firefox 153, make sure HDR is on in Windows, and you're set.

This has been one of the most-requested media features for Firefox on Windows, and we'd love to hear how it works on your setup in the comments below.

What you need

• Firefox 153 or later
• Windows 10 or 11
• An HDR-capable display with HDR mode enabled in Windows Settings > Display

No Firefox settings, flags, or config changes needed.

Details

• Supports HDR video streams and files using BT.2100 HLG and BT.2100 PQ color spaces (often called HDR10). These formats are used across the web for HDR video on sites such as YouTube, among others.
• Works on all hardware that supports HDR.

Known limitations

• Laptop displays that only offer "HDR video streaming" (rather than full HDR mode) are not supported at this time.
• Some phone recordings in certain orientations are currently not shown as HDR.
• Brightness on some displays: Firefox doesn't tonemap HDR video in this release, by design. On displays with limited HDR headroom, very brightly graded content (some music videos, for example) can look brighter in Firefox than in browsers that tonemap. Some users have told us they prefer this rendering. We're planning display-aware tonemapping with a user-visible control in a future release.

FAQ

How do I know it's working? Play an HDR video on YouTube. On an HDR display, the quality menu shows HDR variants and the difference in highlights is easy to see. 

Which sites does it work on? Any site that serves HDR10 or HLG video to Firefox. Sites choose which streams to send each browser, so coverage varies by service. 

Something looks wrong on my setup. What should I do? Let us know in the comments, or file a bug at bugzilla.mozilla.org with your GPU, display model, and a link to the video. Firefox 153.0.1 (about a week after 153) also adds your display's HDR details to about:support to help with troubleshooting. Reports like these directly drove fixes during the beta cycle. 

Thanks for using Firefox!

[AnunnakiRamb0]

What times to be alive! Finally!! Its working and wild. Ty!

[jehad]

What about Linux???

[myspace]

Great news! Thanks for making it happen 

[Riskion]

Does it work finally, ill try it out today. Would be glad if it works!!!!!

[SARBASST]

Nop

[SARBASST]

Doesn't work. You can see HDR logo in YouTube videos but its SDR signal. 

[SARBASST]

I wanted to try it, but it wasn't working. I had to download Chrome to make sure my monitor was working correctly, and it turned out the problem was with Firefox.

[asher-fx]

Hi @SARBASST thank you for trying this out and letting us know! Mind providing your GPU, display model, and a link to the video so we can troubleshoot? 

[SARBASST]

GPU 9070XT. Display MO27Q28G  

[ahale]

So that we can dig into the problem more, it would really help to have the text of about:support (put that in your address bar to see this troubleshooting page) as there are several errors and config preferences that could affect how it is behaving.

If you can go to https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ and make an account if you don't have one, click New Bug, pick Core as the product, you can set the summary to something like "YouTube HDR on Windows shown as SDR", the Component dropdown can be set to "Graphics: Color Management", Type should be Defect, then in the Attachment section you can click "Attach New File", go to about:support and click the Copy Raw Text To Clipboard button at the top, then paste into the attachment, it would be nice if you can share a URL that fails in the URL: box but it's okay if you can't share one.  Once you press "Submit Bug" it should take you to the bug you created, if you can link that here it would be great, but I'll find it during bug triage either way.

It helps if you visit about:support after viewing a video that triggers the problem, because it has a section for critical errors that appears if certain errors occurred earlier in the session - this is actually one of the most valuable parts for figuring out problems with HDR video.

[SARBASST]

I had to stop using Firefox due to HDR problems, I can't help to report it now. 

[EJ_]

No linux?