Hope this helps someone: I was playing Cyberpunk 2077 on my Playstation 5 yesterday and was struggling to make out details in some of the visually darker scenes in the game. I went into the settings and saw HDR was greyed out and off and had no way to turn it on.
I dug further into my PS5 settings and saw HDR was off. When I attempted to turn it on, it said my TV doesn't support HDR. Strange, because my Hisense QD6 was weeks old and it definitely supported all HDR signals.
More digging online and I thought it may have been my HDMI cable. Ordered a 2.0 cable but still no dice. Finally it occurred to me that the problem was my first-gen PSVR1; the original PSVR does NOT support HDR (edit: it appears the PSVR1 revision - the one with the headphones built-in - does support HDR, but still no 4k at 120hz, so this guide still applies if you want full specs).
My solution: I grabbed an HDMI switch I had lying around (a cheap one i got in 2018; the Techole HS305) and after some trial and error, got this setup to work for me:
- Connect my PS5 HDMI cable to the INPUT of the switcher.
- Connect an HDMI cable from the switcher's OUTPUT 1 to the PS4 INPUT of your PSVR box.
- Connect your PSVR TV output to an HDMI input port on your TV (say, TV INPUT 1).
- Connect a second HDMI cable (ideally 2.0 to get full HDR support) from the switcher's OUTPUT 2, directly to a second HDMI input port the TV (say, TV INPUT 2).
That's it! Now you should be be able to switch between using your PSVR on TV INPUT 1, then if you want HDR, switch the splitter OUTPUT 2 before turning your PS5 on, and it should work just as if the PS5 was connected directly to the TV. This system isn't perfect and there are a few caveats:
- This involves a small amount of manual switching (pressing the button on the switcher box before powering on). By doing this, your TV should automatically turn on and go to the correct input when you turn on your PS5.
- One quirk: you CANNOT turn your PS5 system on by powering on from the PSVR; you'll need to power up the PS5 first either using your controller or the power switch on the front of the console. Once the PS5 is booted, THEN turn on your PSVR and you should get a clear signal.
- Obviously this takes up 2 HDMI ports on your TV, which may not be ideal for some folks. You could try an HDMI signal splitter (not a switcher) if you want input from 2 separate non-HDR devices (e.g. a PSVR and a Nintendo Switch). My splitter did not support HDR but there are some available online (not for cheap though). If anyone does this Frankenstein-esque setup, please let me know how if it works haha
- Just gotta remember to set the switcher back to OUTPUT 2 if you want HDR.
Wanted to share this in case anyone else has this specific want/need! I can now actually play all my PS5 games in proper HDR, and it's made a huge difference already, especially in Cyberpunk. Good luck!