In recent months I’ve been experiencing an annoying issue with the Elgato 4K60 Pro MK.2 game capture. The color palette on certain games was completely thrown off when playing on the Xbox consoles. It originally started on the Xbox One X, where I noticed the color of certain games appeared dull and lacking color. However, the color came back when I returned to the Xbox Home Screen.
The issue persisted on my new Xbox Series X and I decided it was time to find out what was wrong. I started out by updating both my Windows PC and the 4K capture utility provided by Elgato. At first it seemed to work, however the issue quickly came back up after a subsequent Windows update. I proceeded to roll back the last Windows update, hoping that would bring color back but alas it did not.
After reading mixed responses online about the issue, I looked into the Xbox video settings to see what I could do on the console end. When I checked the video modes, all settings seemed to be enabled as intended and didn’t think much of it. That’s when I started opening up different games to see if all games were affected. As I mentioned earlier, the Xbox Home Screen was not affected and its color was showing in full force, providing a bit of a clue.
Experimenting with Settings
The first games I opened were Madden 21 and Watch Dogs: Legion, both of which appeared very dull on my monitor but not dull in the capture utility window. The next game I opened was Carrion and same issue. However, I opened Minecraft and this game was not affected and was showing its full color palette. There had to be a reason why this game was working, so I went back to the Xbox video settings.
Upon further inspection, I noticed a checkbox next to a setting that said auto-HDR and I proceeded to uncheck it. I went back to Carrion and voila it was showing up in full color. So I checked both Watch Dogs and Madden 21, two games that have HDR capabilities but to my surprise they were still dull. I went back to the video settings for the last time and unchecked HDR10, an option that is also available on the Xbox One X. And this is what finally brought the other games back to their intended color palette.
After turning off the console and PC a few times and checking and unchecking the box, this outcome seems to be the best I can do for now. I will have to try out some new ideas to take advantage of the console’s full features. This includes a BIOs update, which is overdue anyway, and to replace the HDMI cable that runs from the Elgato to the monitor. I have a feeling upgrading the HDMI might do the trick since these things can be finicky.
Below you will see screenshots of how to get to the video settings in order to turn off HDR. When I have made the changes I’ll make sure to update this post, see you then!
Turning off HDR on Xbox Settings
