The 34” Alienware AW3423DW Curved QD-OLED features two HDR modes as you can use HDR Peak 1000 or HDR 400 True Black. If the image shown on the screen appears to be too dark or too bright, then you can check out this troubleshooting article from Seeking Tech to see how you can get a more accurate high dynamic range picture.
1. The first step you can take is to adjust the Brightness and Contrast settings of the AW3423DW by taking the following steps:
- Open the on-screen display (OSD) of your monitor by moving or pressing down on the joystick located below the screen.
- Next, you need to select Menu.
- From the Brightness/Contrast.
- Adjust the Brightness first before trying to adjust the Contrast.
2. You can also adjust the Dark Stabilizer setting by doing the following:
- Open the OSD of the AW3423DW by pressing down or moving its joystick.
- From the OSD, head to Menu.
- You should then select Game.
- Change the Dark Stabilizer setting to a different value and then test to see if the brightness level of your monitor is more accurate.
3. On your computer, laptop, game system or other connected device, you can try adjust the HDR brightness levels as well.
4. On the connected device, you may also want to disable any settings that will convert SDR to HDR. This conversion, which could be called Auto HDR or Tone Mapping, could lead to the display image looking brighter or darker than what you may have expected.
5. If possible, you can also try adjusting the RGB Range of the connected device as there may be a mismatch with your monitor.
6. HDR Peak 1000 is best used for brighter content while the HDR 400 True Black is better for darker content.
If you are using the HDR Peak 1000 mode on a SDR content or content that does not require a lot of brightness, for example, then the resulting image may end up looking darker than the HDR 400 True Black mode.
On the other hand, using the HDR 400 True Black mode on brighter content may lead to a darker than expected image.
In order to switch HDR modes with this gaming monitor, you need to do the following:
- Move or press down on the joystick of your Alienware AW3423DW to open the OSD.
- From there, select Menu.
- Inside of Menu, you need to select Game.
- You then need to select HDR Mode.
7. If possible, you can also try adjust the HDR brightness settings on the game or app you are using for the HDR content.
8. Even if a content supports HDR, it may be implemented poorly. So, no matter what settings you adjust on your monitor or connected device, the picture may end up looking too dark or too bright.
If HDR from other content looks great, then your issue may be related to the poor HDR implementation from the content creator. In this appears to be case, you can’t really do anything to improve the HDR picture.