Is an HDR monitor pointless for me?

[bntran02]

Information on this is a little hard to find but it seems that HDR is focused mostly on games. Games is only < 5% of my use case.

What I do on a regular basis:

1. Photoshop/light room for semi-professional photography.
2. Watching youtube/netflix (though, most of it is on my phone)
3. General business tasks: Word, excel, taxes, payroll, contracts, etc...

Is there any benefit to my use case?

 

[pj-]

I'd say wait a couple years until HDR settles down, becomes more streamlined, and has more content. I wouldn't trust current HDR monitors to do it very well anyway.

In a few years it will probably be close to standard on monitors.

 

[nathanddrews]

1. Only if you are producing/editing real HDR images
2. Only if you watch HDR videos from YouTube and Netflix
3. None that I can think of

 

[moonbogg]

I think to do HDR right you need OLED. PC monitors aren't there yet anyway, so there's really no good option for an HDR monitor unless you buy a TV IMO.

 

[Rifter]

Wait untill they come up with a real standard before going HDR on a monitor. Or buy a TV and use it as a monitor.

 

[kami]

I don't think there's much benefit for you outside of using HDR for non-PC stuff. There's no traditional monitor-sized options out there right now. HDR is only worth it if you buy either an OLED tv (expensive) or a higher end LED TV which can achieve high peak brightness and has local dimming. 90% of the TVs that advertise HDR aren't really doing HDR justice at all. 49 inches is about the smallest you can get that produces a good HDR picture.

As for your uses, the main benefit is for video watching right now (Netflix and Amazon streaming supports HDR on some titles, and 4K Blu-rays). There's a handful of PC games that support HDR but some of them are broken thanks to windows 10 updates. Windows 10 is handling HDR horribly to be honest. Xbox One X and PS4 Pro also have some HDR games.

 

[bntran02]

Welp,

Looks like the benefit, for me, is minimal to non-existent and I should spend the cash in other areas.

Thanks for the replies!