HDR washed out only in 4K, 120hz & HDR [Sony Inzone M9 + Series X]

[MarkCleg]

Hi community,

Firstly I'm unsure if this is in the right section as there wasn't a choice for monitors or specifically for the Inzone M9 - I'm sorry if it's in the wrong area!

As the title says I have a washed out issue on my Xbox Series X using; 4K, 120hz and HDR - if I choose 4K, 60 and HDR it works fine. And if I choose 4K and 120hz with no HDR it works - only when HDR is introduced with 4K and 120hz it seemingly breaks.

The monitor I'm using is a recently released Sony Inzone M9 which is a HDMI 2.1 compatible monitor, it should just work but unfortunately it seems I can't with my Series X. I'm unsure if it's a monitor or Xbox issue at this point.

Long story short I've tried all sorts of setting combinations, resetting the monitor, Xbox, different system toggles in the video settings in the monitor and console. Changed the stock HDMI cable to known working ones which are 2.1 compliant - no dice. I've spent about two days on and off troubleshooting to no solution and I will have to give up at this point for my own sanity.

What happens;

I'll start up a game and it'll launch fine with the settings but after a certain amount of time (less than hour roughly) the input changes (black screen briefly) to SDR as if the input was changed and it appears washed out/grey. I can temporarily fix this by going to the home screen and back to the game but I shouldn't have to do this plus it eventually happens again anyway.

My PS5 works perfectly with this monitor with everything, the auto HDR tone mapping the monitor does only works with the PS5 and has no impact on any other device. I thought that could be the issue but it's not. The M9 is primarily a PC gaming monitor so I'd assume it'd be fully compliant with a Microsoft Windows/Xbox Series console HDR configuration, so I'm truly at a loss here

If anyone has any ideas, experiences or knowledge about this please let me know. Otherwise I'll have to retire this idea for the foreseeable future.

Thanks in advance

[IamNic]

Hi @MarkCleg,

I assume you are the user u/MarkDarkSpark on reddit who asked this question initially, right?

If so, you found the solution from what I can see by looking at your follow-up post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/sony/comments/wowsuc/sony_inzone_m9_series_x_hdmicec_washing_out_hdr/

- Nic

[MarkCleg · Accepted solution]

Yes that's me! 

I've ended up sending it back to Sony for a full refund, Sony was even kind enough to arrange a pickup for me. I'm surprised they didn't offer a like for like exchange instead of a full refund but I'll happily take it as it's been a headache for me which is definitely disappointing. It's probably just from a bad batch or I was unlucky to have got a faulty unit. 

At one point I had the same washed out HDR issue on the PS5 which made me realize then it was some sort of monitor issue which prompted me to go through the returns process. 

Copy and pasted from my updated original Reddit post;

Updated description below;

I appear to have a dud unit and will be returning the monitor for a full refund. If you get an issue with a washed out image, black screen/input dropouts or any form of display issue running 4K/120hz/HDR but can't be fixed with resets, new cables and all the basic fixes you'd think would help. I couldn't even update the monitor as the software wouldn't work and when it did briefly the update failed continuously.

It could be a handshake/Output/Input/HDMI port issue, I'm unsure but it appears to happen under that specific combination of 4K/120hz/HDR and sometimes just plain 4K/120hz.

Just send it back for a return and get a full refund, it appears Sony will just accept them back as faulty at the moment, no questions asked.

I'm quite disappointed with my experience with the monitor, Sony returns is ace in my opinion though.