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[zybex]

Happy new year to everyone!

Does anyone know a VNC server/client to manage an HDR screen from an SDR client?

I recently jumped on the HDR bandwagon with a new 4K HDR TV and HTPC. Windows 11 HDR support is great, and I have HDR permanently enabled even on Windows desktop. Movies look awesome, and other apps just work.

The problem is with VNC - I use it to manage the HTPC from my laptop when the TV is off (or to quickly change some setting while a movie is playing), but the laptop is SDR and VNC doesn't do any tonemapping. Apps with dark themes work fine, but any light/high-contrast window is completely washed out as seen below. MadVR is borderline unreadable. MC posters also look quite wrong, but that's secondary as all I need is to be able to read what's on screen. I've tried TightVNC, RealVNC and UltraVNC.

[zybex]

As a side note, Remote Desktop works perfectly (after following this guide to enable shadow sessions) but I'd like a VNC solution too. RDP shadow sessions allow connecting to the current logged on user/desktop without disconnecting it and without locking the desktop on exit. Just put this command into a .bat file/shortcut (with your hostname or IP address of course):

             start mstsc /v:hostname /prompt /control /noConsentPrompt /shadow:1

The single remaining issue is that it won't save the login credentials, they need to be entered on each connection.

Another must-have to control the HTPC from a laptop is MouseWithoutBorders. Simple yet extremely effective. Recommended options: Share clipboard, Hide mouse at screen edge, CTRL for Easy Mouse option. This allows you to simply move the mouse from the laptop edge to the TV screen as if it's a second screen of the laptop (press CTRL to allow it) and you're there! Keyboard and mouse now work on the HTPC transparently.

[zybex]

Bump.
Anyone using VNC to connect to an HDR TV?

[eve]

Bump.
Anyone using VNC to connect to an HDR TV?

No. It won't work like that and I highly doubt VNC in any implementation gets updated to support it.
I accept it (I use a TON of VNC).
As a weird alternative, Moonlight does in theory support an HDR stream if both devices support HDR.
I'd love to see RealVNC integrate HDR to sdr but I figure, it's sort of in my list of 'just works' software, I'd rather have it work always than add complexity.

[zybex]

Thanks Eve.
I agree, it's just an annoyance and it's perfectly usable.

[eve]

Thanks Eve.
I agree, it's just an annoyance and it's perfectly usable.

There's a little bit of movement on the remote desktop front but ALOT of it is regarding VMs and Virtualization.
Essentially trying to solve the problem below.
So say you have a windows VM and a linux VM. You use the Windows one for gaming, but the Linux one is your main guy. The focus right now is, how do we get the framebuffer from the GPU connected to the Windows machine to show up as a 'window' on Linux.

All I can hope is an element of that trickles down into a modern, full desktop streaming protocol. Sunshine which is like an open version of what Nvidia does is 'fine' but it could be way better.

I think a big roadblock is Wayland. So many people abandoned their remote desktop stuff because of it. Hell, RealVNC *still* doesn't even attempt to support it. 

[zybex]

I tried Wayland for the first time in an rPI some 8 years ago. It feels like it hasn't gotten much better since:
https://gist.github.com/probonopd/9feb7c20257af5dd915e3a9f2d1f2277

Very promising, but very problematic for legacy stuff.