"Adjust Display Colors" settings are shared between internal and external displays

[HoloPengin]

Currently, the Adjust Display Colors settings are *shared* between internal and external displays, but they should be separated.

For instance, if I set the internal LCD's color temperature to be 6500K, but I already calibrated my external display to be 6500K using the TV's settings, then everything ends up overly warm on the TV until I change the deck's color temperature setting back to 7500K or enable "Use Native Color Temperature". But then if I want my deck's screen to look the way I want again I have to change the settings back. Same issue with the color vibrance slider. This makes it extremely annoying to dock and undock my Deck.

The solution would be to *store separate settings for internal and external displays.*

If you want to get real fancy with it, store separate settings for every individual display that's been connected (possibly using something in the EDID as the key), but that's much less important imo.

[akadoura]

I’m having a very similar issue and something you said piqued my interest. You mentioned that setting the Deck to 6500K and connecting to a tv that’s calibrated to 6500K messes up the colors. Why would this be if they’re both at the same temp? I’m ignorant about this aspect of picture quality so I’m sure there’s a good reason but I’m asking because it’s key to me figuring out my own issue as well.

[HoloPengin]

The reason it messes it up is because the color temperature setting on the deck is tuned specifically for the internal display. The "Use Native Display Temperature" setting which turns off the temp calibration, and the "7500K" color temperature setting, are roughly similar on the Steam Deck LCD.

Decreasing the color temperature to 6500K makes the screen more yellow/orange (closer to sunlight, like the sRGB standard). It does this not by changing the backlight, but by modifying the RGB video signal to decrease the green and blue brightness slightly. The setting affects both the internal display signal and external video signal when docked.

The problem is, most devices tend to just spit out plain RGB video (same as the native color temp setting in Deck) and expect your display to already be calibrated to the sRGB standard/your preference. Changing the color temp in the Deck's settings AND changing the color temp in the TV has an *additive* effect. Your TV is set to a warm color temp so your other devices look amazing and consistent, but your deck is set to spit out a warmer than normal image to compensate for the LCD Deck's very blue backlight, so now you have an extra warm image on your TV because the SteamOS display options apply to both.

The same issue above applies to the color saturation setting too. If your TV is set to have an accurate or high saturation, and the deck is spitting out the sRGB-simulated or boosted color image (instead of the native image, again to compensate for the LCD Deck's internal display), then your TV will be way way oversaturated.

All three of these settings (native temp toggle, temp adjustment, saturation) need be separate between internal and external displays. When my deck is not docked I want native color temp off, sRGB simulated saturation on, and 6500K temp. When my deck is docked to my TV, I want native color temp *on* and color saturation set to *native* so that the unmodified image is sent to the TV because my TV is already properly calibrated. The switching should be automatic so I'm not fiddling with settings to make the image look correct *every single time I dock or undock*


Edit: one more note, this probably isn't quite as much of a problem on the OLED deck because, if I'm not mistaken, 6500K is the native color temp there (if someone could confirm that the native temp toggle on setting looks like the 6500K temp I'd appreciate it). Thus the Deck sends a basically unmodified video signal to both the internal and external displays, and everything should look fairly consistent between the internal and a calibrated external display (and a 6500K+sRGB saturation settings LCD Deck for that matter). No tweaking of the OLED Deck's settings is necessary for a good image everywhere. That falls apart as soon as you decide to tweak the OLED deck's internal display for personal preference though. If you want boosted saturation or different temp, the TV's signal is modified too even if you don't want it changed there (i.e. you already use boosted saturation on the TV for your other devices and don't want the additive effects of two saturation boosts, or you want both the oled deck and your TV to be cool color temp).

[meollo87]

Thanks, HoloPengin.

I can confirm that the native temperature toggle on settings is 6500K.

[Fibbitts]

Having the same issue here. Displays that used to look fine are now very under saturated or over saturated. I have to spend a lot of time fiddling with the deck and TV color settings when I dock and undock it. I’m not sure what it did before, but this color filter should be completely inactive on external displays.

[Fibbitts]

Really hoping this can be addressed before the next OS update. My deck is now constantly too vivid or undersaturated. The deck's color tuning should be completely inactive when an external display is connected, and it should adjust itself based on the external display as it previously did. The middle position looks undersaturated or oversaturated on many external displays when it used to look natural, so the middle point isn't even accurate for most of them, and I have to play the guessing game of color accuracy.

Edit: OG LCD Deck user. This device-specific calibration may pose a huge problem when SteamOS is released to more devices and becomes a standalone release.

[Mattlock]

will a fix for this be included in SteamOS 3.6?

Also it would be nice to have the EDID RGB Range corrected so that external displays can automatically set the RGB Range to "Full" rather than incorrectly detect it as "Limited".

[Fibbitts]

I would be overjoyed to see this fixed in SteamOS 3.6. I’ve already submitted a formal issue report a while back on GitHub, but I am not sure where progress is with it.
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamOS/issues/1570

[Mattlock]

Originally posted by Fibbitts:

I would be overjoyed to see this fixed in SteamOS 3.6. I’ve already submitted a formal issue report a while back on GitHub, but I am not sure where progress is with it.
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamOS/issues/1570

Yeah me too, I've seen your issue report and the other one labelled duplicate and both have no relevant replies or activity. It seems to be that nobody else cares, or has noticed, or even understands the issue.

[Fibbitts]

Originally posted by Mattlock:

Originally posted by Fibbitts:

I would be overjoyed to see this fixed in SteamOS 3.6. I’ve already submitted a formal issue report a while back on GitHub, but I am not sure where progress is with it.
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamOS/issues/1570

Yeah me too, I've seen your issue report and the other one labelled duplicate and both have no relevant replies or activity. It seems to be that nobody else cares, or has noticed, or even understands the issue.

Yeah, it’s frustrating when little things go unnoticed because there’s such a small minority voicing concern. Part of a polished product is making sure every part works as expected, and currently, there are many things that do not. The little things pile up.