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Is Firefox Nightly’s new HDR support ready for daily use on Nvidia GPUs?
Mozilla has activated proper HDR (High Dynamic Range) video support in the latest Firefox Nightly build for Windows. This update addresses a significant feature gap that previously separated Firefox from Chromium-based competitors like Edge and Chrome. For creative professionals and media consumers, this ensures that platforms like YouTube now render content with accurate luminance and color depth rather than washing out the image.
Implementation Guide
This feature is not automatic for all users. You must manually force the browser to accept specific video formats. Follow these steps to enable the capability:
- Open Firefox Nightly and type about:config in the address bar.
- Search for the preference media.wmf.force.allow-p010-format.
- Set this boolean value to True.
This specific toggle targets the Windows Media Foundation (WMF) pipeline. It overrides previous restrictions that blocked specific formatting on Nvidia hardware.
Technical Context: The P010 Format
The core of this update involves the P010 pixel format. P010 acts as a 10-bit, bi-planar pixel format essential for the HDR rendering pipeline. Historically, Mozilla disabled P010 on Nvidia adapters due to stability concerns and driver conflicts, referenced in Bugzilla entry 1497294.
By toggling the preference mentioned above, you effectively bypass the software block. This forces the browser to handle DXGI_FORMAT_P010, aligning the software decoding output with the hardware capabilities of modern GPUs. This alignment creates the necessary environment for correct tone mapping and brightness levels.
Hardware Compatibility and Known Issues
While this solution functions well for users with Nvidia graphics cards, stability varies across other hardware architectures.
- Snapdragon X1 (ARM): Users report broken playback and rendering failures. The current codebase struggles with ARM-based architecture interpretation of the HDR signal.
- Intel Iris Xe: Reports indicate persistent color inaccuracy and “washed-out” visuals even with the configuration enabled.
Engineers at Mozilla are actively collecting telemetry and bug reports to refine these driver-specific interactions.
Strategic Outlook
This development indicates progress, but full parity with other browsers remains in process. Current support applies strictly to video content; HDR image rendering is still absent. Users requiring a flawless, production-grade HDR viewing experience should currently treat Firefox Nightly as a testing environment rather than a primary media player until these changes reach the Stable release channel later this year.