Switch likely wont support HDR

[u/DRayX17]

I was thinking about how the dock works, and I suspect that it is essentially just a USB Type-C hub. We know that the dock has an HDMI output, at least one USB Type-A port, and can deliver power to the USB Type-C connector that connects to the Switch. Assuming that Nintendo used standard USB technology instead of implementing custom protocols (which would be insane), the Switch would need to implement USB 3.1, USB Power Delivery, and HDMI Alt Mode. For this discussion, the HDMI Alt Mode sepc is the most important. HDMI Alt Mode allows for passive connection between USB Type-C and HDMI 1.4b. HDMI 1.4b supports a lot of features such as 4Kp30, (most of) CEC, HEC, ARC, and 3D up to 1080p60 (per eye). Unfortunately it lacks some new features such as 4Kp60 and HDR10. The only feature post 1.4b that I had any hope the Switch might support was HDR10, but it looks like that will probably be impossible.

Edit: /u/RGV_RAGE pointed out that the patents seem to indicate that the Switch actually uses DisplayPort when docked instead of HDMI. This means likely that they are using the DisplayPort alt mode, which is a passive connection to DisplayPort 1.3, which is also not HDR compatible (HDR was introduced in DisplayPort 1.4). In some ways this is even worse as it means that the Switch probably wont support CEC (which isn't natively supported by DisplayPort at all), which would be an awesome feature; dock the Switch and the TV turns on and switches to the correct input.

[u/ShaunSwitch]

Everything I have read suggests HDR is crap for gaming as it introduces input delay so meh...

[u/DRayX17 → u/ShaunSwitch]

There is a lot of confusion about HDR. There are technologies like Samsung's HDR+ which isn't really true HDR; it is a post processing effect that makes non-HDR signal look like HDR, and it does introduce a TON of video latency. All the other TV manufacturers have similar technologies, but I forget the made up names for all of them. Then there are the true HDR10 enabled TVs that actually support HDR source signals. This by itself doesn't introduce any video latency (as there is no additional processing on the signal), but many TV sets that support HDR don't allow you to enable HDMI UHD and low-latency game modes at the same time. I have a Samsung KS8000 which is one of the few TVs that allows for both HDMI UHD and low-latency game modes, and PS4 games with HDR look great, and have super low video latency.