Brightness Level (1 Viewer)

[jimwin]

Can anyone tell me why the brightness / contrast of DVDs / movie files are different when playing through Media Portal that when playing through a different player, eg Media Player Classic or Windows Media Player?

The difference really shows up on widescreen videos where there is a black bar at the top and bottom. The "black" bar is very grey in Media Portal, but proper black in Media Player Classic.

I've tried a couple of different codecs like nvidia pure video and the default dscaler / ffdshow but it doesn't seem to make a difference.

 

[Spragleknas]

Hi, and welcome to the MediaPortal community

MediaPortal is using VRM9. Most other players use overlay.

 

[jimwin]

wow, quick reply, thank you!

So with VRM9, how do I adjust the brightness levels? Can I do this inside Media Portal, or is this somewhere else?

 

[Spragleknas]

I believe it is possible to do in most display control panel (like Catalyst Control Center etc.)

 

[jimwin]

Thanks, I'll give that a try!

 

[jimwin]

brilliant, that did the trick! I just hope it hasn't messed too much with my colour settings for photoshop.

 

[kszabo]

brilliant, that did the trick! I just hope it hasn't messed too much with my colour settings for photoshop.

I corrected the problem otherwise. I think there is a better way, because your problem exists ONLY with DVDs. Not even with normal videos from harddrive. Setting brightness/gamma in catalsyst or nvidia control center changes everything what is full screen (by catalyst you can control desktop and fullscreen separately).

This is a VMR9 gamma/brightness problem. It uses black levels from 0-255, DVDs 16-235. That´s why 16 should be black in DVD and VMR interprets it grey.


Solution: Use the levels filter in ffdshow. Change the minimum input value to 16 and the maximun to 235 and set the option full scale range. The only downside is a little more CPU usage because of the filter, but it solved the problem.

Check this post: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/vmr9_incorrect_brightness_gamma_video-t2599p5.html

 

[jimwin]

Ah, that's cool. I'll try that next, then I can set my colours back for photo editing!
Thanks again!

 

[uncertainty]

wow, quick reply, thank you!

So with VRM9, how do I adjust the brightness levels? Can I do this inside Media Portal, or is this somewhere else?

Another option is to change the vmr9 to EVR in the directshow options in media portal. I'm running VISTA and EVR shows colors much more richer and blacks much more darker.

 

[kszabo]

Hi,

with my XP based HTPC EVR does not help at all (yes, .NET 3.0 is installed). Only ffdsow levels filter. If Jimwin runs Vista should give a try to EVR. Or we wait for MPII final

BTW I would not touch the graphic driver settings. That is not your problem as I understand. Two wrong settings do not make 1 good result! Correct the first wrong setting with levels or with EVR.

1 interesting thing: if I play dvd in window mode as a small thumb in mediaportal´s homescreen AND I open an explorer window, the black level corrects itself! (mp switches from VMR9 to overlay or vice versa?) Try it!

EDIT 2.1.2008:
check this out if you have ATi GFX: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=11659897&postcount=2121
If you want to use hardware acceleration (this excludes postprocessing option) you can set brightness to 16, contrast to 86 in AVIVO settings of catalyst (not touching corrections of desktop or fullscreen)


EDIT 11.1.2008:
Interesting: before Catalyst 7.6 there was no problems like that (black was black). I´ve downgraded today 7.12->7.6. It worked (it makes a correct color range expansion 16-235-to-0-255). But I had other problems (no HDMI overscan correction, small preview not working). There MUST be a registry tweak to set this with newer drivers (I´ve tried some, not working)!