EPoor black levels in TV and DVD + MS MPEG2 Video Decoder always active though disab. (1 Viewer)

[gnavox]

MediaPortal Version: 1.0.1.0
MediaPortal Skin: Monochrome
Windows Version: Vista Ultimate x64
CPU Type: Athlon X2 5050e+
HDD: 2x Samsung SpinPoint 1000GB
Memory: 4GB 667mhz DDR2
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA780G-DS3G
Video Card: Integrated ATI HD3200
Video Card Driver: ATI Catalyst 9.3
Sound Card: SoundBlaster Audigy FX
Sound Card AC3: S/PDIF
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card: Hauppauge HVR2200
1. TV Card Type: Analog, DVB-T
1. TV Card Driver:
2. TV Card:
2. TV Card Type:
2. TV Card Driver:
3. TV Card:
3. TV Card Type:
3. TV Card Driver:
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec: Microsoft MPEG2 codec
MPEG2 Audio Codec:
h.264 Video Codec: CoreAVC
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case:
Cooling:
Power Supply:
Remote:
TV: Panasonic TX-P50G10e
TV - HTPC Connection: HDMI

Hi.

I experience very poor black levels, almost grey, in both TV and DVD - not when watching HD material in h.264 encoded MKV's or TV-series ripped from DVD-boxsets to MP4.

While the latter, which is working fine, is handled by CoreAVC because it's h.264 encoded, the DVD and TV material is set to be handled by ffdshow and then I get awful black levels.

I've noticed from GraphEdit that the Microsoft MPEG2 Video Decoder is always active even though I've explicitly set MediaPortal to use the ffdshow Video Decoder. My current filter graph sends the signal through Microsoft MPEG2 Video Decoder for both DVD's and TV.

Since I've set MediaPortal to use ffdshow as MPEG2 video decoder for both DVD and TV, why does it use the build-in MS decoder?

 

[rak]

Is the ffdshow also in the graph? If yes, you probably have MPEG2 disabled in ffdshow.

 

[Owlsroost]

MP blocks the use of FFDshow for TV, so it will fall back to the highest-merit MPEG2 decoder - which is presumably the MS one in your system.

Tony

 

[kiwijunglist]

Try this -> Google - ATI Registry Tweak

back up your system before you try this.
apparently SD and HD material use different colourspace ie 0-255 vs 16-235
the above registry edit forces ati to use the same colourspace for both SD and HD video