Grey blacks with internal player + EVR (2 Viewers)

[tourettes]

I wonder why it suddenly has stopped working in the first place with the newer EVR.DLL. Maybe MS has decided to change the default value from 0-255 to 16-235 in EVR mixer. Also why older ATI card works? Bug in ATI's driver?

Now, how to proceed? We need to test that change as much as possible, as we definately wont want to make a change that breaks the black levels on wider range of users than the current issue is happening on. So, everyone reading this thread please do some testing with four combinations and report back.

• Vista SP1 EVR.DLL+ original MP dshowhelper.dll
• Vista SP1 EVR.DLL+ modified MP dshowhelper.dll
• Vista SP2 EVR.DLL+ original MP dshowhelper.dll
• Vista SP2 EVR.DLL+ modified MP dshowhelper.dll

All combinations must be tested. If we receive some info that the black levels are not ok on some configuration where they previously have been we will need to add some setting to switch between the color spaces (I really hate adding such setting... makes user experience just more complicated...).

So, for your own best, please test those four configurations so that the next MP SVN version is not going to break your movie experience

 

[tourettes]

Out of curiousity: was the previous dshowhelper.dll set to NominalRange 2 (16-235)?

Actually it wasn't set by MP to anything, but when I debugged it seems that EVR mixer defaults it to that.

 

[HomeY]

Well, first let me express my respect for you still looking into this! It's REALLY appreciated
The PQ has amazingly improved for me with the new dshowhelper.dll and i think this is also due to the SP2 evr.dll i'm using again but colors are just splashing of the screen Less pixel-noise, cleaner & clearer picture and perfect blacklevels.

I'll test my setup with the SP1 & SP2 evr.dll & OLD + NEW dshowhelper.dll files and report back my findings.

** EDIT **

OK, here we go:

SP1 evr.dll + original dshowhelper.dll == incorrect levels
SP1 evr.dll + dshowhelper_nominal_range_0_255 == correct levels
SP2 evr.dll + original dshowhelper.dll == incorrect levels
SP2 evr.dll + dshowhelper_nominal_range_0_255 == correct levels

I've used the following evr.dll files:
SP1 evr.dll = version 6.0.6001.18000
SP2 evr.dll = version 6.0.6002.18005

I've attached both evr.dll files and also both dshowhelper.dll files.
For everybody that is gonna test this: Don't forget to register the evr.dll file after you changed it!!

This all was tested on MediaPortal 1.0.2
Used both MPC-HC standalone filter 1.2.908.0 (mpchc_x86_v1.2.908.0_MPCVideoDec) and PDVD9 H.264 codec

Download link (and explanation) for the testfile can be found in this post by damaster.

So far, so good here

 

[pilehave]

I only run Vista on my laptop, but wants to help out testing (Nvidia graphics). Can I test this with my laptop attached to an ordinary external LCD display? Or do I need to use my 42" plasma? Obviously the LCd only has limited setup parameters as it is only a normal pc-monitor...

 

[Owlsroost]

I tried the 'dshowhelper_nominal_range_0_255.dll' and MP crashes almost immediately when playing the video test file - logs attached. The Windows application log entry is "Faulting application MediaPortal.exe, version 1.0.2.22555, time stamp 0x4a04b3db, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, time stamp 0x00000000, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0xe8001cc2, process id 0x%9, application start time 0x%10."

Before this, I did try the two 'video range' settings in the nVidia control panel 'Adjust video color settings' section (set to 'with nVidia settings' i.e. override player settings) :

0-255 => correct grey levels.
16-235 => incorrect levels.

With it set to 'with video player settings' the original MP dshowhelper gives incorrect grey levels, so it looks like the 0-255 setting is the correct one.

(Vista32 SP2 with all MS update patches, nVidia 9500GT with 182.50 drivers, tried with PDVD7 & MPC-HC h.264 codecs - new dll crashes with both)

Tony

 

[tourettes]

I tried the 'dshowhelper_nominal_range_0_255.dll' and MP crashes almost immediately when playing the video test file - logs attached. The Windows application log entry is "Faulting application MediaPortal.exe, version 1.0.2.22555, time stamp 0x4a04b3db, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, time stamp 0x00000000, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0xe8001cc2, process id 0x%9, application start time 0x%10."

This is really weird. Such change shouldn't cause any crashes. Anyone else seen this?

 

[pilehave]

I haven't been able to convince Vista that it's ok to put DLL's in the system32 folder, seems like I can't help

 

[HomeY]

I haven't been able to convince Vista that it's ok to put DLL's in the system32 folder, seems like I can't help

In Vista you first need to take ownership of the file by setting it to the correct username, after that you overwrite it

More info about how to do it can be found in this post by damaster

I'm not sure if you can test it on the laptop since that'll probably only use PC levels instead of videolevels, but you can give it a try.

 

[Owlsroost]

I tried the 'dshowhelper_nominal_range_0_255.dll' and MP crashes almost immediately when playing the video test file - logs attached. The Windows application log entry is "Faulting application MediaPortal.exe, version 1.0.2.22555, time stamp 0x4a04b3db, faulting module unknown, version 0.0.0.0, time stamp 0x00000000, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0xe8001cc2, process id 0x%9, application start time 0x%10."

This is really weird. Such change shouldn't cause any crashes. Anyone else seen this?

Is the new dll effectively an MP 1.1.0 build - if so, could you upload/attach the 'standard' MP 1.1.0 dll and I'll try that to check if it's a 1.0.2 versus 1.1.0 issue ?

Just had a thought - I use Reclock 1.8.4.5 (for video and DVD only, not TV) - I wonder if this could cause a problem ?

Tony

 

[Owlsroost]

I tried the 'dshowhelper.dll' extracted from the latest MP 1.1.0 SVN - this also causes MP 1.0.2 to crash on my system, so I assume that this is a 1.1.0 versus 1.0.2 build issue, rather than due to the '0-255' levels modification. I also tried with the default audio renderer selected instead of ReClock - it still crashes.

However, with the PDVD7 codec in use, I do get a picture before it crashes - and with the modified '0-255' dll the greyscale looks correct so I think (crashes aside) the mod is OK with my nVidia setup.

Note I'm running the Vista 32 Home Basic version in pseudo-Aero mode ('Windows Vista Standard' desktop), in case it makes any difference from a crash debugging point-of-view.

Tony