Grey blacks with internal player + EVR (4 Viewers)

[Paranoid Delusion]

Started a thread in the bug forum

One of the problems I can foresee is that no one can duplicate this within the team afaik, last time we talked about it in IRC there was no conclusion.
ATI most probably out number nvidia users here by about 5-1 or more, which is quite alot as you can imagine, so in theory we have 30% of members are using Vista, hence EVR. with our current membership that should mean at least a few thousand + people interested in this thread and having their say on the subject, which would just overwhelm the forum, this has not occured, so from that we have to dedeuce this for most people it's working.

A fix needs to be found for the users who are having the problem, but I'm damn certain its ATI driver\hardware related, this could even be down to the wrong dvi\hdmi dongle being supplied within the graphics card packaging or settings within CCC itself, hopefully with the right testing and feedback given here, we may be able to nail it down

 

[zunixnuz]

A fix needs to be found for the users who are having the problem, but I'm damn certain its ATI driver\hardware related, this could even be down to the wrong dvi\hdmi dongle being supplied within the graphics card packaging or settings within CCC itself, hopefully with the right testing and feedback given here, we may be able to nail it down

Because i don't use a DVI-HDMI dongle this could not be the problem.
As described in this post (https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/codecs-external-players-55/grey-blacks-internal-player-evr-60475/index11.html#post476088) i am able to reproduce the same wrong black levels also with MPC-HC by using a "EVR Custom Preset".
So at the moment i think, ATI driver (or hardware) is not able to handle a specific EVR/Direct3D mode!?
I don't know details about different EVR modes but maybe an option or workaround to select an other EVR mode could help?

 

[Dr Tone]

I'm HDMI only as well no dongle involved.

I do believe RGB full is the default color space, so most users aren't going to see the problem or even know there is one. This issue is definately related to the newer 4 series cards and to people that know to switch from RGB full to a color space to match their properly calibrated TV.

I think we can dedeuce that a good chunk of people don't even realize they have a problem for the above reason. Not that they aren't having the problem.

Also a good number of ATI owners are probably still runinng 3 series and older cards and as damaster has shown us, they don't exibit the issue.

 

[HomeY]

I'm HDMI only as well no dongle involved.

I do believe RGB full is the default color space, so most users aren't going to see the problem or even know there is one. This issue is definately related to the newer 4 series cards and to people that know to switch from RGB full to a color space to match their properly calibrated TV.

I think we can dedeuce that a good chunk of people don't even realize they have a problem for the above reason. Not that they aren't having the problem.

Also a good number of ATI owners are probably still runinng 3 series and older cards and as damaster has shown us, they don't exibit the issue.

Just installed my HD4670 again, and it sets the default pixelformat to YCbCr 4:4:4.

I'm almost certain that over 50% of all ATI users have there setup incorrect, and therefore don't have a clue that they're missing detail over the picture simply because the picture looks good, and black = black (but that's just a full RGB range output and limited RGB input). And then not every TV has the option to set input to the correct colourspace.

Let's hope that it can be resolved! If any testing is needed: we're here

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

In regard to HDMI connections, there is no guarantee the cable is doing its job, I can remember using certain so called pc\monitor cable's that just did not work as they where supposed too, washed out colour's was the effect that I saw, again hardware related, nice if you can borrow someone else's cable, just to be able to compare.

 

[Dr Tone]

In regard to HDMI connections, there is no guarantee the cable is doing its job, I can remember using certain so called pc\monitor cable's that just did not work as they where supposed too, washed out colour's was the effect that I saw, again hardware related, nice if you can borrow someone else's cable, just to be able to compare.

But we've all said the blacks are the right level when playing the source outside of mediaportal. That rules out cabling issues!

 

[HomeY]

In regard to HDMI connections, there is no guarantee the cable is doing its job, I can remember using certain so called pc\monitor cable's that just did not work as they where supposed too, washed out colour's was the effect that I saw, again hardware related, nice if you can borrow someone else's cable, just to be able to compare.

It ain't the cable since it's giving correct colors everywhere EXCEPT inside MP.
And i've swapped those cables already (I've got 2 Van Den Hull HDMI cables), connected directly from HTPC to TV, from HTPC through receiver and everything gives the same results.

 

[neo2001]

Just wanted to say, that I'm having the same issue (OnBoard Radeon HD 3200, HDMI-Connection).

The problem is very good noticeable when watching videos which do not fill the whole screen - so there is a black border for comparision.

 

[zunixnuz]

Can anybody confirm the reproducibility of the same wrong black levels from MP
with MPC-HC player by using a "EVR Custom Preset" and selecting "Direct3D Fullscreen (remove tearing)"
with the AVS MP4 test video?

 

[HomeY]

Can anybody confirm the reproducibility of the same wrong black levels from MP
with MPC-HC player by using a "EVR Custom Preset" and selecting "Direct3D Fullscreen (remove tearing)"
with the AVS MP4 test video?

Just tried it (i'm using the latest build) but when i put brightness to the max and enable "D3D Fullscreen" i can only see 17-25 Flash. Pixelformat settings @ Limited RGB, so just the way it needs to be.

Is any of you using the UseBT601CSC registry hack?

If you only use media portal's player, you can bandaid it like I did by backing off the brightness to -28 or so in CCC. I did it system wide not just avivo because the media portal interface is washed out for me as well.

I've turned down Brightness (in ATI Color settings) to -28 and that makes 15-27 visible now. Seems pretty good so far, but i thought that changing the Color setting in ATI CCC only effected the desktop colours. Bringing this down to -28 made the 'fog' go away while watching TV and turned grey into black when watching HD (mkv's) content. But the startup screen (the red theatre background with the stairs on the left) shows a big black image where you should see the stairs, so i'm losing detail.