Grey blacks with internal player + EVR (1 Viewer)

[Dr Tone]

... are there any new tips or planed patches, updates or tests which will be initiated by the MP dev. team
to try to fix this issue with evr.dll

I just want to push this thread and ask the above question again because until now the only possible
workaround is to downgrade the evr.dll which should not be seen as a solution!?

Is there any work in progress or planed?
Or is the official MP statement, that this issue has nothing to do with MP so there are no interests to fix this?

Since there is no response to my bug thread I assume we know where the devs stand on this.

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...black-levels-using-ati-4670-video-card-66692/

 

[HomeY]

Since there is no response to my bug thread I assume we know where the devs stand on this.

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...black-levels-using-ati-4670-video-card-66692/

Looks that way

 

[tourettes]

... are there any new tips or planed patches, updates or tests which will be initiated by the MP dev. team
to try to fix this issue with evr.dll

I just want to push this thread and ask the above question again because until now the only possible
workaround is to downgrade the evr.dll which should not be seen as a solution!?

Is there any work in progress or planed?
Or is the official MP statement, that this issue has nothing to do with MP so there are no interests to fix this?

Since there is no response to my bug thread I assume we know where the devs stand on this.

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...black-levels-using-ati-4670-video-card-66692/

I have to say that it looks like ATI / MS issue more than MP internal one as it is not reproduced with old EVR.dll and MPC-HC can be used to trigger the same issue.

I have no clue if it even can be fixed on MP side as for example ATI has created a registry setting to hack Windows Media Center to work correctly.

Would be nice if someone could get some official word from MS or ATI what the hell has been happened and how the applications should be changed to fix the issue. Any volunteers to dig that information out? Most likely devs won't spend their free time (at least I won't) on chasing something that is highly likely an 3rd party issue. This reminds me a lot of the ATI + Vista + HW acceleration flickering issue

 

[damaster]

Funny: I have grey blacks with Apple Trailers in HD using MPC Video Decoder. Everything else is perfectly fine.

Must be something about the way Apple Trailers are mastered.

 

[HomeY]

Well, after doing some research the blacklevels might be fixed with this older evr.dll but loads of other issues should appear again since there have been a few important updates in the evr.dll, like:

1. The enhanced video renderer (EVR) sends the EC_DISPLAY_CHANGED event when you play a video stream in Windows Vista (Updated May 5th, 2007)
2. The video playback application stops responding when you watch video or Live TV on a Windows Vista-based computer
3. You may experience poor video quality when you use interlaced mode on a Windows Vista-based computer (Updated March 27, 2007)

Source (and some other issues): MS Knowledge Base

 

[tourettes]

Has anyone rised this issue to ATI / MS direction? There isn't that much we can do to solve this on MP side. Only hack would be to implement pixel shader support (just like MPC-HC has) and use it to change the color curves. Or does someone know how the EVR mixer component can be instructed to use the correct colorspace on 4:4:4 case for the video texture mixing?

As issue happens with Sagetv, MediaPortal, MPC-HC (and most likely anything else that uses custom renderer and/or DirectX) ATI (are you guys sure that it is not happening with Nvidia and 4:4:4 color space? I would assume it is, but cannot test as I use only full RGB and tv has no support for the other color space) I would assume that ATI / MS (and Nvidia?) are keen to try to figure out what causes the issue. And as there is already a hack / woraround for ATI & MCE they already know what is wrong...

To get this sorted out, please try to contact ATI etc. It might be our only hope. Or calibrate your display

MP has following rendering pipeline when EVR is used.

Video codec -> EVR mixing component -> MP EVR presenter -> DirectX

I'm not sure if there are some additional components between the two last ones (or how they are actually interacting).

• MP EVR presenter is only passing the texture forward (it doesn't do anything to the decoded picture)
• DirectX works always in full RGB color space (I guess this is the place where things start to go wrong)

 

[HomeY]

Any idea what would be the best place to report this issue?
I'm not sure if the AMD Forums are the correct place to discuss it, but i'll post a message about it there also.

 

[tourettes]

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Debug\ehPresenter.dll "NominalRange"=dword:1

So, is that debug entry for ATI or MCE?

MFNominalRange Enumeration (Windows)

MFNominalRange_0_255 = 1,

 

[tourettes]

Please test with following DLL

It sets up the nominal range with

pType->SetUINT32(MF_MT_VIDEO_NOMINAL_RANGE, MFNominalRange_0_255);

Please configure display drivers to use the color space that application provides (under Nvidia it is "Adjust video color settings" -> "with the video player settings", no idea what it is called on ATI).

By my testing with analog monitor and Nvidia's display drivers looks like EVR mixer is defaulting to the 16-235 range (at least I get exactly the same results with old DLL and Nvidia's 16-235 setting).

So, please test with current MP dshowhelper.dll and the provided ones and report is there any difference with black level being 0 or 16.

 

[HomeY]

I've opened a topic on the AMD forum about this issue, let's see what they say about it.
It can be found here

Please test with following DLL

It sets up the nominal range with

pType->SetUINT32(MF_MT_VIDEO_NOMINAL_RANGE, MFNominalRange_0_255);

Please configure display drivers to use the color space that application provides (under Nvidia it is "Adjust video color settings" -> "with the video player settings", no idea what it is called on ATI).

By my testing with analog monitor and Nvidia's display drivers looks like EVR mixer is defaulting to the 16-235 range (at least I get exactly the same results with old DLL and Nvidia's 16-235 setting).

So, please test with current MP dshowhelper.dll and the provided ones and report is there any difference with black level being 0 or 16.

Restored my SP2 evr.dll and registered it, then replaced the dshowhelper.dll file in the MP directory and ?????

PERFECT BLACKLEVELS (with the Black Pattern test file) inside MediaPortal with ATI output Limited RGB (16-235) and TV matched to this input.
I'll do some more testing when mother earth shuts down the lights for me (tonight) because that makes it way easier, but looking good so far! Turned up my brightness to the fullest and i only see bars 17-25 flash.

(under Nvidia it is "Adjust video color settings" -> "with the video player settings", no idea what it is called on ATI).

I think you're refering to AVIVO Video --> Presets --> "Use Application Settings".


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