Washed out colours? (1 Viewer)

[psykix]

I know next to nothing about codecs, but I bought CoreAVC.

Now my colours seem to be very washed out on TV (in particular HD channels), and the picture quality is nowhere near as good as my Dreambox DM8000 picture.

I'm using an Nvidia GTX460.

What should the colour settings be in the Nvidia control panel?

I have my Samsung LCD set to 1:1 pixel mapping, and I'm using a HDMI connection.

Not sure what other info you need

I'm sure this HTPC is capable of much better picture quality!

EDIT : I just found the settings in CoreAVC for brightness etc.. Colour is a bit deeper now, but pic quality is still not great if I am honest..

Wife is running out of patience with me now :-(




MediaPortal Version: 1.1.0
MediaPortal Skin: StreamedMP
Windows Version: Windows 7 x64 Enterprise
CPU Type: Intel E8500
HDD: 2 x 1Tb SATA II
Memory: 8Gb DDR2
Motherboard: Gigabyte P43
Video Card: MSI GTX460 Cyclone
Video Card Driver:
Sound Card: Asus Xonar DS
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card: TBS 6981
1. TV Card Type: DVB-S2
1. TV Card Driver:
2. TV Card: Skystar HD2
2. TV Card Type: DVB-S2
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:
MPEG2 Audio Codec:
h.264 Video Codec: CoreAVC
Satelite/CableTV Provider: 28.2 Deg East
HTPC Case: Zalman HD503
Cooling:
Power Supply: Corsair VX550W
Remote: Harmony One
TV: Samsung LE52M86
TV - HTPC Connection: HDMI

 

[SingleMalt]

AW: Washed out colours?

I'm using an Nvidia GTX460.
What should the colour settings be in the Nvidia control panel?

First, try to change the "digital color format" option in the nvidia driver settings for your TV to "YCbCr444" (default: "RGB"). Then you should get clear and full colors on your TV screen. Personally, I own also a Samsung: LE32B530P7NXZG. It's the german model of the B530 series.

And if your're also using ffdshow as a codec package, don't forget to change the decoder settings (in both: "Video decoder" and "VFW-configuration" settings) for the output color range: look for "RGB conversion" near the bottom of the settings panel, and change the output levels from "PC" to "TV / Projector (RGB: 16-235)".

The same goes for the CoreAVC codec settings: Change the "Input levels" to "Auto detect" and the "Output levels" to "TV (16-235)".
The result: clear and foremost FULL colors!

This should do the trick!

greetings, SingleMalt

 

[psykix]

Thanks for the reply - unfortunately I had given up and switched to PDVD10 codec, which seems to work perfectly without any adjustments!

I'll bear your post in mind should I ever switch to using CoreAVC again!

 

[SingleMalt]

AW: Re: Washed out colours?

Thanks for the reply - unfortunately I had given up and switched to PDVD10 codec, which seems to work perfectly without any adjustments!

I'll bear your post in mind should I ever switch to using CoreAVC again!

Well, I am glad that it worked out for you with the PDVD10 codec, but nonetheless, I would check/change the "digital color format" option in the nvidia driver settings for your TV to "YCbCr444" (default: "RGB"), just to clarify if there is any visible (color) improvement available, or not.
The choice is yours.

cheers, SingleMalt

 

[akajester]

I would guess that powerdvd is doing something to make your colors more vivid. I would also guess that it's probably not accurate, although more vivid. What you need to do is find the codec that works best for you and calibrate your display running video using that codec. You may even modify slightly after the calibration to get it more to your liking. I like more vivid reds so I always bump red gain up a few clicks, for instance.

I've found that mpc-hc video codec does a great job and video acceleration is good too. I've heard good things about the powerdvd codec too, but I'd rather not buy it.

 

[psykix]

Thanks for the posts folks

I changed the colour format to YCbCr444 and it does seem improved, although I couldn't say exactly how!

Everything seems to be running fine now (I'm using Microsoft codec now since I am using Windows 7)

Cheers!