The blacks are greyish on video playback

[frodelil]

hi!
I'm kind of new with SageTV. One thing I need to fix on my setup is the picture quality of playback. The picture looks a little dull, and the blacks aren't really black. I could of couse adjust the settings on my TV, but then things will be too black on fanart/other.

I have a HTPC in my livingroom, that is connected to my samsung LCD 42" TV with HDMI. I have powerDVD 7 installed, and uses its codecs. I record in .ts and get my signal from cable (digital, SD and HD).

The picture quallity is not really bad, just not good enough (my wife refuses to use Sage because of this, and prefer to use our PVR-STB...). I just tried a MC7 and MediaPortal-setup. The picture on my SageTV looks just like a standard MC7 setup, but MediaPortal had a much better picture, where the blacks were black. The MediaPortal was not stabel enough, so I went Sage for the moment.

I use the onboard videocard (not sure witch, will check and update thread) and Windows 7 (build 7400).
Settings:
Video renderer: EVR
MPEG2 Vid.dec.filter: CyberLink Video/SP Decoder (PDVD7)
MPEG4 Playback: DirectShow
H.264 Video Decoder Filter:Cyberlilnk H.264/AVC Decoder (PDVD7.x)
DScaler Deinterlancing Filger: Disabled
Audio Renderer: Default
MPEG Audio Dec.Filter: SageTV

I have tried to serch the forum for other with the same problem and a solution, but had no luck. Anyone know what I shuld do to improve the picture quality?

-f-

Edit: Put some more info about my settings into the post.

[Clift]

What video card are you using?
I assume you are using Windows Vista... Are you using the EVR Renderer or Overlay?

[frodelil]

I updated my first post to answer your questions, Clift.
-f-

[Clift]

If you have an NVIDIA card go to the control panel (right click on the desktop and setting it). Look for this option:
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/556/capturevv4.jpg

You can either allow the application to control the color space or let the NVIDIA drivers do it. In etiher case, try toggling between 16-235 or 0-255 full, if you let the NVIDIA drivers do it. I think that should fix your colorspace issues.

If you have an ATI video card you're going to have to with a registry hack.

[frodelil]

I've had an onboard Nvidia 8300, and your solution really did the trick! I changed the setting from limited (16-235) to full (0-255). I showed my wife the difference by playing a video, pausing at a screen with some greyish black that were supposed to show as black, changed the settings and hit play. The grey to black changing happend right away, and everything looked like it should. Thanks!

[stanger89]

Or you could try this:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1187234

[Clift]

Originally Posted by frodelil

I've had an onboard Nvidia 8300, and your solution really did the trick! I changed the setting from limited (16-235) to full (0-255). I showed my wife the difference by playing a video, pausing at a screen with some greyish black that were supposed to show as black, changed the settings and hit play. The grey to black changing happend right away, and everything looked like it should. Thanks!