Video Playback problem - Extremely Dark

[AdamHeard]

Hi.... I'm having a weird problem that has stumped me for a few weeks....

I just built a new computer for college about a month ago with windows xp.

If I play any non flash video in any player (embedded in browser, windows media player 9/10/11, VLC, quicktime, etc...) it is extremely dark.... Pretty much to the point where I can't watch videos. Which is kind of annoying as my computer is the only place I can watch TVs or movies.

for reference, flash videos such as youtube work just fine.

Any suggestions...?

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Adam,
Some video cards have the ability to adjust settings for different tasks. This may require some research on the video card. When the video plays, are you watching in a window? If so, the window is dark but the desktop behind is normal? On occasion I have come across conditions like this. What may be occurring is the video is normal and the rest of the desktop display is superbrite. A balance between the video card settings and the monitor usually can bring everything back to normal.

[AdamHeard]

For referance, I have a Nvidia FX 540 Quadro from PNY.

Now, looking in device manager I think I found the problem; under Other Devices there is "Multimedia Video Controller" without drivers installed. This is listed in the same PciE slot as my video card. I can't find the drivers for this on the card's installation disk though.

Also, I can't seem to find a differential brightness setting.

Also, whatever window the video is playing in (the fancy looking windows media player one, the VLC player window, or even mozilla) is fine... Just the video itself and not a pixel more.

I believe the brightness setting on my monitor is fine as well. I use this monitor with my laptop and videos look just fine.

thanks for the help.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Adam,
I think you are on to the problem. This is a pretty powerful video card with multilayer control. You might want to research the website for known problems with certain hardware and see if they have a fix. Sometimes a search on the web will give you a lot of results of others with the same problem.

[Greg Marra]

When using multiple monitors I would sometimes encounter the problem that video on one screen was darker than others. The problem indeed lies with video layering and the way the graphics drivers are handing things. However, I usually found it easier to move the video onto the other monitor and not worry about it.

I hope you are able to figure out what is wrong with the driver (settings) to fix it.

[Binome]

Some of the latest nvidia forceware drivers have goofy values for the gamma on video layers. Go into the nvidia control panel, and adjust the "video and television" color settings, and turn gamma up.

[AdamHeard]

Been busy with school, but here are some updates;

False alarm on the driver, that was actually a video capture card I have yet to use (no cable drop in here....). I was counting pci slots from the wrong side, so it's a different slot.

The video problem changed without explanation to a very light grayscale, I made no changes to drivers or settings to cause this.

The card is running on the drivers that came on the PNY install disk. I don't have the nvidia control panel installed.

I am running dual moniters, but it is the same problem on both.

Now for the solutions;

I think I will try the Nvidia control panel and/or new drivers. Should I get the new drivers from PNY or from nvidia?

[AdamHeard]

Yay, fixed it. Thanks for the help.

After to calling Nvidia, apparently the newest drivers for the quadro series cards aren't 100% compatible with the card I have.... I found some slightly older quadro drivers from PNY, and they worked fine.

Thanks again.