I have an odd video playback problem

[Eos]

EVGA 7900GS
K9N SLI Platinum
AMD 5200+
Princeton 20.1 ws monitor

.avi file (in particular) playback has always been a little dark on my monitor. It's not a big deal, as I primarily watch them on my TV. But I still need to preview things.

I built this computer yesterday. The internet pages look fine. Perfect contrast and brightness, just like before with the same monitor settings.

Starting today, when I play a video using VLC 0.8.5, it appears darker than I know it should. Here is where things get weird. If I move move the playback window over so I can view the folder containing the same video file and open it a second time in another instance of VLC, the brightness jumps to normal levels while on the second instance starts at normal brightness. Yes, just like that. Happens on .avi, .wmv or .mpg files. I tried the latest VLC version 0.8.6a, but it won't allow me to open a second instance at the same time. Playback was still dark no matter what with the 0.8.6a version.

This video card has an Nvidia Control Panel, but I wouldn't know what to adjust in there.

What the hell is going on?

 

[nullpointerus]

nVidia drivers have had various bugs with video brightness/color settings, and many of the workarounds only seem to last until you do something else (e.g. play a game, reboot the PC).

What video drivers do you have? Can you uninstall them and install a newer WHQL driver?

http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

 

[Eos]

Thanks for the advice.
I'll give that a shot. I have xx.47 and the site is offering xx.91

Very odd problem.