PC games come out slightly greyed out

[alanwest09872]

Ok this is how my system is setup

gtx680 ---> onkyo 616 hdmi 3d reciever ----> Optoma HD33 3d 1080p projector

Everytime I try to play a game through this setup the picture appears to be slightly fogged or greyed out. I dont have this problem with my ps3 360 or high def tv.

At first I thought it was an issue with projector settings but if these other systems are fine then it has to be a setting inside the pc. so if its an issue with nvidia control panel and someone knows what it is I would love to hear it.

If any more info is needed please let me know. I never really know what to write and what not to write



The other issue I am having is I just purchased witcher 2 and the graphics seemed below subpar. I had everything maxed out and still it just didnt see that great. I know the game is about 2 years old now but the graphics cant be that bad. Ive had ps3 games that looked much better then this and my pc is much more powerful.

 

[Markbnj]

You might be better off with this over in the Audio/Video & Home Theater forum. Maybe the output from the gtx680 is not 1080 for some reason, and it's getting upscaled?

 

[Jodell88]

OP, is it possible to connect your computer directly to the projector?

 

[alanwest09872]

I tried that and had the same exact issue.

 

[Ketchup]

Bad cable?

 

[PrincessFrosty]

This is most likely caused by the dynamic range settings for image colour. Simply put the range of colour/brightness on TVs and many other regular displays like projectors uses a format between 16-235, where as PCs output the full 0-255 range.

If you can imagine the PC is saying 0 is really black where as the projector can't draw this colour value it can only start drawing at 16 which is not perfectly black, basically you chop off the 2 extreme ends of the range.

You may have 2-3 options depending on your kit

1) You can tell your PC to output the 16-235 range to the projector. Open the Nvidia control panel, expand "Video" and select "Adjust Video Colour Settings", select the projector display at the top (make sure it's turned on) under the advanced tab you can see the dynamic range, set this accordingly.

2) The setting above overrides video player settings, some video players are capable of changing the output on the fly, this is less ideal because you have to set it per application and also you might have to change it if you're switching the video player between screens, honestly this is a bad solution.

3) Some projectors have the ability to read the full 0-255 scale and either natively display it, or convert it internally before use, you'll have to search through your projector manual to find this setting. It sometimes has a funny name like level 0 vs level 1, my projector calls it "HDMI Range" with the values Auto, Normal, Expanded I can simply leave it auto and it picks the correct range.

Your situation because you're sending the signal through a receiver is more complicated because the reciever can make changes to the signal on the fly, so it could potentially convert/correct the signal before it reaches the projector I'm not sure that's a good route to go.

My advice is first check the projector to see if it can auto-detect this, if it can turn that on and you're good to go. If not, I'd leave the projector as 16-235, set the PC drivers to 16-235 output for the projector and make sure the receiver isn't doing anything to the signal on the way through, that should result in the best quality and best compatibility - when you come to display TV and other signals on the projector they should also look correct.

Hope that helps.