Windows Media Player Videos Very Dark, Help!

[Nightmare225]

I've been running my new computer for 2 weeks without any problems showing up, however, before yesterday, a really annoying thing started happening. My WMA 10 videos suddenly became very dark. There was no way to change the color and brightness of the videos, although quicktime plays its videos fine. The only thing I remember doing was that one of the videos I played (can't remember which one) asked to install a security module. Can anyone help? Adjusting video settings in NVIDIA Control Panel has NOT helped. The video changes back to the regular version for a second whenver you move a slider, and the back to the dark version. HELP!

 

[theprodigalrebel]

This probably won't do it but worth a shot:
Tools>Options>Performance Tab
Click Restore Defaults, then move the slider to Full Video Acceleration.

I don't know how one changes the video settings in the NVIDIA Control Panel but try setting everything back to their defaults?
Sorry about the vague advise.

Edit: I once had this weird problem with Media Player where all the videos would play with this purple-bluish hue. It would be fixed when I moved the hue slider but restarting the video or moving to the next one would again cause the same bug. I fixed it by playing a video, going to the video (S3 IGP) driver control panel and messing with some Overlays-tab, hitting default settings. Presto, all was good again.

 

[Nightmare225]

Ok, when I change Video Acceleration down one notch, the video plays like it should. When I bring it back up, the same thing happens again. So, it must have something to do with the Acceleration...

 

[theprodigalrebel]

Hmm...going from full acceleration to one notch lower clears the "Video Smoothing" & "Use Overlays" checkboxes. If video performance seems subpar (video skipping a frame here and there), try clicking on Advanced and select the "Use High Quality Mode" checkbox in Video Mixing Renderer. Again, sorry for being vague but a certain combination ought to work best.

 

[xtknight]

Highest video acceleration starts using overlays while the lower acceleration uses GDI. GDI/VMR is adjusted by regular gamma adjustment and overlay is adjusted with the overlay adjustment in the NVIDIA control panel. I suggest you click defaults under the overlay video settings in the NVIDIA control panel. If you click Advanced and choose "use high quality mode" this should eliminate the problem as well.

Since I'm not quite sure if Use Overlays in the settings uses VMR7 or pure overlay, why don't you get Media Player Classic to make debugging this easier. With this program, go to the View->Options menu and select Output on the left treeview. Screenshot Now try every option except "Null" under "DirectShow Video" and tell me which ones result in dark video. The other options in that same tab dialog needn't be touched. They wouldn't help your problem.

 

[Peter]

xtknight has nailed it. Hardware accelerated video uses a separate surface, the overlay, which has its own brightness and gamma settings.

 

[Nightmare225]

Originally posted by: xtknight
Highest video acceleration starts using overlays while the lower acceleration uses GDI. GDI/VMR is adjusted by regular gamma adjustment and overlay is adjusted with the overlay adjustment in the NVIDIA control panel. I suggest you click defaults under the overlay video settings in the NVIDIA control panel. If you click Advanced and choose "use high quality mode" this should eliminate the problem as well.

Since I'm not quite sure if Use Overlays in the settings uses VMR7 or pure overlay, why don't you get Media Player Classic to make debugging this easier. With this program, go to the View->Options menu and select Output on the left treeview. Screenshot Now try every option except "Null" under "DirectShow Video" and tell me which ones result in dark video. The other options in that same tab dialog needn't be touched. They wouldn't help your problem.

All of those options produced the same results. However, I noticed that when I open the NVIDIA Control Panel, just open it, the video returns to its normal self.

 

[xtknight]

I'd uninstall your current drivers, reboot, and then reinstall the latest WHQL official.