I need to adjust the gamma of the video. Videos are way way too dark. After doing some searching, I read about the XF86Config-4 modification where I add a "Gamma 2.5 2.5 2.5" line in the monitors section. (I know, 2.5 is a number I picked out of a hat, not scientifiic. Just a starting place to see an obvious difference.)

The only difference I noticed is that one of the screens before KnoppMyth loaded was gray instead of black, but all the video was still dark and unchanged (and the menus looked unchanged in intensity, but they looked fine to begin with).

Am I missing some other sort of setting somewhere?

if your video card supports xv (most do) then you can make sure use xv color controls is checked in the playback setup and use the F key to change the hue/color/brightness

_________________
Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

I'm probably missing something simple here. Nvidia FX 5200 card.

I went to [Utilities/Setup] --> [Setup] --> [TV Settings] --> [Playback] --> [Page 2] and selected Use Xv picture controls. (Didn't quite understand the warning at the bottom, though.)

I think I'm a little confused on the 'F' key part. Of course, if I hit it then and there on the menu, it does nothing. If I hit lowercase f during a video playback, it toggles windowed/fullscreen. If I hit uppercase f during a video playback, it does nothing.

odd used to f during playback controled the xv controls maybe they changed it. I haven't used the xv controls in a while.

_________________
Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

FWIW, "Gamma 2.5 2.5 2.5" in the XF86Config-4 file seems to affect the menus with the Nvidia card. But not the video playback.

Anyone know how to change the default gamma (I'll settle for brightness/contrast if I have to) of the video playback? (mplayer)

EDIT: I see that the 1-2, 3-4 keys will adjust brightness/contrast on the fly, but they aren't permanently saved (and aren't gamma, either).

nvidia settings has gamma settings. you could try that, but you would have to get the settings to load at every boot there are instructions on how to do that in the forum you'll have to search for them.

_________________
Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

Gamma settings in addition to the XF86Config-4 file?

I guess my problem is that gamma is perfect everywhere but playing videos.

well if you are talking recordings or livetv then you can adjust that from hitting a key. that key used to be F, but guess that changed recently. If you are talking about the video section I guess you could look and see if mplayer has any settings. Anything in the XF86Config-4 file or nvidia-settings should be universal and affect everything.

_________________
Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

The F key won't work in several circumstances:

- You don't have "use Xv controls enabled" - You need to be using Xv for it to work

- You do have XvMC enabled - You need to not be using XvMC for it to work

- You are trying to do twinview - Xv only works with a single display, and thus the F key only works witha single display.

As for global gamma settings, the nvidia-settings utility will also let you twiddle it, and it sure as heck seems to affect the TV output for me... Too bad there aren't any built in reference patterns to help you get it right...

OBTW - This key only works in live or recorded TV playback. if you're doing something else (like watching a DVD with mplayer or xine) you need to use the builtin adjustments for those programs.

I have a related problem. My DVDs are very dark when playing them in mplayer, but my TV shows are fine. I was thinking of this very topic, but applied to mplayer. The trouble with mplayer is that there are so MANY options it's hard to know where to start. So many of the options are conditional on other options or settings. It's just a twisty maze of passages, all different.

_________________
Do you code to live, or live to code?
Search LinHES forum through Google

Despite it's other complexities I found xine much easier to tweak in terms of video settings. Hang on and I'll look up the settings to adjust in the config file... OK, in the file: /home/mythtv/.xine/config look for the following 4 variables which control the color/contrast/... settings for the video output (basically anything with a name starting with "gui.vo_"):

gui.vo_brightness
gui.vo_contrast
gui.vo_saturation
gui.vo_hue

Good luck!