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OT: No color in videos

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Robert Baer

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May 23, 2013, 1:25:27 AM5/23/13
to
OS: Win2K, with SP4 installed and Update Rollup 1 for Win2K SP4
(which makes the OS SP5 AFAIK).
Browser: Seamonkey 2.7 .

TWO different hard drives, one used for ages; one new one (made in
last few days).

BOTH have the following drivers and software installed: Divx Codec,
Divx Converter, Divx Player, Media 9 Player*, M$ WinDoz Media Video 9
VCM, NVIDIA Drivers (am using separate video capture card to drive DELL
monitor), WinDoz Media Encoder 9 Series, WinDoz Media Player system
update (9 Series) VLC media player 1.1.11.
BOTH have same video plugins: Shockwave Flash 10.1.102.64 and WinDoz
Media Player Plug-in Dynamic Link Library 3.0.2.628 .
(*): In Control Panel, add/remove programs, the Media PLayer is shown
on the old HD, but is not seen on the new HD (but it works).

On the net, everything that should have color shows color: web pages,
news reports, videos, etc no exceptions.
NO difference as to what is seen between hard drives.

BUT, download ANY video and try to play it..
Old drive IN COLOR, new drive, gray(!!).

I tried various video formats with a number of players.
The chart below uses N=nogo, C=color, and G=grey only.

video media--> WMV V17.AVI CLOCK.AVI MPG MP4
Media Player 6.4 . . G G C G N
Media Player 9.0 . . G G C G N
VLC . . . . . . . . G G C G G
DIVX . . . . . . . . G C C G N

Notes: "V17.AVI" is a standard AVI, in this case a movie of some
ducks swimming;
"CLOCK.AVI" is a sequence of frames made by POV Ray,
similar to making an animated GIF.

So, i must apologize,the problem is obviously NOT with VLC, it is
more fundamental.
With that said, any pointers to a solution are welcome.
Again, this is only on my "new" hard drive.

Help??

Jamie

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May 23, 2013, 9:12:44 PM5/23/13
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just a guess, region is not correctly set and restricted media is
kicking in?

Jamie

Robert Baer

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May 25, 2013, 2:12:08 AM5/25/13
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Region???
You mean ALL video sources are coded (after / at download)?
Including M$ demos, M$ training, YouTube, etc & etc?

Martin Brown

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May 25, 2013, 4:14:01 AM5/25/13
to
Most video material contains region coding although the region can be
set to "none". Those of us not in the US are well used to buying chipped
DVD players to defeat region coding (as are NASA).

However, in this case I expect user error to be the likely cause of
trouble. Try encoding some video on your machine and playing that.

If your problem stems from region mismatch then video material encoded
on your PC should play on your PC. There are tools to remove or edit
region coding. What happens if you try to play a DVD on it?

Try Apple QuickTime since that has almost no components in common with
the other media players you have mentioned.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

DecadentLinuxUserNumeroUno

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May 25, 2013, 9:06:32 AM5/25/13
to
Try VLC media player.

And try booting an XBMC live boot stick or disc.

That would be a live Linux session. XBMC also has a "Windows version".

I have found that the library of encoding/decoding they install has yet
to hit a snag on any machine I ever put it on.

http://xbmc.org/download/

Jasen Betts

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May 26, 2013, 1:44:52 AM5/26/13
to
On 2013-05-23, Robert Baer <rober...@localnet.com> wrote:
> OS: Win2K, with SP4 installed and Update Rollup 1 for Win2K SP4
> (which makes the OS SP5 AFAIK).
> Browser: Seamonkey 2.7 .
>
> TWO different hard drives, one used for ages; one new one (made in
> last few days).

huh? got make and for these?

> On the net, everything that should have color shows color: web pages,
> news reports, videos, etc no exceptions.
> NO difference as to what is seen between hard drives.
>
> BUT, download ANY video and try to play it..
> Old drive IN COLOR, new drive, gray(!!).

I've seen no, partial, or intermittent colour rendering where the
system didn't have sufficient rendering capacity (or possiblt bus
badwidth?) to decode the video stream fully, if you don't have a
hardware codec using video libraries optimised for your CPU may
help.

--
⚂⚃ 100% natural

--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ne...@netfront.net ---

Jasen Betts

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May 26, 2013, 3:55:30 AM5/26/13
to
On 2013-05-26, Jasen Betts <ja...@xnet.co.nz> wrote:
> On 2013-05-23, Robert Baer <rober...@localnet.com> wrote:
>> OS: Win2K, with SP4 installed and Update Rollup 1 for Win2K SP4
>> (which makes the OS SP5 AFAIK).
>> Browser: Seamonkey 2.7 .
>>
>> TWO different hard drives, one used for ages; one new one (made in
>> last few days).
>
> huh? got make and for these?
i meant make and nodel number.

Nobody

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May 26, 2013, 10:17:09 PM5/26/13
to
On Wed, 22 May 2013 21:25:27 -0800, Robert Baer wrote:

> OS: Win2K, with SP4 installed and Update Rollup 1 for Win2K SP4
> (which makes the OS SP5 AFAIK).
> Browser: Seamonkey 2.7 .
>
> TWO different hard drives, one used for ages; one new one (made in
> last few days).

> On the net, everything that should have color shows color: web pages,
> news reports, videos, etc no exceptions.
> NO difference as to what is seen between hard drives.
>
> BUT, download ANY video and try to play it..
> Old drive IN COLOR, new drive, gray(!!).

Check the video settings. It's possible to have one set of display
settings (brightness, contrast, saturation, etc) for video[1] and another
for everything else. The details depend upon your graphics hardware (each
vendor includes their own "control panel" as part of their driver bundle).

[1] For this purpose, "video" seems to mean anything which is handed to
the OS in the YCbCr colour space, while "everything else" means RGB.

Robert Baer

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May 27, 2013, 1:53:39 PM5/27/13
to
I think i was not clear regarding the problem.
I am looking at videos downloaded from the internet, and
demonstration videos given as part of purchased software (eg: swimming
ducks, V17.AVI, from Ulead Video Studio).
Videos seen on the internet are OK; the flash or media player add-on
handle those.
After downloading they "become" WMV. MP3, FLV etc and the colored
electrons got sent to Alpha Centari, leaving me the drab and tired
electrons.

Robert Baer

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May 27, 2013, 1:57:50 PM5/27/13
to
Jasen Betts wrote:
> On 2013-05-23, Robert Baer<rober...@localnet.com> wrote:
>> OS: Win2K, with SP4 installed and Update Rollup 1 for Win2K SP4
>> (which makes the OS SP5 AFAIK).
>> Browser: Seamonkey 2.7 .
>>
>> TWO different hard drives, one used for ages; one new one (made in
>> last few days).
>
> huh? got make and for these?
* BOTH WD 40Gbytes; aint the drive..

Robert Baer

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May 27, 2013, 2:02:21 PM5/27/13
to
Sorry, NO so-called control panel for any of them - M$ players,
drivers or codecs; ditto DIVX, ditto VLC.

Besides, the software installed on the new drive is the same that
_had_ been installed on the "old" drive; difference is what the software
was obtained from the internet.


Nobody

unread,
May 27, 2013, 2:08:10 PM5/27/13
to
On Mon, 27 May 2013 10:02:21 -0800, Robert Baer wrote:

>> Check the video settings. It's possible to have one set of display
>> settings (brightness, contrast, saturation, etc) for video[1] and another
>> for everything else. The details depend upon your graphics hardware (each
>> vendor includes their own "control panel" as part of their driver bundle).
>>
>> [1] For this purpose, "video" seems to mean anything which is handed to
>> the OS in the YCbCr colour space, while "everything else" means RGB.
>>
> Sorry, NO so-called control panel for any of them - M$ players,
> drivers or codecs; ditto DIVX, ditto VLC.

It's the video drivers which provide the control panel. Historically, the
access route was: right click on desktop, select Display Properties to
bring up a properties dialog, to which the vendor (e.g. nVidia) would
have added their own tab with a button to open their control panel
application.

> Besides, the software installed on the new drive is the same that
> _had_ been installed on the "old" drive; difference is what the software
> was obtained from the internet.

I'm assuming its the settings (which may be in the registry or in a
separate config file), not the software per se.

I can't think of anything else which would produce the same issue with
many different programs (particularly as that list includes VLC, which
doesn't use DirectShow or installed codecs).

Robert Baer

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May 28, 2013, 3:00:18 AM5/28/13
to
Nobody wrote:
> On Mon, 27 May 2013 10:02:21 -0800, Robert Baer wrote:
>
>>> Check the video settings. It's possible to have one set of display
>>> settings (brightness, contrast, saturation, etc) for video[1] and another
>>> for everything else. The details depend upon your graphics hardware (each
>>> vendor includes their own "control panel" as part of their driver bundle).
>>>
>>> [1] For this purpose, "video" seems to mean anything which is handed to
>>> the OS in the YCbCr colour space, while "everything else" means RGB.
>>>
>> Sorry, NO so-called control panel for any of them - M$ players,
>> drivers or codecs; ditto DIVX, ditto VLC.
>
> It's the video drivers which provide the control panel. Historically, the
> access route was: right click on desktop, select Display Properties to
> bring up a properties dialog, to which the vendor (e.g. nVidia) would
> have added their own tab with a button to open their control panel
> application.
* Settings / Control panel / Display produces exactly same result.
This might have given ability to fix problem, so thanks for the info.
I gave up and made a copy of old/original HD and am using that for
"new".

Jasen Betts

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May 28, 2013, 5:39:15 AM5/28/13
to
On 2013-05-27, Robert Baer <rober...@localnet.com> wrote:
> Jasen Betts wrote:
>> On 2013-05-23, Robert Baer<rober...@localnet.com> wrote:
>>> OS: Win2K, with SP4 installed and Update Rollup 1 for Win2K SP4
>>> (which makes the OS SP5 AFAIK).
>>> Browser: Seamonkey 2.7 .
>>>
>>> TWO different hard drives, one used for ages; one new one (made in
>>> last few days).
>>
>> huh? got make and for these?
> * BOTH WD 40Gbytes; aint the drive..

Huh? who's making 40G winchester drives this year?

>>> On the net, everything that should have color shows color: web pages,
>>> news reports, videos, etc no exceptions.
>>> NO difference as to what is seen between hard drives.
>>>
>>> BUT, download ANY video and try to play it..
>>> Old drive IN COLOR, new drive, gray(!!).
>>
>> I've seen no, partial, or intermittent colour rendering where the
>> system didn't have sufficient rendering capacity (or possiblt bus
>> badwidth?) to decode the video stream fully, if you don't have a
>> hardware codec using video libraries optimised for your CPU may
>> help.

assuming I'm right, (having not seen any evidence to the contrary)
could there be something different about the new drive that's
causing a large load on the CPU when you read data from it.

encryption? content scanning?
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