Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 5/7/2006, 11:28 AM
Windows Media Player isn't calibrated nor managed for color/gamma, and its gamma settings are different than the managed output preview in Vegas. Start by matching up Windows Media Player to colorbars as seen in Vegas. That'll show you a significant diff. You should also calibrate your monitor as best as you can.
johnmeyer wrote on 5/7/2006, 11:54 AM
Another major factor can be the "overlay" settings. These are to be found in the advance section of your video card settings. Some media players -- don't know if this applies to Windows Media Player, but it certainly applies to the DVD players -- use the overlay facility. The contrast and brightness settings in the overlay section of the video card driver control how things look. On my ATI card, when I had hardware acceleration selected, the darn drivers insisted on changing the overlay settings, thus giving the video a "washed out" look. I changed the settings, but every time I re-started the player, the video card drivers reset the overlay settings to these odd non-zero states. Finally found a hint on an ATI support site that suggested turning off hardware acceleration. Since I don't game, this didn't bother me, and it fixed the problem.

So, check the overlay settings.
VideJoe wrote on 5/7/2006, 12:45 PM
On my laptop it looks much better, so indeed it must be something with the Windows media player on my main PC.
DSE, calibrate Windows media player?
Eh...how do you do that?

Thanks!
craftech wrote on 5/7/2006, 1:21 PM
People don't adjust anything when they install WMP so I would suggest you just kick up the gamma, slightly increase saturation, and shift the color slightly to the blue if people are in it when you render it so that it displays well on default WMP settings that most people will leave as is.

John
VideJoe wrote on 5/8/2006, 1:25 PM
Thanks for the suggestions.
But obviously I know how to adjust the monitor settings. Since I have no problems in Vegas preview and other applications, it must be something in the WMP settings as DSE pointed out.
Question is, where to adjust these settings. Can't find them in the WMP options.
rs170a wrote on 5/8/2006, 6:36 PM
Question is, where to adjust these settings. Can't find them in the WMP options.

Which version of WMP do you have? In WMP 10, there's a tiny box under the "Now" in "Now Playing". Click that and scroll down to "Enhancements - Show Enhancements - Video Settings".

Mike
VideJoe wrote on 5/8/2006, 9:18 PM
Thanks, overlooked that one. Gonna fiddle with those settings.
VideJoe wrote on 5/9/2006, 9:32 PM
By the way, I tried to adjust the video settings in WMP, but the brightness etc. sliders jump back to the default center position, which is not the case for e.g. audio sliders.
How to fix this?
rs170a wrote on 5/10/2006, 2:58 AM
sliders jump back to the default center position

I just tried it and got the same thing. Looks like you'll have to adjust it each and every time a clip is played :-(

Mike
VideJoe wrote on 5/10/2006, 3:31 AM
It's even worse. Sliding left and right does not even change the appearance of the video played. We surely must overlook something.
Serena wrote on 5/10/2006, 5:04 AM
Just checked that and had no problem. Have you brought up the top menu bar (click icon). Go to "v iew", click "enhancements", select "video settings": get sliders below frame and they work for me.
VideJoe wrote on 5/10/2006, 9:52 AM
Doesn't work for me though. Sliders return to center as if controled by elastic bands!
Former user wrote on 5/10/2006, 10:11 AM
Check to see if you are using the OVERLAY function of WMP.

TOOLS>OPTIONS>PERFORMANCE>ADVANCED

Dave T2
VideJoe wrote on 5/10/2006, 12:22 PM
Yes I do Dave, I tried all settings there, sliders still attached to elastic bands.