HD 6450 settings

[Mike88]

I just installed an HD 6450 video card in order to take care of the 29/59 bug, and it worked. Are there any recommended settings for HTPC use? Is it best to leave deinterlace on automatic?

[barnabas1969]

I would leave everything at defaults unless you have a specific problem. Some say that you need to disable dynamic contrast if you are seeing symptoms of the 29/59 issue, but if you are not seeing any problems, leave it at default settings. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[Mike88]

My black levels were way off & blacks looked gray. In the Catalyst Control Center I changed the Pixel Format to "RGB 4:4:4 Pixel Format PC Standard (Full RGB)". This was the only Pixel Format that corrected the blacks.

But why would I want to send the HDTV "PC Standard Full RGB"? I am presuming this means a 0-255 color range. WMC identifies the display as a TV & Catalyst identifies the display as a TV. So wouldn't the TV be expecting a 16-235 color range?

[barnabas1969]

Yes, your TV would expect a 16-235 range... unless it can handle "deep blacks" and "whiter than white." Perhaps that's why I didn't see a problem with default settings when I had an HD6450 installed. My TV does support deep blacks and whiter than white.

Did you compare your blacks and whites when connected to a standard DVD or BluRay player? It's possible that you just needed to adjust your brightness and contrast settings on the TV... unless, of course, the TV doesn't support deep black or whiter than white.

[Mike88]

If I play a standard DVD calibration disc in a DVD player or a Blu-ray player I can adjust the HDTV to display the blacker-than-black test patterns.

When I played the calibration disc with the HTPC using the G620 integrated graphics I could not display B-T-B. But the image looked completely normal probably because there is no need to display B-T-B, at least that is my understanding. I think I was using WMPlayer at the time and this was using the same HDTV HDMI input used by the Blu-ray player.

But a TV signal should not have B-T-B, correct? If the Intel graphics can display video 16 as black then shouldn’t the HD 6450 also display video 16 as black? What am I missing here?

Right now I have been trying to use WMC7 with the THX Optimizer test patterns on a standard DVD but have been unable to get it to play all the test patterns. It will just sit there & display the 8 white squares for over 5 minutes. And the status bar shows no movement. In fact the right end point shows 0:00, as does every point that I move the indicator to using a keyboard. Please see this thread.
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=5&t=2726

Any ideas on how to get the patterns to display?

[Mike88]

Update -

When playing the standard DVD with the THX Optimizer and using either WMPlayer or MPC-HC, one of the first 3 Pixel Format settings in Catalyst look OK. The 4th is way too dark & the “THX” letters do not even show up.

However when using the WMC7 TV setup guide the first 3 Pixel Format settings are way too light & the 4th one looks great.

What the heck is going on?

[barnabas1969]

Basically, if you changed the settings on the display adapter so that it outputs 16-235, you should be fine. There aren't very many movies out there that were shot in a wider range anyway.

I don't know how to help you with the THX optimizer on a DVD. However, there is another option. Check out the article at the link below. Read the article, and download the "AVS HD 709" calibration patterns. These are files you can download that you can either play directly in Media Center, or burn to a DVD or BluRay. These files have test patterns that go far beyond what's in the THX optimizer.

I chose to download the ISO file of a BluRay, and used Virtual Clone Drive (free from slysoft.com) and Mikinho Mount Image (free from mikinho.com) to mount the ISO as a virtual drive, and play it directly in Total Media Theatre 5 (TMT5). If you don't have software that can play a BluRay, they also have an MP4 file that you can download. It should play directly in Media Center.

I would not advise playing a calibration video in Media Player if you will be primarily be using Media Center. The two programs process video differently, and you could get a different result from each.

Here's the link:
http://www.missingremote.com/guide/disp ... ion-part-i

[Mike88]

If I change to one of the first 3 Pixel Formats, which I'm presuming are 16-235, everything is too light. Both the OTA recordings & DVDs. Yet it was not that way when using the Intel integrated graphics.

I already have the "AVS HD 709" calibration patterns & have used it in my stand alone Blu-ray player. I also have a standard DVD calibration disc. I have 2 DVD recorders, a Blu-ray player and now the HTPC. Everything used to pretty much match as far as black levels are concerned, That is until I installed the 6450 video card.

Doing some Googling there appears to be registry "hack" to fix WMC. There are quite a few Google "hits" about people complaining about WMC displaying blacks too light. This is just one of many examples.
http://experts.windows.com/frms/windows ... 32400.aspx

But I wonder way there was no problem when using the integrated graphics. And why would you want WMC to output 0-255? That being said using the full range Pixel Format does correct the WMC black level, unfortunately it throws off other players.

I'll try the registry mod & let you know what happens.

[barnabas1969]

You would have no reason to output 0-255 with Media Center for TV recordings. I can't help you with your problems because I did not experience them when I installed a Radeon HD 6450 for a short time on my Media Center PC.

My picture is gorgeous in both Media Center recorded TV and BluRay/DVD playback in TMT5. I am using the nVidea GT430 as shown in my PC specs, but I did not see any noticeable difference when I used the HD6450.

[Mike88]

Piecing some things together that I have read -

WMC works with 16-235 & PCs use 0-255 internally. I'm not sure how video is handled between WMC & the video card, but if they are both working with 16-235 then it appears the 16 black is getting processed twice. IOW black is getting "hit" twice.

I had a similar problem with a slide show program where the the jpeg images were getting converted to 16-235 and then when creating a compliant DVD the the video was being converted to the TV safe colors of 16-235. So the blacks ended up at 32. Short story - the developer did get it corrected. I'm speculating this is happening with my video card, and apparently with other people's too.

I'm guessing whether black levels get processed correctly or not depends on the hardware, software & driver combinations used.

My picture looks great also if I leave the CCC setting at "RGB Full". Since the HTPC is used almost exclusively as an OTA DVR that would not be a problem. However if it takes only one registry entry to supposedly correct the situation & also keep WMPlayer & MPC-HC working properly then why not.

I haven't modified a registry in years so I have to figure out to do it now.

[barnabas1969]

You've mentioned MPC-HC several times in other threads, but I'm not sure why. Why are you using MPC-HC? If it displays a different image than Media Center, then wouldn't it be better to figure out how to play your videos in Media Center?

By default, a PC will use 0-255. But, Media Center doesn't... and if you allow Media Center to control your video adapter exclusively, it shouldn't matter. I can't tell you how other programs are going to handle it.

[Mike88]

I installed MPC-HC to view .flv, VIDEO_TS, etc that are on my other PC. WMC does not find these because they are not in a Movie Library, and I didn't want to split up the videos because of different formats.

I also use another program to view photos from the other PC because I find it easier & faster.

[barnabas1969]

There are other/better ways to do those things in Media Center. I'd recommend that you should post a question about it. I'm not the most experienced with those things because I use my Media Center primarily for recording/watching TV... and for BluRay/DVD movies on optical disc and ISO. But I know for certain that there are plugins to do what you want... much better than exiting out of Media Center and running a different program.

[Mike88]

I realize there are a lot of plugins available but I want to get things working properly first.

I did the registry hack for WMC & it worked beautifully. Now its black levels match those from WMP, MPC-HC, & my Blu-ray player.