XVideo colors washed out w/fglrx 8.5

[voltaic]

When I use the Xv driver in mplayer the colors seem very washed out. It looks as though brightness is too high and contrast too low. When I switch to the x11 video drivers the video looks fine. For comparison, I am including two screenshots below: The first one taken from mplayer playback with x11 drivers, and the second using xv drivers.

This has been a problem for me ever since I started using fglrx in late 2007. The system is a ThinkPad T43 with a Mobility Radeon X300 /64mb vram running fglrx 8.5. The driver reports my card as: "Chipset: "ATI MOBILITY RADEON X300" (Chipset = 0x5460)"

The relevant sections of my xorg.conf are given below:


...
Section "Module"
Load "dbe" # Double buffer extension
Load "extmod"
SubSection "extmod"
Option "omit xfree86-dga" # DGA is broken in fglrx
EndSubSection
Load "ddc"
Load "int10"
Load "record"
Load "vbe"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "evdev"
# Load "xtt"
# This loads the GLX module
Load "glx"
# This loads the DRI module
Load "dri"
EndSection
...
Section "Device"
Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]"
Driver "fglrx"
Option "SwapScreens" "on"
Option "Mode2" "1680x1050"
Option "OverlayOnCRTC2" "1"
Option "TexturedVideo" "on"
Option "TexturedVideoSync" "on"
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
Option "EnablePrivateBackZ" "yes"
Option "DesktopSetup" "clone"
Option "TexturedXrender" "True"
Option "FSAAEnable" "on"
Option "FSAAScale" "4"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection
...


http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/3457/x11qk2.th.jpg (http://img145.imageshack.us/my.php?image=x11qk2.jpg)

http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/8595/xvrv7.th.jpg (http://img145.imageshack.us/my.php?image=xvrv7.jpg)

I have only been able to locate one thread that mentions the problem I'm having: http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8216

Is anyone else noticing this problem?

[zyon]

I have exactly the same problem.

My System:

Linux deb.fuckup 2.6.24-1-amd64 #1 SMP Sat May 10 09:28:10 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux

display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics
OpenGL version string: 2.1.7537 Release


Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"

# Driver "radeonhd"
# Option "AccellMethod" "ShadowFb"

Driver "fglrx"
## Driver / Performance Options
Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps" "true"
Option "TexturedVideo" "On"
### Set to 1 - better , set to 2 for compability, and 0 for basic
Option "UseFastTLS" "1"
### Experimental
Option "Textured2D" "on"
Option "TexturedXRender" "on"
Option "BackingStore" "on"
### forced turned off so TextureVideo is used
Option "VideoOverlay" "Off"
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "Off"
EndSection

[d2kx]

zyon,

what about

Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "fglrx"
EndSection

and give it another try? More options means more possibilities for problems and the experimental TexturedXrender is pretty broken at the moment. TexturedVideo and Textured2D are activated by default on your hardware.

[zyon]

Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "fglrx"
EndSection


With these configure I have the same problem.

http://www.sizeofvoid.org/misc/xv.jpg

[zyon]

Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "fglrx"
EndSection


With these configure I have the same problem.


http://www.sizeofvoid.org/misc/xv.jpg

zyon

[voltaic]

When I don't specify any options, the Xvideo driver works as expected (or I think it does). Thanks for the suggestion d2kx.

I started to enable each option one by one to figure out what the cause of the problem was. It turns out "TexturedVideo" triggers the behavior of washed out colors. As a result of this I also can't enable TexturedVideoSync, which allows me to have playback on both displays.

Is the color washing thing intentional? Unless I hear otherwise I will file a bug report.

[bridgman]

An X300 is an RV370 or thereabouts, so I would expect us to enable VideoOverlay by default. TexturedVideo should be the default from X12xx and up AFAIK.

That would at least explain the different behaviour when the TexturedVideo option was enabled. I don't think there should be any significant difference in colour intensity though, so I guess a bug report would be a good idea.

Am I the only one who prefers the "washed out colours" in the pics above ? I'm wondering if we are applying some gamma correction in the shader code ;)

[voltaic]

Am I the only one who prefers the "washed out colours" in the pics above ? I'm wondering if we are applying some gamma correction in the shader code ;)

If you look at the two pictures in my initial post you'll see that there is something wrong. The screenshot is from the film "Sunshine", which is set in space. Space is supposed to be black, not washed out gray :)

On a side note, I have a secondary issue that arises when using the xv driver with fglrx: The played back video is not always centered in the player window. Compare the two screenshots:

x11:
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/3874/x11normalau0.th.jpg (http://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=x11normalau0.jpg)

xv:
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/8946/xvglitchul3.th.jpg (http://img147.imageshack.us/my.php?image=xvglitchul3.jpg)

When I move the window around the played back content inside the window shifts also shifts. If I drag the window off-screen to the left, and then bring it back into view, the image recenters itself. If I, instead, drag the window off-screen to the right, I can get a larger blue area to remain in the mplayer window. This only happens with xv.

Anyone else notice this?

[Silent Storm]

Why am I thinking that "washed out colored" images show more details or is it really they are more detailed in terms of spatial detail?

(I was never a fan of ultra-saturated colors that plasma makers (cough panasonic cugh) try to pump btw.)

[p4ddY]

I have exactly the same problem with catalyst 9.2 which was released a few days ago. It's quite annoying but I have found a good solution for it.

http://smspillaz.wordpress.com/2007/10/18/unlocking-the-full-video-potential-of-your-video-card/

It not only fixed the washed out color thing but also flickering videos in earlier fglrx versions. :)

This works well for resolutions up to 720p. But I've got some 1080p content here and composited xv is too slow due to missing YV12 output. (Hence mplayer has to perform a software yuv<->rgb colorspace conversion which is too slow for smooth playback apparantly)

Is there a proper solution for fixing those washed out colors yet?

Thanks in advance

[zyon]

Hallo,

one year later, catalyst 9.8 but I have the same issue :( Any new solutions?

[bridgman]

I don't think anyone has entered a bug report for this yet :

http://ati.cchtml.com

That would be a good first step.

[Muad'Dib]

It is known since years and is not fglrx specific. ATI cards are always using Video-Level (grayscale 16 - 235) for HD-Resolutions when outputting Video.

[tuxdriver]

The same problem exists under WindowsXP as well :(

The picture is dull, washed out (low contrast) and with a lack of definition. The ATI driver always outputs the video with TV levels (16-235) even on computer displays.
This bug is so serious that I'm still using a slow ass software decoder* for video playback.

There should be an option in the Catalyst Control Center to select the output levels, i.e.:

----------------
Output levels
----------------
[ ] Auto-detect (driver controlled, default)
[ ] Force TV levels / standard range (16-235)
[x] Force PC levels / full range (0-255)
[ ] Application controlled (media players can detect and choose the correct setting)
---------------------------------------------

* shader-based conversion can do the trick, but it doesn't work for all videos.