Why is video so much darker on lucid vs maverick/freak? nvidia drivers

I have done several test install for Dharma (all on a Shuttle XS35).

1. XBMC SVN on Maverick
2. XBMCFreak B2 T3
3. XBMCLive B3

One thing I find really interesting is the different video performance - installs one and two (both of which use the latest 260.19.XX drivers) have much better looking video - largely because it is significantly brighter. That is, it does not appear to be black crushing like XBMC normally does without 'studio levels' turned on or a modification of brightness/contrast to about 56/43 that I normally use.

In general, the video looks cleaner and sharper as well with the new drivers, although that's more nebulous and hard to pin down. But I definitely have the impression the new drivers have some real video quality improvements over the brightness difference.

I am curious why Live uses the much older drivers, and am wondering if there is much danger/potential for issus in doing a vanilla XBMC B3 install (which is the easiest on this hardware) and then adding the 260 drivers to that.

I'm surprised this hasn't come up anywhere else that I have seen, as the brightness difference is substantail and can immediatebly be seen in both the UI and video play. My gut feeling is the Nvidia driver is goind 16 to 235 correctly automatically with the never drivers...

The new 260 NVIDIA drivers allow you to choose the colorspace output in nvidia-settings.

XBMC outputs in RGB Full. The new 260 drivers defaults to RGB Full on my system/TV, so the colors are brighter compared to the old drivers.

I love the new drivers because now my colors are correct without any modifications necessary.

What version are you running the new drivers with, and are there any noticeable regressions?

pennant Wrote:The new 260 NVIDIA drivers allow you to choose the colorspace output in nvidia-settings.

XBMC outputs in RGB Full. The new 260 drivers defaults to RGB Full on my system/TV, so the colors are brighter compared to the old drivers.

I love the new drivers because now my colors are correct without any modifications necessary.

ooh nice i didn't know that!! though i have been using the latest drivers from the ppa https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-updates on my lucid. maybe thats why i didn't notice it...

according to apt-cache its the version 260


i calibrate my lcd to HD-REC709 colourspace, so knowing that will make me look into the nvidia settings more in the future versions

btw are they defined in the xorg.conf?

Also, reading what this new driver does has some interesting verbage.

•Stopped installing OpenGL, VDPAU, CUDA, and OpenCL header files with the driver. Those interested in these files can get them from their Linux distributions' packages, where available, or upstream from:
OpenGL header files (gl.h, glext.h glx.h, glxext.h):
http://www.opengl.org/registry/

VDPAU header files (vdpau.h and vdpau_x11.h):
http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/VDPAU

CUDA and OpenCL header files (cuda.h, cudaGL.h, cudaVDPAU.h,
cl.h, cl_gl.h, cl_platform.h):
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/gpucomputing.html

Note that while libvdpau.so is still included in 260.xx drivers, it will be removed from a future release series in early 2011. Distributors are encouraged to package libvdpau.so from http://freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/VDPAU

Plus much more. Here is what you are referring to:
•Added ColorSpace and ColorRange features for HDMI. These give the ability to output YUV over HDMI and select full/reduced color range on RGB over HDMI. ColorSpace and ColorRange are X Configuration options and can be changed dynamically through nvidia-settings.

I wonder what the default is for ColorSpace/ColorRange.

A fresh XBMCbuntu minimal install using Karmic with this new driver may cause vdpau to not work without the additional headers configured from above. Maybe using the latest vpdau ppa https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-updates adds the missing headers. I'll know soon enough I guess.

usually you don't need the header files
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Header_file

I am not aware that e.g. any component of XBMC is calling these files

for the additional colorspace options, it would be really interesting to incorporate these into the XBMC video settings GUI

Hannes The Hun Wrote:for the additional colorspace options, it would be really interesting to incorporate these into the XBMC video settings GUI

+1 for colorspace setting in "Appearance Settings" because it's also effects the UI.

With the new drivers both the UI and the video play appear correct (vanilla Live Beta3 plus 260.19.12) - no obvious issues to note, upgrade was easy.

EDIT: by correct, I mean no brightness/contrast adjustment or 'studio levels' is required.

bossanova808 Wrote:upgrade was easy.

As per this?

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=XBM...repository

Yup

add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
reboot

was all I did.