Black overlays

Hi guys, first off let me just say I've been converted from using Windows Media Center XP to XBMC and Mediastream and I can safely say the latter is at least 10x times better than the former.

One little thing is bugging me though and tbh I'm not entirely sure that it's a problem with Mediastream or even XBMC itself. Ok, so if I select watch movies in the list info mode the fan art in the background is completely cut off by the thumbnail, info and list overlay. It's not a huge problem but it would be nice if it could be fixed.

I wanted to take a screenshot to show you guys what I mean but just to add to the confusion the screenshot came out perfectly the way I'd like it to be. So i've had to use a camera to take a photo of what exactly I'm seeing. Unfortuneatly the picture isn't great, any shadow or image you think you might see in the photograph is just a reflection.

Screenshot:


Photo:


I did a little searching and it seems people have had this problem but solved it by updating to a newer version. As far as I know I have everything up to date.
I think I've fiddled with all the settings at this stage, tried lite and default skin too. I thought it might be a problem with the graphics card so I updated the drivers but didn't help. Any ideas guys ?

Specs:
Intel core 2 duo 2.3GHz
2 Gigs DDR2
Geforce 7950GT 182.50
Windows XP SP 2
XBMC for windows 8.10
Mediastream 1.0
Pansonic viera set at 1024x768 (SD i Know )

Also, one other totally unrelated question. Is there any way to amplify the volume of the movies as I tend to find them much lower than even the startup sound for XBMC. I used to be able to use AC3 filter config to apply gain but it only seems to work for WMP.

Cheers

*Bump*

So I'm guessing I'm the only one with this problem... ?
Since the screenshot and photo differ could it be anything to do with the type of connection between the PC and TV ?
I use s-video out to scart cable fyi.

Scratch the sound problem at least

Correct me if I'm wrong, but both seem like they're the same, only your screen resolution for your connection is adjusted for overscan. If you go into the system screen settings and adjust the video calibration, it should show what I think you're referring to (the small portion of the fanart on the left and right sides of the overlay that is visible in the screenshot as opposed to your camera shot).

Thanks for the reply Baphomet, but I don't think it's the problem.

I've been fiddling with the brightness\contrast settings in nvidia control panel and managed to bring the menus up to semi transparent from pitch black. Unfortunately this has had some side effects. Animated TV shows with an already high contrast like family guy and south park look over saturated.

Guess I'll have to strike a balance. Would be nice to have a menu transparancy setting in options though

best way to do it is to actually download the skin from the svn and actually make the image more transperant