Brightness issues with computer playback

[gplap]

This is my first time posting, I've used gbpvr for about 2 years and it's great. The only problem I've ever had is when watching recordings or live TV on my computer the screen is really dark(it's to the point of not being able to even see anything when the show is dark itself). I am using a Hauppauge PVR500 and one MVP. My MVP brightness level is fine on my. I love the new version it's the best picture I've had on my TV yet and the overall perfomance is nice.

2.4 core 2 duo
2 gig ram
3 300 gig HD's
PVR500

[stustunz]

but you cant see it so can it be good
pvrx2 uses the direct3d settings to adjust colour brightness etc
easiest way is to open in window mode bring up your video card control panel and try all the different colour/brightness/contrast setting to see what adjusts what
then switch back to fse once you have the colours where you want
also check your mpeg video decoder setting make sure they are all zero before adjustimng the video card settings

[gplap]

Thanks, that worked great.

[bdgbill]

but you cant see it so can it be good
pvrx2 uses the direct3d settings to adjust colour brightness etc
easiest way is to open in window mode bring up your video card control panel and try all the different colour/brightness/contrast setting to see what adjusts what
then switch back to fse once you have the colours where you want
also check your mpeg video decoder setting make sure they are all zero before adjustimng the video card settings

I am looking forward to trying this over the weekend. I have always struggled with brightness issues in GBPVR. I have seen several posts blaming hauppauge or the video card. Have tried messing with my nvidia settings and the "Hauppauge Tweaker Tool" with no results.

I have stopped recording a few shows with lots of dark scenes (like Heroes) because the picture is so bad.

[stustunz]

before getting your colours right set everything back to default
if using a tv. Set the tv up on the internal tuner first (ie watch a couple of programs to get the brightness contrast etc right on the tv) then switch to the video/computer input without changing the colour settings

with the hauppauge tweak tool i would leave the colour setting etc at default
only play with the settings like sharpness temp blur
the colour setting you will find change between programs so you will only cause some recording look a little better but the rest to look really bad

when setting up your brightness etc you want to raise the contrast so that the detail in the blacks is just visable
so find some footage of a guy black suit with white shirt(important to get the contrast between the 2 colours looking right) raise and lower the contrast to you can see the creases and the detail of the colar in the black suit

to set up your colours you need to look at the skin tone on people make sure that looks real not to orange and not washed out if you get those 2 things right everything else should look good

if you are finding some colours are looking overdone turn down the saturation just a little
try not to be tempted to just turn down one colour as you will find then another colour looks wrong and start chasing your tail

if people are to orange sometimes you can change the hue (very tricky to get right i normally leave it alone as each program changes slightly )

another good test to see if you have the colours etc right is a black shinny car with chrome refelections etc if that looks real the you know you have it right

[gEd]

just to expand a little on what stustunz said:

The hauppauge tweak tool affects the recordings themselves so make sure your problem is with recording, rather than playback. Try playing a dark recording in WMP or on another PC to check what the recording levels are like.

The OP said that it was fine when playing via an MVP so his recording was ok and it was the playback levels that needed tweaking.