Yv12 on Vista = gray instead of black

I've noticed a problem with movies which use YV12,YUY2... Black color becomes gray but if I force RGB32 mode in ffdshow everything is ok. I have Radeon 1950 with latest drivers installed. The same happens on my laptop with Radeon x700. Does anybody have similar problem?

Let me guess - your display is only calibrated for PC levels? In typical broadcast video, black is at level 16. Most people here seem to prefer PC levels, where black is at level 0, which I'm guessing is because most people here have monitors calibrated for PC levels only. Perhaps you need to use FFDShow's Levels filter to move black at level 16 to level 0? (I don't know if you are using VMR9 or Overlay - but it doesn't matter if you tweak around it).

When I watched that show on WinXP EVERYTHING was OK! Black is Black. I used WMP11 and Media Player Classic. I did not change anything in options. On vista every movie I have (x264,xvid...) has less contrast.

VMR9 or overlay? Wait - I don't know what the default renderers are used in wmp11 and mpc. Vista is probably using something like vmr9. Seems to me you need to recalibrate your display.

I looked at your screenshots and used the eyedropper tool in IrfanView to look at your color levels. The YV12 screenshot looks like the correct image to me, on a display properly calibrated for Video levels (as per the NTSC specifications). In some spots the YV12 screenshot dips below level 16 in one of the colors - 14,20,20. In Overlay this would be clipped to 0,4,4, which would would give you the wrong color (not that you would see it! :) ). This confirms that the YV12 shot is absolutely correct. Shadow detail is a little bit crushed in the RGB32 shot - but considering the source, who cares? :) I think you need to fiddle with the player's brightness setting - or you can use FFDShow to clip and expand the levels.

When I switch from System Default in mpc to Overlay mixer picture looks like RGB32 but unfortunately Aero Glass doesn't work in this mode :-( I will post another example, this time from DVD. I need couple minutes...

Another example (Gorillaz video clip - DVD)

I've sent another screenshots just to show Rectal Prolapse that he is wrong. He claims that YV12 is correct. VMR7 Windowed does not change anything. I've discovered that only Overlay Mixer works along with Haali's Video Renderer. Unfortunately Overlay switches off Aero Glass. Haali's Video Renderer is not perfect neither. It drops frames from time to time (on my Core 2 Duo E6300@2,8ghz-strange). I think I will have to stick with the best solution so far - Forced RGB32 pozdrawiam i ja

Well, VMR7 windowed "runs in overlay, when it can" (a tool-tip from MPC), so most probably it's not the case by you. I also consider Haali's render, with all due respect to his work, not stable enough at the current stage of its development. With your CPU, if you don't use various ffdshow's filters, RGB32 indeed seems to be the best solution. ;)

I wager that once ATI's Vista drivers settle down the problem will go away, same as nvidia's, but until then there's going to be some annoyances. Do be sure to report it to ATI so they don't forget about it.