Vista - best video results are with Overlay but this disables aero?

[Wills]

I've been running Vista for some months now.
I like Aero mode. But when I watch xvid/divx/mpg/mkv content in any player, the colours are all washed out and dull. It's still sharp (that never changes) but it doesn't look good.

To get round this, I have to enable Overlay Mixer in my player of choice (Media Player Classic). Then, when I open any avi/divx/mkv/mpg file, Aero mode turns itself off. It goes to Windows Basic Mode (which involves both my desktops flashing for a second while it removes the Aero extras. And then the video looks great.

Once I close the player, Aero mode enables itself again.

This is crap, right? What the hell kind of 'new improved' operating system has to do this? If I use Windows Media Player (which I wouldn't use if you paid me) it's the same story:

If Aero mode is on, the colours are rubbish. If it's off, it looks great (as it did permanently under XP).

It would seem that Vista won't allow Overlay mode to be used if Aero is on.

Is there any way to get round this? I'm close to going back to XP since this irritates me so much.
Any idea if SP1 fixes this?

Thanks,

Will

[redwudz]

It would seem that Vista won't allow Overlay mode to be used if Aero is on.

Is there any way to get round this? I'm close to going back to XP since this irritates me so much.
Any idea if SP1 fixes this?

Correct, you can't use Aero and overlay at the same time. I assume it's because of the transparency settings in Aero. Of course, you can't use Aero with XP, so changing back to that won't gain anything.

BTW, you asked the same question before in November and the answers still the same: https://forum.videohelp.com/topic340736.html#1777231

[Wills]

Thanks for your reply.

I know I asked the same question before; I was checking if anything had changed and also hoping someone would reply who hadn't seen my first post.

W

[jagabo]

I have Vista running on one of my computers and video looks the same whether overlay is used or not. The overlay proc amp controls are at their defaults. Try using a player with its own proc amp controls, like KMPlayer or VLC.

[JohnnyMalaria]

The problem is because your software is using DirectDraw in a certain way (locking the overlay so nothing else can use it). Aero doesn't play well with DirectDraw since Aero is all done with Direct3D. We ran into that with our software and changed it as did the developer of VirtualDub.

The only solution is to wait for the software vendor to update their product to work correctly with Vista. Personally, for such a popular piece of software to not be updated more than a year after Vista arrived is, well, perplexing.

This isn't a Vista = pile of crap issue. It's a way to allow legacy software that doesn't follow Vista's new display model (i.e., 3D instead of 2D graphics processing) to still work.

If WMP is doing it, too, then something else is going on. I've never had any problem playing videos in WMP11 under Aero.