What is killing colors in my video?

[kb1985]

Hi,
I'm using this AVS script before conversion from DV to MPEG with Mainconcept Mpeg Encoder tool:

LoadPlugin("c:\Program Files\Wideo\VirtualDub\plugins\Avisynth_2.5\TomsMoComp.dll")
AviSource("D:\dv.avi")
ConvertToYUY2(interlaced=true).TomsMoComp(-1,5,0)

I'm not satisfied with the results.
Please compare these 4 screencaps.
You can find them here:
http://kb.e9.pl/fotosy/styczen-maj2005/dv/

(a) dv in media player.jpg
Here we can see how the source DV file looks in Media Player.
When I open the same with Virtual Dub colors seem blank like in (b) and (c) case.

(b) dv in virtual dub (avisynth).jpg
That's how A looks in Virtual Dub after opening with the AviSynth Script (opened in virual dub).

(c) dv [avisynth] to mpeg.jpg
This is (b) converted to MPEG (opened in virual dub)..

(d) dv [ without avisynth] to mpeg.jpg
This is how it looks when I open the source DV file (a) and convert it to MPEG without using Avi Synth (that's why we can still see interlace) (opened in virual dub).

I think that D is the best because it looks most like A. Why B's and C's are loosing colors? Why A looks good in Media Player and looks "washed out" in Virtual Dub?

If you need any additional screencaps or info I will post it here today. Thx for any replies.

[guns1inger]

virtualdub is loading the avisynth'd version, so it will look exactly the same as the avisynth version (it's the same video). Try loading it directly into virtualdubmod and it should look pretty much the same as the mediaplayer version.

I would suggest (others can correct me if I'm wrong) that the colourspace conversion to YUY2 is pushing the blacks from 0 to 16 as it is clamped from 0-255 range down to 16-235. This will lighten the image as seen here. Either that or Tomsmocomp is playing funny buggers.

[kb1985]

O start the Virtual Dub and open directly the DV *.avi file (not the *.avs file). Still the same result.

When I open the avi file with Mainconcept Mpeg Encoder and encode it to mpeg it is ok. When I open the AVS file with Mpeg Encoder the result is not good (even when i leave only "AviSource" line in my AVS script and remove the TomsMoComp). Why?

[kb1985]

If you need any additional information/experiments please write.

[kb1985]

THE SOLUTION:
If you have the same problem and have just googled into that topic here is the solution! Sony DV codec sucks. I've changed it to Panasonic DV and everything is OK now. That's weird because I have Sony DV camera so I thought that Sony's codec will be more appropriate but I was wrong. I don't know "how" or "why" but changing the codec helped.
Case closed Mulder.