RGB Range help

[attackworld]

I understand this topic has been discussed to death, but I read many articles and I can't seem to find the answer.

So my monitor is set at RGB Full. On my PC, I can use the nvidia control panel to choose whether the output is to be RGB Limited or RGB Full. Guides tell me to use RGB Full because I am using a PC monitor.

Here's the problem: When I watch TV shows/Movies on my PC, using either VLC player or MPC-BE + madvr, RGB full feels wrong. Dark scenes are so dark you can't see a lot of things. I understand that TV shows are made in RGB limited range, so I should be using RGB limited setting in nvidia whenever I watch shows. However, I also play a lot of games, does that mean I have to switch to RGB full everytime I want to play games, and switch back to watch shows? That is my conclusion at least.

Here's why it doesn't make sense: I am a noob at this, but if I understand correctly, I should just leave the settings at RGB full. If a video is meant to be played back in Limited color space, shouldn't playing it back using Full settings on a Full monitor be perfectly fine? No scaling even needs to be done right, the limited color range can be displayed on a full color monitor? Yet the dark scenes of the show look so much darker when using RGB Full.

Does anyone know what I should do? Full or limited, or maybe it's the video player/nvidia's fault?

[flashandpan007]

This may look easy at first, but it is very complicated. Please read madshi's FAQ first:
Which output format (RGB vs YCbCr, 0-255 vs 16-235) should I activate in my GPU control panel?

What hardware like GPU, Monitor do you use?

[attackworld]

This may look easy at first, but it is very complicated. Please read madshi's FAQ first:
Which output format (RGB vs YCbCr, 0-255 vs 16-235) should I activate in my GPU control panel?

What hardware like GPU, Monitor do you use?

GPU: Nvidia 750 TI
Monitor: HP 23es https://support.hp.com/sg-en/document/c05076790

One thing I don't really understand though. For Full, black is at 0, for Limited, black is at 16. If everything is set up properly, is 0 on a Full setup the same color as 16 on a Limited set up?

Thank you

[flashandpan007]

Yes 16 limited is the same color as 0 on full.

[attackworld]

Yes 16 limited is the same color as 0 on full.

Urgh, so after making sense of all that, basically it is okay to keep control panel settings as 0-255 despite videos being in 16-235 because the computer will take into account for that? Like the numbers will be stretched accordingly so the color remains the same?

[flashandpan007]

Yes it will be converted and look like it should, nothing to worry.