Video Overlay Problem

[Ngami]

After months of trying to figure out why all my captured footage was darker then the orignal soruce I have finally narrowed it down to a video overlay problem. Its causeing all my captured footage to have darker then normally colors, it almost looks like a contrast or gamma problem but when viewing the footage in WMP with the overlay disable the video looks normal.

I've tried adjusting driver settings to no avail and none of the built in hardware accerlaration options clear up the problem either.

The problem is almost ignorable except that my DVDs are also encoding with the overlay so when playing a DVD with the footage it looks dark on the TV too. So in my quest to find a permant solution I have a few options to throw out for those that have dealt with this problem before.

1). I would like to use the ffdshow codec to capture through Ulead ( it has the option to select the codec ), but Iam new to the codec at not sure what settings I should change to prevent the dark overlay. Any help with this would be awesome.


2). I would eventually like to end up with MPEG 2 files after I have edited the captured footage and wondered if I could remove the problem through convertering to mpeg 2 by useing a program with would filter it out or encode with the overlay and if so what program could do it.


3). Last resort is a DVD authoring program that could filter the problem out so it doesn't appear on the finished product as the current program I use ( NERO ) doesn't have that option ( I think ).

Iam open to any and all opinions that may help, thanks in advance!

P.S. This is my setup :

Ulead VideoStudio 11
Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS
ADS PYRO A/V Link
Windows XP

[jagabo]

Video overlay is not a capture issue, it's a display issue. You can change video overlay settings all day long and it will not make any difference to what's in your captured video files. They will look different on the screen when you play them back though.

If you adjust the video overlay proc amp settings all video will be displayed correctly by programs that use video overlay (all media players except online players like YouTube).

Start playing a video. Use a video calibration chart if you can. Bring up the Nvidia Control Panel. Go to Video -> Colors (NOT Desktop -> Adjust Desktop Color Settings). Adjust the Brightness, Contrast, Hue and Saturation controls to correctly display the image. Depending on your monitor you may need to adjust the gamma to bring out shadow detail. These controls cover a very wide range. You can make your video so dark you can't see anything, so bright you can't see anything, and everything in between.



The "Preview Image" box is empty here because Print Screen doesn't capture the video overlay. You can use the small images there to adjust the picture but a larger image in a media player is better.

If there's something wrong with your captures you may have proc amp settings in your capture software that can adjust the video before capturing to make sure the video is at the correct levels. But since you are seeing a too dark image with commercial DVDs you have a video overlay problem that should be fixed first.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Since you are using a ADS PYRO A/V Link I assume you are transferring DV(via firewire) instead of capturing, you can adjust video settings when capturing but not while transferring DV. With DV you will have to adjust video settings post transfer, Nero and VideoStudio can do this.
Jagabo's recommendation of calibrating your monitor is a good one, if you have an LCD monitor then go here:
http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

[jagabo]

Jagabo's recommendation of calibrating your monitor is a good one, if you have an LCD monitor then go here:
http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

Note: that page is for adjusting the desktop, not video overlay. Of course, your desktop should be adjusted too.

[redwudz]

Actually you can make adjustments during DV transfers using the Enosoft DV Processor.

[Ngami]

Thanks everyone who posted with answers, and special thanks too redwudz for the tip about Enosoft DV Processor, I used it to clear up the orignal footage and it looks prefect now, thanks a bunch!

[redwudz]

[jagabo]

In all likelihood your DV footage is now screwed up. When you view your video elsewhere it will appear washed out. How does your DV tape look on the Camcorder's screen? If it looks OK there then adjusting it with Enosoft DV is ruining it, not fixing it.

It's as if you were wearing pink glasses and adjusted your video so that it didn't look so pink. You would be much better off just taking off the pink glasses (ie, fixing your video overlay settings).