Thanks for the tip. I looked into it and no shaders are running. Enabling (16,235->0,255) on MPC-HC makes things even darker (unwatchable).
Also I am using an ATI card and on CCC I get the option to change pixel colour.
http://pub.otheos.com/images/forum/pixelcolors.jpg
But it makes absolutely no difference whatsoever. Maybe my drivers installation is broken.
Thanks for all the help.