Adjusting color levels in VLC?

[Sagekilla]

As the title says, is there any way to adjust color levels in VLC? It always plays back videos in TV levels format (RGB 16 to 235) so if I ever wanna watch most of my movies that are still in this format, I have to use mpc otherwise it looks very washed out.

In short, I'd very much like to know if it's possible to somehow make VLC convert the color levels from (16,235) to (0,255)!

[joseph5]

You can use the "Extended GUI" to change Brightness, contrast, etc.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Depending on the power of your PC's CPU and whether your video card offers "hardware accelaration". You could try visiting: Preferences -> Video, and "uncheck" the "Overlay Video Output" option.

[kutjong]

In short, I'd very much like to know if it's possible to somehow make VLC convert the color levels from (16,235) to (0,255)!
If you use DirectX 3D output, go to DirectX output module, be sure advanced options is checked, then uncheck "Use hardware YUV->RGB conversions". That'll correct the luma range from 16,235 to 0,255.

If you have an nvidia card, there should also be a registry tweak that enables the conversion, that would be the best way I think, so you can make use of your hardware, but I don't know much about this tweak. I think I've read that it doesn't even work in the newer forceware drivers.

[Sagekilla]

If you use DirectX 3D output, go to DirectX output module, be sure advanced options is checked, then uncheck "Use hardware YUV->RGB conversions". That'll correct the luma range from 16,235 to 0,255.

If you have an nvidia card, there should also be a registry tweak that enables the conversion, that would be the best way I think, so you can make use of your hardware, but I don't know much about this tweak. I think I've read that it doesn't even work in the newer forceware drivers.

Thanks, this corrects it perfectly!

[alvareo]

sorry for resurrecting this years-old thread but don't see a need to retype the issue on a new thread, I hope that's okay.

I'm having the inverse of this issue. I want it to output PC levels instead of TV levels so it works with calibration but I've tried everything and searched everywhere and nothing works.

Thank you.

[raffriff42]

I've tried everything and searched everywhere and nothing works.
Adjust your monitor for correct contrast and black level. This is extremely important. Your video driver software should include a basic monitor calibration app or wizard. Use it.
Verify black level with this test image from lagom.nl (http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/black.php).
Optionally, you may follow the full setup procedure at that website.
Play the following test clips in Windows Media Player and adjust (if needed) your video driver software's "video" levels
(these are separate from the "desktop" levels you adjusted in Step 1)
Get the clips from w6rz.net (http://w6rz.net/) (look under "AVS HD 709 Calibration Disk", "MP4 Version"; click "7z archive") (it's 22 MB) "Basic Settings\1 Black Clipping.mp4" (you should see flashing bars brighter than ~ "16" but not darker)
"Basic Settings\3-White Clipping.mp4" (you should see flashing bars darker than ~ "235" but not brighter)
Set VLC player as described in the previous posts.
View the two test clips again in VLC. If the clips are "blown out" (clipping blacks and/or whites), try enabling "hardware acceleration"
If the result is not satisfactory, try the different video renderers available (Tools, Preferences, Show All, Video, Output Modules)

[alvareo]

Adjust your monitor for correct contrast and black level. This is extremely important. Your video driver software should include a basic monitor calibration app or wizard. Use it.
Verify black level with this test image from lagom.nl (http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/black.php).
Optionally, you may follow the full setup procedure at that website.
Play the following test clips in Windows Media Player and adjust (if needed) your video driver software's "video" levels
(these are separate from the "desktop" levels you adjusted in Step 1)
Get the clips from w6rz.net (http://w6rz.net/) (look under "AVS HD 709 Calibration Disk", "MP4 Version"; click "7z archive") (it's 22 MB) "Basic Settings\1 Black Clipping.mp4" (you should see flashing bars brighter than ~ "16" but not darker)
"Basic Settings\3-White Clipping.mp4" (you should see flashing bars darker than ~ "235" but not brighter)
Set VLC player as described in the previous posts.
View the two test clips again in VLC. If the clips are "blown out" (clipping blacks and/or whites), try enabling "hardware acceleration"
If the result is not satisfactory, try the different video renderers available (Tools, Preferences, Show All, Video, Output Modules)

Thank you but my issue is that, if I use VLC by default or if I set MPC-HC to output full 0-255 colour levels, bars 16 and below + bars 234 and above will not flash and no matter how high I set the black or the white level. I have set my TV and onboard graphics to respectively expect and output the full colour range, to no avail. This is why I'm trying to make VLC output the limited PC levels.

[huhn]

you should only see 16-235 the rest should be clipped!

set output range to 16-235 to see them flash is is totally wrong and will destroy the CR but do as you pleases.

[raffriff42]

Using these settings, I believe I am getting the correct (16-235) output, as it matches MPC-HC which is set to 16-235.

Using the (excellent & free) screen color probe ColorPic (http://www.iconico.com/colorpic/), the output colors seem to be correct (matching the levels on the test clips as they are labeled)

Tools, Preferences, Simple, Video Enable 'Accelerated video (overlay)'
Enable 'Use hardware YUV->RGB conversions'

Tools, Preferences, Show All, Video, Filters Disable (uncheck) all filters

Tools, Preferences, Show All, Video, Output Modules: Select the 'Direct3D video output renderer'

Expand the 'Output modules' list, click 'Direct3D' Set 'Pixel Shader' to 'disabled'
'Path to HLSL file' should be empty.
'Use hardware blending support' does not change levels for me, so I leave it on.
But try it yourself - your hardware may be different.
All other settings seemed to increase the output range.

I did not see a way to explicitly set 16-235 levels using any output module. So I don't know.

[alvareo]

you should only see 16-235 the rest should be clipped!

set output range to 16-235 to see them flash is is totally wrong and will destroy the CR but do as you pleases.

So it's normal to not ever see them flash. then? Shouldn't a wider colour range show more instead of less? I'm clueless about this.

[raffriff42]

Gamma has been tweaked for clarity.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6v7ro5zcmvpad54/Clipping-Black-3.png?raw=1

https://www.dropbox.com/s/53lswh1695f9t4g/Clipping-White-3.png?raw=1