Saturation problem

[Bruno Cappelletti]

Hey everyone.
Take a look at this picture, at the green part with arrows around.
That was supposed to be all red, but I'm having those green blocks sometimes.
I had a Pixelview PlayTV Pro last year and had this problem using the original drivers. Using the Btwincap drivers I could uncheck SATURATION on the properties and everything was back to normal, red where should be red. I don't have this card anymore, now I have a Pixelview PlayTV MPEG2, and I can't use the Btwincap drivers, I must use the originals, and I'm having this problem again.
Any tip how to fix this?
Thanx in advance.

http://www.vetorial.net/~caple/sample.jpg

[trevlac]

Can you change any options on the drivers? Saturation or Intensity might do it. Can you effect the format your card chip outputs? Try RGB vs YUY2 type options.

Here is a big guess on what is happening .... I'll try to make it sound really really smart ... but I probably don't know what I'm talkin about :D

The card internally comes up with some sort of YCbCr (YUV) format. A combo of the Cb Cr values tells you the color and the saturation of the color. The values really run from 128 to -128. For the Cr (V) value, completely saturated red can actually be ~ 130 and completely saturated green is ~ -130. So somewhere in the drivers the red values go off the scale and 'wrap back' into green. Ya know, a computer binary thing where if you add 1 to 255 and you only have 8 bits, you get 0.

The BTwincap drivers probalby clipped the value at the top or had more space to deal with out of range values.

The way to fix it is to lower the saturation or intensity before it gets to the code that has the problem. That 'code' could be in the driver, or it could be the driver using the chip incorrectly. If you lower the saturation before it gets to the card, that should fix it.

If you want to fool with it in post, I made an avisynth filter once (look for 'tweak color'), that would let you target the green hue and swing it around ~ 160 degrees to red. Trouble with this is the trees may turn red too. Donald Graft has a VDub filter Hue/Sat/Intensity that kinda does the same, but it does not target as well.

[Bruno Cappelletti]

I can change the options, but the green blocks are still there. I can lower saturation, but it only makes the image seems "uncolored". The problem is definitily the driver, as everyone knows the Pixelview drivers are awful. I tried to make a custom profile for my card using BtSpy, to work with BTwincap, but I couldn't change channels after installing it:/
I'll keep playing with some options here and keep trying to use the BTwincap drivers till I get some money to buy a better card :p
Thanx for the reply :D

[GrofLuigi]

Originally posted by Bruno Cappelletti
...BTwincap, but I couldn't change channels after installing it:/


This happens when the tuner isn't detected correctly during installation. I don't know about your specific card, but I'd try reinstalling BTWinCap several times with different tuners... Best would be to open the computer and read the actual model on the tuner itself (assuming this is a PCI card). And best of the best would be to install it manually (needs a little work on editing the INF file).

Also, try DScaler if you haven't already and see if it can work with your tuner (it's independent of the driver).

GL

[Bruno Cappelletti]

I know about the tuner, but I tried every PHILIPS tuner on the setup and couldn't find one that worked OK. Nothing is written on the card or on the tuner box, so I e-mailed Prolink/Pixelview asking about it but no answer yet.
I'd love to know how to edit the INF file but I don't have any idea how to make it.
About DScaler, I couldn't use it, tried some tuners and couldn't change channels, also I didn't have sound.

[GrofLuigi]

Originally posted by Bruno Cappelletti
I'd love to know how to edit the INF file but I don't have any idea how to make it.


See here:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=38123&package_id=30970

(maybe you already know about this) and read EVERYTHING in the BTWinCap documentation.

However, maybe your card has some non-standard "features" or has been designed differently from the common PCI TV Cards... I don't know much about these.

Maybe others on this forum have this card and can post their experiences?

GL

[Arachnotron]

You could also try the iulabs drivers

http://www.iulabs.com/drv/index.shtml

By the way: the type of tuner can maybe be found in the .inf files with your original drivers

[Bruno Cappelletti]

Originally posted by GrofLuigi
See here:

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=38123&package_id=30970

(maybe you already know about this) and read EVERYTHING in the BTWinCap documentation.

However, maybe your card has some non-standard "features" or has been designed differently from the common PCI TV Cards... I don't know much about these.

Maybe others on this forum have this card and can post their experiences?

GL

I already tried BtSpy, and still had troubles. And I did read all the documentation.

[Bruno Cappelletti]

Originally posted by Arachnotron
You could also try the iulabs drivers

http://www.iulabs.com/drv/index.shtml

By the way: the type of tuner can maybe be found in the .inf files with your original drivers

Tried it also, it tries to install the KWorld drivers. Couldn't use too :/

[GrofLuigi]

Originally posted by Bruno Cappelletti
Tried it also, it tries to install the KWorld drivers. Couldn't use too :/

Funny, I had this kind of problems with a KWorld card (on a friend's computer). Ended up selecting Philips tuner, but still didn't work 100 %.

GL

*edit This kind of problems = can not change channels

[Bruno Cappelletti]

I tried lots ot tuners, I could change channels with a LG tuner, but the image was awful and the channels were wrong (for what I read the tuner brand is right, then I just needed to find the right model) but I tried every LG tuner and didn't work. Also tried all PHILIPS models and some others on the BtWinCap list.
I gave up, gonna use the card with the original drivers.
Thanx everyone who tried to help.

Caple