How is the TV output from a capture card calibrated and/or set?

[Patrick]

I have a Mill2/RR-S with PowerDesk 4.31.041 installed which is the latest for this combination of display/capture card. In the Read Me file there is mention made of adjusting the TV output for optimum viewing of full-screen video on a TV monitor. This has been referred to in many posts in this forum. The settings for NTSC are:

Brightness - 180
Contrast - 234
Saturation - 137
Hue - 0

It goes on to state that access to these settings can be found at:

"Start" -> "Programs" -> "Matrox PowerDesk" -> "Matrox Display Properties" -> "Settings" -> "Advanced" -> "TV Out"

Unless I'm losing my mind, these instructions don't seem to apply to the hardware/software I'm using. When I follow this path, there are no adjustments to be found. Is there a way of altering these settings in the registry instead? I have found the following under-

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Matrox\RainbowRunner\0 \VIN\DefaultValues

VPU\Brightness (32768)
VPU\Contrast (28150)
VPU\Saturation (33098)
VPU\Hue (0)

Does anyone know if these are the settings that would alter the TV output? If so, could someone please have a look in their Registry who has been able to follow the Matrox instructions (for NTSC) and tell me what their settings are. Thanks.

[Patrick]

Hmmm... I'm beginning to suspect that VIN in the Registry pertains to Video IN. However, I would guess that the settings I'm looking for are in some category after-

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Matrox\RainbowRunner

I know there's some clever person out there who knows this stuff.

[Pertti]

Patrick,

It's been a while since the days of RR-S but...

If you enable Desktop TV-Out in Matrox display properties, you should be able to access the TV-Out settings.

Pertti

[Patrick]

Pertti, these settings are not anywhere to be found. Believe me, I've looked!

[Pertti]

Patrick,

Can you get the test pattern to appear on your TV ? (the way to the TV-out settings was on the same tab as far as I can remember)

The RRS is on my work system, I'll check it tomorrow.

[Patrick]

Pertti, if you are referring to the test pattern in the Matrox Quick Connect program, yes, I can get it to appear on the TV screen, but no, there are no settings there.

It seems very odd that I can't find any place to change the settings of the TV output independent of the computer monitor display. I've never been happy with the difference in picture between captured video displayed on the computer monitor and that which is displayed on the TV. If I capture video to look good on the TV, then it's too dark on the computer. If I capture video to look good on the computer then it's too washed out (over-exposed) on the TV. As far as I can determine, both the monitor and the TV are adjusted optimally. If I could only adjust the TV output from the RR-S...

[wkulecz]

On my G200 Marvel I never could get a decent color match on the TV/video out. There were sliders for "TV out" hidden away in one of the powerdesk dialog boxes, but they did nothing useful.

Captures on the computer monitor were a good match to the original displayed straight from the camcorder to an NTSC monitor, but outputs back to tape had poor color balance.

The only solution I could find was to use a Sima SCC Color Corrector box. (about $120)

Now with the Pyro and firewire captures I have poor color match on the computer monitor but edited outputs back to tape have perfect color balance to the originals. This is certainly not optimum, but is the lesser of two evils.

--wally.

[Patrick]

Wally, I have a Videonics Video Equalizer that works quite well, but I always hoped that I could do away with the "black boxes" after switching to non-linear video editing.

[Pertti]

Patrick,

I was referring to the test pattern in Matrox Display Properties -> TV-Out -> Advanced.

Matrox Display Properties can be accessed from control panel, it is not the same as right-clicking on desktop.

You have to enable Output to TV (desktop TV-out) in Matrox Display Properties -> TV-Out (check the box and click "OK" or "Apply"), after which you will be running at 640x480 or 720x576.
Now the "Advanced" button is no longer grayed out, and you can access the TV-Out settings.

[Patrick]

Pertti, I thought we were on to something there for a moment, but alas, still no luck. I followed your latest instructions and I have to admit that I've never seen these particular sliders before. However, there were only two of them- Brightness at 96% and Saturation at 51% (default settings). The real problem is that these sliders only control the desktop image on the TV and not the video output. I could turn them right down and make the image on the TV look really bad, but as soon as I loaded up a MJPEG file to play, the colors on the TV switched to whatever settings they've been on all along.

There's gotta be some hidden adjustments for TV output (when playing avi files) somewhere!

[Pertti]

Patrick,

Those sliders should control the MJPEG out as well.

Maybe your particular combination of VideoTools and PowerDesk has broken the connection.

[wkulecz]

Patrick,

If you already have the analog color corrector, why not use it? I was miffed at the add on expense, but it was the least pain overall for me and was basically set and forget. I was very happy with the analog in analog out to VHS I was getting with this system, but the win9x 1/2/4GB limits were driving me batty!

I've since gone to DV, driven a little quicker than I might have by the lack of w2k drivers for my Marvel, but I've not regretted it.

--wally.

[Patrick]

Pertti, as far as I know these are the latest VideoTools and PowerDesk that can be used with any RR-S(running Win98). There must be someone out there who's noticed this same problem. What OS do you have your RR-S running with and what drivers do you use? Do you have more than two sliders and do they alter the video displayed on a TV from an avi file?

Wally, the reason I don't want to have to use an analog color corrector is that the more cables and connections and circuits the analog signal is forced to go through, the more degradation of the signal quality that occurs. As much as I liked using the Videonics Video Equalizer in the past, it unfortunately introduces artifacts into the video image. Besides, it just simply shouldn't be necessary. It's like adding a turbo-prop engine to a 747 to give it a bit more speed. It's a giant step backwards!

[Pertti]

Patrick,

Just two sliders here also. The setup is running on 5year old W95a installation.
Unfortunately the only TV is located at the marketing department (soap operas ) and I have no means of putting the RRS through the tests as it is, sorry.

[Patrick]

Pertti, thanks for your efforts. I appreciate it very much, although I probably need someone in NTSC territory to have a look at their system (in regards to the Registry settings).