Movie Rentals RGB Level's 16-235 instead of 0-255
Has anyone else noticed washed out blacks when rending movies in iTunes lately? Well I found the reason why. (Forgive me if I don't use the correct terms.)
Normally PC video output is on a scale of 0-255 for Red,Green,Blue. But the last 2 movies I've rented have been encoded with the levels set to 16-235. Now this is fine for the Apple TV but it leaves computer users with a washed out picture.
Most good media players either give you a option to switch between Limited(16-235)/Extended(0-255) or automatically detect when video's are encoded with Limited levels and convert it to Extended levels on the fly.
Unfortunately the current version iTunes does not currently offer that option. The only way to fix it is to force the levels in your video cards control panel (but usually only if your card supports hardware decoding).
Anyway, I hope this information was useful to someone. And I also forwarded a tweaked version of this post to the iTunes Team. Maybe we will see a option to switch between Limited/Extended Levels in the next version. =P
-Jason S.
Normally PC video output is on a scale of 0-255 for Red,Green,Blue. But the last 2 movies I've rented have been encoded with the levels set to 16-235. Now this is fine for the Apple TV but it leaves computer users with a washed out picture.
Most good media players either give you a option to switch between Limited(16-235)/Extended(0-255) or automatically detect when video's are encoded with Limited levels and convert it to Extended levels on the fly.
Unfortunately the current version iTunes does not currently offer that option. The only way to fix it is to force the levels in your video cards control panel (but usually only if your card supports hardware decoding).
Anyway, I hope this information was useful to someone. And I also forwarded a tweaked version of this post to the iTunes Team. Maybe we will see a option to switch between Limited/Extended Levels in the next version. =P
-Jason S.
Windows 7