SCART to HDMI scaler too bright?

[AndehX]

I have a question for some of the knowledgable people on this forum.

So I own one of these scalers



Yes I know im cheap and I should buy an XRGB-mini, but I use a PVM for my retro gaming, and this scaler is only used for connecting my consoles to my HDMI capture device.

The Problem I have is that during the conversion process, this scaler seems to add too much contrast and makes whites look way too bright.

Here's a couple mockup examples to show you what I mean:
This is what a normal brightness test pattern should look like right?


Well this is what it looks like on this scaler:


As you can see, alot of the white bars are all the same intensity.

Here's an example of a game:
This is what it should look like:


and this is what the scaler does to it:


Now my question is: Is there anything I can do about it? Can the contrast be adjusted via modifying anything inside the box? (Im handy with a soldering iron, so I dont mind tinkering)
Or is this kind of adjustment only possible through firmware, and im out of luck?

[ZellSF]

Probably a color range mismatch?

SCART RGB is full range, either the device is outputting limited range, or you set your capture method to show limited range.

Sort of hard to help you with this when you give us zero information on the scaler or your capture setup.

[AndehX]

The capture device is an Avermedia Live Gamer Extreme, but the result is the same when connected directly to the TV.

I've tried changing the color range settings and stuff on the capture device, but it looks exactly the same regardless of what I select.

This is the HDMI scaler I bought:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/SCART-HDMI-conv ... B0092IAA3I

Appologies if I havn't provided the right information. I'm not exactly an expert on these things so I don't know for sure what you need to know. Just ask though.

[ZellSF]

What TV do you have? So we can eliminate color range being the issue entirely?

Which setting exactly did you change in your capture software? Which capture software? Because changing color range definitely should NOT look exactly the same. I read that your capture device might need a firmware update to support the option.


Just because the same happens on both your capture card and TV does not mean the scaler is at fault: the default assumption of all HDMI devices is that the source is limited range, SCART RGB is full range.

[AndehX]

My TV is a Samsung LE40C530, which from what I can tell, has a color space setting (Native/Auto) which seemingly has no effect regardless of what its set to. I checked using various tests on the 240p test suite.

To be honest though, I'm not bothered about what it looks like on my TV really because I use a PVM for gaming, which is directly connected to my consoles via RGB and looks fantastic.

My capture card on the other hand has a video format option (YUY2/Any) and both look the same.
There is a YUV color space option (Default/709/609) and the 709 option is visually better. I can see more of a gradient on colors.
There is also a YUV color range option (Partial/Full) which looks more washed out in "Full" but I can see there is more detail in the image.

So it looks visually better with "Full" color range, and "709" color space, and making adjustments to the brightness/contrast using thr 240p test suite provides noticably better results, although it still is far from perfect.

Not sure if you have anything else to suggest?

Thank you for the help btw.

[AndehX]

This is where i'm at now:

PVM:


HDMI scaler:

[ZellSF]

The setting you're looking for on your TV is "HDMI Black Level". Change that, see if the image is correct with either of the settings.

If it's not, I'd guess the issue is with the scaler.

[AndehX]

at this point, im 99.9% certain its just the scaler doing a bad job of scaling the brightness/contrast properly, but I guess the way I have it now is alot better than it was before.

Thanks again