Best settings for just standard Blu-Ray viewing?

TheHobbitLOTR37

Newbie Joined: Jan 08, 2022 19:43 Messages: 1 Offline

Solved by

Jan 08, 2022 19:52

So I upgraded to PowerDVD 21 from PowerDVD 12 (way behind I know). And I'm watching the remastered Middle-earth films from the new box set and noticed the color difference right away isn't what it should look like. Say I put it in my PS4 and watch it on my TV on standard settings that I've never messed with, the color and everything looks great and pops and looks like the 4K versions even though it is Blu-ray. I'm currently on FotR extended disc 2 after watching The Hobbit films and FotR disc 1, and I noticed on PowerDVD 21 the color looks much more dark and with a blue tint to it. I went to the TruTheater setting and disabled the "video" option which was at default in the halfway mark, and noticed it looked less blue/dark, but still not on par with watching it on my TV. So I was wondering what settings I should do to get the standard picture the Blu-ray offer without PowerDVD making it look different? Any suggestions on what settings I should change or if I have to enable TruTheater video to change the color settings? It's just irritating me because I even brought up the film on my iPad on Movies Anywhere where I redeemed the codes for the remastered/4K films and the color and such looks amazing and matches my TV, but not on PowerDVD...

FarCry

Newbie Joined: Dec 05, 2021 18:01 Messages: 9 Offline

Jan 10, 2022 16:36

There are a lot of things, that can be wrong.

First of all, TruTheatre. I always disable any sort of picture enhancements, because Blu-Rays don't need them. But if you prefer unreal, "vivid" colors - then you can play around with it.

Second - graphics drivers. That's a huge mess. Home Theatre PC era is long over and native movie playpack is dead since 2015. This results in horrible driver support. The most common problem messes up black levels - resulting in washed out picture. If you're using Intel graphics - you probably won't face it. Nvidia patched it, but you can still try to change to limited dynamic range (15-255) if you have bad black levels. AMD is the worst one, the problem is unsolvable.

Then you can play with the "Video" settings in your driver and adjust the colors with presets or manual. Those setting are only applied to Blu-Ray and DVD movies in PowerDVD, but mostly not to other media players.

P.S. The most accurate and high quality way to watch films on PC is through MadVR. But you won't be able to use legal Blu-Rays, unless you crack the protection.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Jan 10. 2022 16:38

Traveler-VII

Newbie Joined: Oct 03, 2021 03:53 Messages: 1 Offline

Sep 14, 2023 17:44

Quote Second - graphics drivers. That's a huge mess. Home Theatre PC era is long over and native movie playpack is dead since 2015. This results in horrible driver support. The most common problem messes up black levels - resulting in washed out picture. If you're using Intel graphics - you probably won't face it. Nvidia patched it, but you can still try to change to limited dynamic range (15-255) if you have bad black levels. AMD is the worst one, the problem is unsolvable.

My apologies for the annoyance this year-and-a-half-later reply may cause, but FarCry? I gotta thank you. For a long while, I've been tearing my hair out trying to figure out why most of the videos I watch with PowerDVD are super washed out, and now, thanks to you, I finally have an answer. Guess now I have even more incentive to switch my GPU to an Nvidia one.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Sep 14. 2023 17:44