Bug#540723: Subject: vlc: video brightness/contrast/gamma is really off

Gary Dale garydale at rogers.com
Sun Aug 9 21:20:41 UTC 2009


Package: vlc
Version: 0.9.9a-3
Severity: important

I was just fiddling around with the video drivers on my computer after
switching to a new mainboard - still with onboard ATI video (now
HD3300). I tried to move to the open source drivers without any luck so
eventually re-installed the closed fglrx driver from Debian/Squeeze.
When I did that, I ran into a few problems with my various video players
so I revisited the vlc player to see how it was working.

My desktop looks great and performs well after the fglrx reinstall.

Kaffeine had the same problem I am describing here, but I traced that to
a really bad contrast control setting. Resetting it to the default fixed
it. Kaffeine works great.

mPlayer was having problems with extreme flickering, but good colours,
with the (preferences | video) GL video I had been using. Switching to
xv gave me the same extreme contrast issue I had with kaffeine. x11
however works perfectly.

Which brings me to vlc: Tools | preferences | video and selecting
Default output gives me the high-contrast overly bright picture I got
with Kaffeine and mPlayer before I adjusted them to better settings.
However, I can't find a way to make vlc work.

OpenGL video output gives me a flashing picture (though not as bad as
mPlayer) that is grey-scale, not colour and is horizontally compressed
nto the left quarter of the output window. THere is also some noise in
the rest of the video window and the window displays on all virtual
desktops.

xVideo extension video output gives the same output as "default".

x11 video output compresses the video into the left quarter of the
window but without the noise I got with OpenGL and without the flashing.
And it stays in its current virtual desktop. However, the picture is
grey-scale, not colour.

I've tried adjusting the colour using the Tools | Extended Settings |
video effects but without numeric settings, it's almost impossible to
use. The gamma control in particular only seems to be useful in a very
small part of the total allowed range, making setting it with a mouse
next to impossible. Moreover, the settings only affect the current video.

And I can't find any other controls to let me adjust vlc's video output.
So vlc only produces bad or useless video output.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.26-2-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_CA.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_CA.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages vlc depends on:
ii  libaa1                 1.4p5-38          ascii art library
ii  libc6                  2.9-12            GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libdbus-1-3            1.2.16-2          simple interprocess 
messaging syst
ii  libfreetype6           2.3.9-4.1         FreeType 2 font engine, 
shared lib
ii  libfribidi0            0.10.9-1          Free Implementation of the 
Unicode
ii  libgcc1                1:4.4.0-5         GCC support library
ii  libgl1-mesa-glx [libgl 7.0.3-7           A free implementation of 
the OpenG
ii  libglib2.0-0           2.20.1-2          The GLib library of C routines
ii  libglu1-mesa [libglu1] 7.0.3-7           The OpenGL utility library 
(GLU)
ii  libgtk2.0-0            2.16.1-2          The GTK+ graphical user 
interface
ii  libnotify1 [libnotify1 0.4.5-1           sends desktop notifications 
to a n
ii  libqtcore4             4:4.5.2-1         Qt 4 core module
ii  libqtgui4              4:4.5.2-1         Qt 4 GUI module
ii  libsdl-image1.2        1.2.7-1           image loading library for 
Simple D
ii  libsdl1.2debian        1.2.13-4+b1       Simple DirectMedia Layer
ii  libstdc++6             4.4.0-5           The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  libtar                 1.2.11-6          C library for manipulating 
tar arc
ii  libvlccore0            0.9.9a-3          base library for VLC and 
its modul
ii  libx11-6               2:1.2.2-1         X11 client-side library
ii  libxext6               2:1.0.4-1         X11 miscellaneous extension 
librar
ii  libxinerama1           2:1.0.3-2         X11 Xinerama extension library
ii  libxv1                 2:1.0.4-1         X11 Video extension library
ii  libxxf86vm1            1:1.0.2-1         X11 XFree86 video mode 
extension l
ii  ttf-dejavu-core        2.29-3            Vera font family derivate 
with add
ii  vlc-nox                0.9.9a-3          multimedia player and 
streamer (wi
ii  zlib1g                 1:1.2.3.3.dfsg-13 compression library - runtime

vlc recommends no packages.

Versions of packages vlc-nox depends on:
ii  liba52-0.7.4 0.7.4-11                    library for decoding ATSC 
A/52 str
ii  libasound2   1.0.20-2                    shared library for ALSA 
applicatio
ii  libass3      0.9.6-1                     library for SSA/ASS 
subtitles rend
ii  libavahi-cli 0.6.25-1                    Avahi client library
ii  libavahi-com 0.6.25-1                    Avahi common library
ii  libavcodec52 5:0.5+svn20090720-0.0       library to encode decode 
multimedi
ii  libavformat5 5:0.5+svn20090720-0.0       ffmpeg file format library
ii  libavutil49  4:0.5+svn20090609-1         ffmpeg utility library
ii  libc6        2.9-12                      GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libcaca0     0.99.beta16-2               colour ASCII art library
ii  libcdio7     0.78.2+dfsg1-3              library to read and control 
CD-ROM
ii  libdbus-1-3  1.2.16-2                    simple interprocess 
messaging syst
ii  libdca0      0.0.5-3                     decoding library for DTS 
Coherent
ii  libdvbpsi4   0.1.5-3.1                   library for MPEG TS and DVB 
PSI ta
ii  libdvdnav4   4.1.3-3                     DVD navigation library
ii  libdvdread4  4.1.3-5                     library for reading DVDs
ii  libebml0     0.7.7-3.1                   access library for the EBML 
format
ii  libfaad0     2.6.1-3.1                   freeware Advanced Audio 
Decoder -
ii  libflac8     1.2.1-1.2                   Free Lossless Audio Codec - 
runtim
ii  libfontconfi 2.6.0-4                     generic font configuration 
library
ii  libfreetype6 2.3.9-4.1                   FreeType 2 font engine, 
shared lib
ii  libfribidi0  0.10.9-1                    Free Implementation of the 
Unicode
ii  libgcc1      1:4.4.0-5                   GCC support library
ii  libgcrypt11  1.4.4-3                     LGPL Crypto library - 
runtime libr
ii  libgnutls26  2.6.6-1                     the GNU TLS library - 
runtime libr
ii  libhal1      0.5.12~git20090406.46dc48-2 Hardware Abstraction Layer 
- share
ii  libid3tag0   0.15.1b-10                  ID3 tag reading library 
from the M
ii  liblircclien 0.8.3-3                     infra-red remote control 
support -
ii  liblua5.1-0  5.1.4-3                     Simple, extensible, 
embeddable pro
ii  libmad0      0.15.1b-4                   MPEG audio decoder library
ii  libmatroska0 0.8.1-1.1                   extensible open standard 
audio/vid
ii  libmodplug0c 1:0.8.7-1                   shared libraries for mod 
music bas
ii  libmpcdec3   1:1.2.2-2.1                 Musepack (MPC) format library
ii  libmpeg2-4   0.4.1-3                     MPEG1 and MPEG2 video 
decoder libr
ii  libncursesw5 5.7+20090523-1              shared libraries for 
terminal hand
ii  libogg0      1.1.3-5                     Ogg Bitstream Library
ii  libpng12-0   1.2.38-1                    PNG library - runtime
ii  libpostproc5 5:0.5+svn20090720-0.0       postproc shared libraries
ii  libschroedin 1.0.7-1                     library for 
encoding/decoding of D
ii  libshout3    2.2.2-5+b1                  MP3/Ogg Vorbis broadcast 
streaming
ii  libsmbclient 2:3.3.4-1                   shared library for 
communication w
ii  libspeex1    1.2~rc1-1                   The Speex codec runtime library
ii  libstdc++6   4.4.0-5                     The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  libswscale0  5:0.5+svn20090720-0.0       ffmpeg video scaling library
ii  libsysfs2    2.1.0-5                     interface library to sysfs
ii  libtag1c2a   1.5-7                       TagLib Audio Meta-Data Library
ii  libtheora0   1.0-2+b1                    The Theora Video 
Compression Codec
ii  libtwolame0  0.3.12-1                    MPEG Audio Layer 2 encoding 
librar
ii  libv4l-0     0.6.0-1                     Collection of video4linux 
support
ii  libvcdinfo0  0.7.23-4                    library to extract 
information fro
ii  libvlc2      0.9.9a-3                    multimedia player and 
streamer lib
ii  libvlccore0  0.9.9a-3                    base library for VLC and 
its modul
ii  libvorbis0a  1.2.0.dfsg-5+b1             The Vorbis General Audio 
Compressi
ii  libvorbisenc 1.2.0.dfsg-5+b1             The Vorbis General Audio 
Compressi
ii  libxml2      2.7.3.dfsg-2+b1             GNOME XML library
ii  zlib1g       1:1.2.3.3.dfsg-13           compression library - runtime

Versions of packages libvlc2 depends on:
ii  libc6                         2.9-12     GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libvlccore0                   0.9.9a-3   base library for VLC and 
its modul

Versions of packages libvlccore0 depends on:
ii  libc6        2.9-12                      GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libdbus-1-3  1.2.16-2                    simple interprocess 
messaging syst
ii  libhal1      0.5.12~git20090406.46dc48-2 Hardware Abstraction Layer 
- share
ii  vlc-data     0.9.9a-3                    Common data for VLC

-- debconf-show failed





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