Awful video quality on Windows 7 x64 bit systems

[tallman]

I recently upgraded from Vista 32 to Windows 7 x64 on my HTPC. I had been watching videos of various file types such as xvid and matroska, and have been impressed with the quality of these compressed formats. After upgrading I found that the video quality had degraded dramatically. All video files now have a murky, high contrast appearance, sometimes with odd color shifting. Some videos with even lighting are still bearable, but most are awful and unwatchable. I assumed the problem must be with codecs or a problem with Windows Media Player, but the problem occurs regardless of the many different codecs and players I have tried, such as VLC or MPC. I then tried using different old and new video drivers and found no help there either. I finally tried playing the videos on a different computer I use for CAD work and, to my surprise, had the same problem. This baffles me because these are completly different computers, with different video cards, drivers, etc. The only thing they have in common is Windows 7 x64. Clearly there has to be a problem with Win 7 that is screwing up video, but its hard to imagine what that could be since the problem is not just with Media Player. But more to the point, if this is occuring on my completely different computers then it must be occuring on every Windows 7 computer playing video. Thats a lot of computers. What is causing the bad video and why aren't countless users complaining?

 

[Gornot]

Because this is a not a common issue, despite the fact that you experienced it on two computers. I personally don't use x64 so I can't think of much to help, someone else could, probably.

MPC or MPC-HC? Do you have DirectX installed? What is the video renderer that you use for playing the clips?

 

[topgundcp]

I have 2 PC's & 1 Sony Vaio Laptop, all running win7 x64 Ultimate and I dont have any problem that you described. I dont think the problem is Windows 7 x64 or video codec since all my systems playing MKV, avi, m2ts Video crystal clear & sharp.

The problem might be your Video Driver not being installed correctly. Did you download the latest driver from the manufacterer's website or just installed the driver thru Windows update ? In order to install the video driver correctly, you need first to uninstall the current driver using safe mode. Also, check if the driver for your monitor is installed by right click on computer->property then go to device manager and look under Monitor. When you first install Windows 7, Microsoft usually install a generic Monitor driver for your monitor and the Video driver for your Video Card may be out of date.