XBox brightness problem

[mid]

I've recently realised that the extremely dark picture I get on a couple of XBox games (Otogi, Buffy and Matrix being the most obvious candidates) isn't necessarily as it's meant to be. I'm on a PAL box with the official Advanced Scart cable.

It clearly isn't all games, as OutRun 2 and Burnout 3 are both wonderfully bright and colourful, but in those three games I can't even see what I'm doing some of the time, it's so dark. Is this common? Fixable?

[gIzzE]

What display are you using?
Are you sure it isn't just the black level on the display crushing detail?

[Super Monkey Balls]

I've always found xbox to be very dark. PS2 and GC are happy with the DVD picture settings but I have a different setup for xbox games without a brightness/contrast option.
You're right though, some are worse than others.

[mid]

I'll try it on the PC screen (as that's what it's going to be connected to again), but the display where I saw the problem was my main telly, as calibrated with DVE, where some XBox games look just fine, and certainly I've no complaints when playing PS2 or Cube games, or even watching SE7EN on laserdisc.

[Lyris]

The Xbox video output seems gacked in almost every way, perhaps there is some problem with the black level setting in the hardware. Japan and Europe both use 0 IRE as the standard for black yet the United States chose 7.5. I'll bet that'll have something to do with it. On my modded NTSC Xbox I get an overly bright image with gray instead of black in 480i video mode. Yet on all the others the levels are correct. The image is much more blurred than the Cube and Dreamcast on all modes though.

[gIzzE]

I have found that unless you set the Xbox to ntsc the blacks are crushed, when set to ntsc they are as Lyris says set to 7.5ire wich is too bright, but at least you can see what is going on.

[mid]

Ah. Could be a problem, then - my machine isn't chipped, and I've no intention of doing so.

If only there was a softmod that went in, changed the screen to NTSC and then buggered off again leaving the machine in a Live-useable state. Not that I've got either a game with a hole in it, an old enough dashboard version (thanks to Live updating it already) or indeed a memory card to get the mod on.

[moonwhistle]

I've recently realised that the extremely dark picture I get on a couple of XBox games (Otogi, Buffy and Matrix being the most obvious candidates) isn't necessarily as it's meant to be. I'm on a PAL box with the official Advanced Scart cable.

$!uffy and the Matrix should have no place on any console, they are the devil.

Only kidding, try messing with the brightness and contrast settings on your TV, different games suit different configurations. Some of the levels in Mashed are virtually unplayable with the brightness jammed way up.

[Spacecowboy]

Yep, i've noticed this too on Halo 1/2 and Doom 3. Granted they are dark games, and i recently upgraded to a new TV which did improve things somewhat.
My Xbox is chipped so i will give the NTSC setting a shot and see if that helps.

[Leon Retro]

We have covered this subject before. It's all down to the developers and the way they make their games- it's not the hardware.

I have lots of XB games that are bright and clear- and others that are dark and murky. Burnout games are crisp and clear- whilst SegaGT is dull and murky.

Maybe some developers don't test their games properly on the full range of output modes. I don't know the reason- but if some games look sharp clear and bright- then obviouisly it isn't the hardwares fault that some games look dull and fuzzy!

[Zed]

Ahhh i did wonder if it was the games, as when i play stuff on my TV the brightness is usually fine, but on the projector things can get quite dim. Yes its a 10m cable-run, but only 1m to a switchbox, and the DVD/amp uses the same box and 10m component cable to the PJ fine. It's almost like the signal strength output is lower or something, but if its due to incompatibility problems it might explain things. I've (sadly) all but given up playing any sort of dark game due to this

OT: got this weird message

Sorry! The administrator has specified that users can only post one message every 30 seconds

Yet i hadnt posted anything before this for 2 days? or is it all users can only post once per 30 secs?!