Wrong colors using Xv -- is it just me or...?

[[Knuckles]]

Recently I've been having problems on all video apps that output using Xv: the hue seems off, resulting in people having purple faces, and other things like that.

Using other outputs (like gl or x11) does fix it, but not having Xv sucks hard.

I'm using:
- openSUSE 11.0
- kernel 2.6.25.11
- currently I have "X.Org X Server 1.4.99.905 (1.5.0 RC 5)", which I installed from the build service to try and see if it fixed my problems, but not luck there
- nvidia 177.13 (tried with other versions too, no dice)
- NVIDIA GPU GeForce 8600 GT (G84)
- Dual head, although I've tried with a new xorg.conf that only uses 1 head, and same thing.

Does anyone have some clue how can I fix it, or has anyone seen this too? I can try to ask on nvnews too, but I don't feel nvidia has been much responsive to bugs lately, so not sure it's worth the time...

[deanjo]

Recently I've been having problems on all video apps that output using Xv: the hue seems off, resulting in people having purple faces, and other things like that.

Using other outputs (like gl or x11) does fix it, but not having Xv sucks hard.

I'm using:
- openSUSE 11.0
- kernel 2.6.25.11
- currently I have "X.Org X Server 1.4.99.905 (1.5.0 RC 5)", which I installed from the build service to try and see if it fixed my problems, but not luck there
- nvidia 177.13 (tried with other versions too, no dice)
- NVIDIA GPU GeForce 8600 GT (G84)
- Dual head, although I've tried with a new xorg.conf that only uses 1 head, and same thing.

Does anyone have some clue how can I fix it, or has anyone seen this too? I can try to ask on nvnews too, but I don't feel nvidia has been much responsive to bugs lately, so not sure it's worth the time...

Well with nearly an identical system, same kernel, distro,driver, (8800GT's and 7600GT and 7300's instead and still using the stock xorg) Xv is working fine here.

[[Knuckles]]

I was messing around today and by accident I discovered that in nvidia-settings the "Hue" setting wasn't 0, and I don't remember ever messing with it.

I find VERY lame that a setting like this is "automagically" saved and shared for all users on the pc, but most settings in nvidia-settings don't stick (and I thought all of them, but it seems I was wrong), and you have to add nvidia-settings -l to somewhere to get them.

So, thank you nvidia, for pulling settings out of your ...

[deanjo]

I was messing around today and by accident I discovered that in nvidia-settings the "Hue" setting wasn't 0, and I don't remember ever messing with it.

I find VERY lame that a setting like this is "automagically" saved and shared for all users on the pc, but most settings in nvidia-settings don't stick (and I thought all of them, but it seems I was wrong), and you have to add nvidia-settings -l to somewhere to get them.

So, thank you nvidia, for pulling settings out of your ...

nvidia control panel settings are per user. They are stored in your .nvidia-settings-rc file located in the users home folder. It does also default to 0 Hue (at least it does on every system I have). To invoke the settings on startup you have to add nvidia-settings --load-config-only it to the .xinitrc file in your home folder (there is a template in your home folder called .xinitrc.template) . If you add it in to the scripts located @ /etc/X11/xinit your settings will be system wide. Alternatively, if your running KDE you may add nvidia-settings --load-config-only to a simple bash script into your ~/.kde/Autostart folder..

[[Knuckles]]

nvidia control panel settings are per user. They are stored in your .nvidia-settings-rc file located in the users home folder. It does also default to 0 Hue (at least it does on every system I have). To invoke the settings on startup you have to add nvidia-settings --load-config-only it to the .xinitrc file in your home folder (there is a template in your home folder called .xinitrc.template) . If you add it in to the scripts located @ /etc/X11/xinit your settings will be system wide. Alternatively, if your running KDE you may add nvidia-settings --load-config-only to a simple bash script into your ~/.kde/Autostart folder..

That's what I thought, but nvidia-settings was preserving the Hue settings ACROSS USERS without me having done any of those things. I just go to nvidia-settings with my user, set a value, then open another X server, log in as root, and go to nvidia-settings, and the value is still there, while it shouldn't!

[[Knuckles]]

Err. Correction, you are right. It seems the nvidia-settings-rc is being automatically loaded, but I did nothing for that to happen, maybe it's a openSUSE thing/default.

What I still don't understand is, HOW THE HELL DID I GET A WRONG HUE CONFIG not on one but on TWO different users (mine and root)?

I assumed (wrongly) when I spotted it that since both had the same values, that the value must be getting saved somewhere by the driver, and shared between users, but it seems I was wrong.

Oh well, at least it's fixed.

[Thetargos]

I found something VERY odd about this issue. And it has more to do with TOTEM than anything else. What I found was that the default HUE in the advanced screen configuration for totem was causing XV to inherit a tainted HUE value. If during reproduction of a file I issued 'nvidia-settings -l' the distorted colors would correct. But upon stopping the file, and playing it back again, the distortion would return, kind of XV reset (and I was left with a BIG WTF look on my face). So I placed the slider for HUE (Tono in Spanish, sorry if it is not the exact translation [very last slider in the screen tab]) all the way to the left, the colors would be correct now, and all video applications (that made use of XV) would inherit the reset XV HUE value now... Talk about ODDITIES!

[Thetargos]

nvidia control panel settings are per user. They are stored in your .nvidia-settings-rc file located in the users home folder. It does also default to 0 Hue (at least it does on every system I have). To invoke the settings on startup you have to add nvidia-settings --load-config-only it to the .xinitrc file in your home folder (there is a template in your home folder called .xinitrc.template) . If you add it in to the scripts located @ /etc/X11/xinit your settings will be system wide. Alternatively, if your running KDE you may add nvidia-settings --load-config-only to a simple bash script into your ~/.kde/Autostart folder..

Just a comment, if you use GNOME, you may simply add it to the "Sessions" program list (System -> Preferences -> Personal -> Sessions) and it would suffice to only add 'nvidia-settings -l' there

[[Knuckles]]

I can't reproduce it (seems like hue doesn't work in totem and dragon player for me now, ...), but what you saw may be exactly what I had, and would explain why I didn't remember messing with hue values in nvidia-settings, but they had been changed for my user and for the root user.

Maybe my current totem or nvidia driver or whatever already has that fixed. This is really weird.

[Thetargos]

Well, as a matter of fact the one responsible for tainting the Hue seems to be Real Player 11. Now that I reconstructed what I was doing when I first encountered this, I opened a few clips I took with my cell phone with it (3gp format) and was there when I first noticed the change in hue... Dunno if this would be relevant to your setup, or if you have it setup and used it recently to watch a video or not.