Windows 7 + Nvidia + HDTV = very weird levels [SOLUTION FOUND!]

EDIT: not so sure it is messing with the desktop anymore, but for some reason I need to set my TV to BOTH Low (16-235) crushing the desktop AND video 0-255 to expand it to get black look like black in Windows Media Center 7. If I keep the HDTV set to 0-255 to maintain a proper desktop video looks washed out no matter whether 16-235 or 0-255 is set in advanced tab. My TV settings 16-235 and 0-255 have no effect on the WMC 7 black levels test with the X.

EDIT EDIT: No, it actually is messing up the desktop! Nvidia is now putting out, at least with the latest drivers under W7 64bit and an nvidia 275 only 16-235! Not 0-255! Even from teh desktop! If I go into photoshop and paint around with 0,0,0 it looks a little washed out unless I set my TV to expand 16-235 to 0-255! I have never had a video card do this before. Not good.

EDIT EDIT EDIT: It is a little tougher to judge with my PC Monitor since that does not have switchable levels input, but I think the drivers are putting out 0-255 to that monitor, but why in the world has nvidia apparently decided to force 16-235 to displays that it detects as TVs?! If this really is the case and can't be gotten around I will have to switch back to ATI again.


OK, so I load up WMC and the TV looks washed out, fine (actually I though the desktop top did too but not as much as the TV, which was very odd) so I hit the Low range on Samsung HDTV and the video levels were still too washed out and the X in the WMC test stays visible.

Basically using the video advanced tab I can have it output video either as 0-255 or 16-235. If I set it to 0-255 then in the WMC black levels test the X does go away but whether I set my TV to Normal (0-255) or Low (16-235) has no effect at all on whether the X goes away which is very odd since it did with ATI and I believe with Nvidia before I had switched to ATI for a while.

But what is very odd and really bad is that if I leave my TV set to Normal (0-255) input my DESKTOP and video look washed out even if I have the video tab set to 0-255 to make the X go away. So it's like it is expanding video from 16-235 to 0-255 and then rendering to the dekstop but then taking the final output from everyting and deciding hey this is a TV lets force it to only put out a 16-235 to it and then scaling the 0-255 desktop and video back to 16-235!

Looking at a 0,0,0 patch it looks a bit gray! Not just on video but on desktop! Only if I set my HDTV to Low (16-235 restricted viewing) does 0,0,0 look like black! This seems to imply that with the current Nvidia setup automatically decides all TVs only support 16-235! And it appears to force limited range! And it robs away a bunch of shades. That's really bad for serious photo viewing and serious work! Why?! Most HDTV these days also allow full PC range! It doesn't make any sense at all.

I haven't tried it yet with my P monitor.

I've never before seen a video driver appear to mess with even desktop levels. I could swear it is taking the final 0-255 output a PC should be able to put out and compressing it to 16-235!

I didn't use a test image on teh desktop yet so maybe it's just tricking me nad black is black on the desktop, but I could swear it looks a bit off. Even if not, at the very least it would then after expanding video to 0-255 be rescaling it back to 16-235? Why???

Windows 7 64bit. Whatever the latest nvidia drivers were as of maybe 4-5 days ago or so. Nvidia 275 level card.

SOLUTION:

Losing all hope, on a whim I decided to use the create custom resolution tool and simply remade 1920x1080px60 (really I guess I should try to make 59.97 or whatever it should be so it syncs better to TV viewing too) and when using this custom mode it decides that it is a PC Monitor so it sends 0-255 out for the desktop!

In this mode WMC suddenly defaults to expanding video levels for TV in WMC. So TV looks fine as is at the same time the desktop can still do 0-255. This is fine, but if you have some 0-255 video like from a Canon 5D2 or 7D then you will want, if using the native files from the camera, to go to the video advanced tab from nivida and set it to 16-235 for those files instead of 0-255 for TV and other stuff, as needed.

This seems to be a good solution. You can now get the desktop to be 0-255 on monitors AND HDTVs (that support 0-255) while also being able to easily toggle exactly between 0-255 and 16-235 for different types of video as needed while still leaving the desktop and everything else looking proper on BOTH monitors and HDTVS.

If you have an older sort of HDTV that only does limited 16-235 then you just use the built-in 1920x1080 modes and they only send 16-235 and you can have video and desktop working as desired too (of course with this old sort of TV you will lose fine color gradations from anything you show on the desktop, but that is the TVs limitation).