Win XP Media Center MCE TV gone 'v.gloomy'

Anyone point me in the right direction to resolve this...

Have Win XP Media Centre Edition fully patched/up to date.
Video from a 6600GT AGP board to a 22" TFT.
MCE TV/Radio is fed by a Hauppauge Nova-T Freeview PCI card.

Had been working fine. Didn't knowing alter any particular settings anywhere.

Symptom for last couple of days:
Recorded TV in the Media Center window is really dim/hazy, sorta like being used to the view out of your house window on "sunny/clear/bright day" but instead getting "a 'mega gloomy panarama" - ie like viewing through a v.dark muslin filter or something, whether windowed or full screen.
That includes recordings made say months back that were fine when I watched them then.
The 'blue' menu screens of Media Center appear normal colour/brightness/contrast/clarity.
The rest of my computer display/windows are unaffected - ie normal colour/brightness/contrast/clarity.
ie no hint of anything being wrong somewhere until a recorded TV programme is replayed.
Almost forgot to mention: the LIVE TV shows equally gloomy/blurry - not just recorded playback.

My nVidia Control Panel - Adjust Desktop Color Settings all looks normal and the images just fine.

The only related thing I can think of is that I probably did a nVidia update to latest driver - it's showing 163.71 (5.14.11.6371).
I hadn't touched Media Centre settings.
I hadn't touched the Hauppauge software/drivers/codecs (if any).

Done some searching and haven't found any mention of my symptoms, let alone a cure.

Ideas/help anyone ?
Thanks in anticipation.

 

How about adjusting the Video & Television \ Adjust video color settings part?

 

Capn

WOW - thanks for that pointer.

I had no idea/never noticed there was a separate section/control of 'video' versus other imagery on screen.

Tinkering with that in Control Panel in Standard & Advanced mode has improved things tremendously - though I can see I can spend a LOT of time trying to tweak it now.

I can only assume the new video driver reset something somewhere.

Will have to check too if the Tools bit has been updated as there seem to be some bugs in its operation.

THANK YOU anyway - seems your idea has put me on the right track to resolution anyway - the 'dark curtain' has been lifted from my MCE TV viewing even if not totally removed yet.

MKD

 

No problem, I had the same problem with my gamma when ingame.

 

now that you've done that, go to Media Center setup and run through the video setup again. just for thoroughness