Probably colour banding issue

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Phillip Prozorov

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Sep 11, 2013
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Hello there. This is my first time posting here, so I'm really sorry if I'm doing something wrong.
I need help with my problem: for some reasons my PC has started displaying colours not the way they're meant to be. As far as I know, it is called colour banding, for every gradient I see is shown like a bunch of solid stripes from one color to another. The problem is most noticable when it comes to PNG images of any kind, but I also noticed the same thing while playing games with a lot of dark shots (like Amnesia and BioShock) and using Steam - all the shades are totally separated from each other, so it looks like a 16-bit picture. Apart from that the image I get is pretty fine, and I can't complain about the graphics performance either.

My specs are:
OS - Windows 7 Ultimate x32
Motherboard - ASUS P5K SE
CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 @ 2.66 GHz
GPU - Gigabyte nVidia GeForce GTX480 1536 MB
RAM - 3 GB
Display - Acer V193W (using VGA cable with DVI adapter)

And that's pretty much what made me seek for the solution, but I had no luck finding it, so I've tried some stuff myself:
- Installing different version of nVidia display drivers (306.97, 310.70, 314.22, 320.49 and 326.80 beta);
- Updating my chipset drivers;
- Testing the image on Windows XP;
- Picking every single resolution my monitor supports;
- Changing color depth;
- Changing brightness and contract in the monitor settings;
- Using another display.

Moreover, I'm experiencing the same thing on my laptop with absolutely different specifications, so I'm concerned it's a software issue. Any ideas about how I can get rid of it?
Thanks.

P.S. Sorry for my English. 😛
 
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Some games tend to just look like that.

Can you post some images to show us?

Not all screens can show ALL colors well and TN screens can be even worse in many cases.

I would also ensure you do not have enhancements on the screen it self. I know I had an Asus screen that color banded very bad when set to "gaming mode"
 
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I'm pretty sure it's not the way those games look normally, for I've played BioShock before on the same system and haven't noticed any color problems. No gaming mode for me too - my display settings are totally user defined, and there's no additional software that could interfere with them installed.
Unfortunately, the issue is not obvious on the screenshots, although I can see sharp color edges in the sky and on the dark sections of this picture:
0EEA58222A19BDDCD3A1E75EA46D899DCC739E80


It also looks terrible on Steam interface like this one (it is also a PNG image, so what I see instead of gradient is blue stripes coming from the top left corner):
8f458f29d2daf2a1ccf3982347bcc2a7.png


In addition, I have negative results on the gradient test, but it doesn't look like the example below - it says that I might get 32 clear bands, but I've only got 16.
I've ran out of ideas here. The strangest thing here is that the problem appears exclusively for PNG images and some games.
 
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On all cards I have tested steam seems to have some banding. I think your game may have the brightness settings up a bit high, that was always a common issue back in the day.

So the Gradient does not show smooth color either?

Does making that into a JPG image change anything?


Have you tried different browsers or viewers for PNG files. They are what I use for everything now because of how much better than JPG they are(no image quality loss).

I will try to look into an Nvidia VS AMD option here for you.
 
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Yeah, Steam always has some, but not as much as in my case, which is weird. Speaking of brightness settings, I did make some adjustments in Amnesia yesterday, and the colors were rather satisfying even though I was still able to see some distorted shades on smoke, fog and dark walls.



Nope, for me it's just a sequence of 16 colored bands, from black to white.
And yes, JPG looks completely fine to me - another reason for me to think that is totally software-related.
Despite the fact the issue appeared on absolutely the same PC with the same software as before, I've tried a bunch of different browsers and viewers to get rid of the banding, but it simply won't go away. I could cope with it, but I often have to work with PNG drawings and screenshots, and there's now some difficulties since they're dramatically distorted.
 
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16 colors. That is honestly very strange.

I have reduced the image colors to give an idea. So its just like this.
fv8.gif


That certainly sounds like a software issue.

Please give me some time and I will attempt to make this happen on some systems. I honestly did seem to notice some banding in GuildWars 2 on my system(under water), but always figured it was the game despite never noticing it in the past. I will try some AMD and Nvidia cards to see what it looks like.

I will also give a go to some bioshock(I assume you mean part 1) to see what I can see.

I find I am almost always too busy playing to notice things like that on any game the first time playing.
 
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Exactly! This is what I get on the gradient test.


Yes, the very first game of the series. I was probably ignoring those things before as well, but it's got completely unbearable in the new Amnesia because of the dark gamma, and I often get terrible grey and green bands following me in low-light scenes. I think it could be actually in every game, but I cannot see the same effect on bright scenes, so I've been dealing with the issue just fine for some time.

Thanks a lot for your answers, I'll be waiting for any guesses. :3
 
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Left 4 Dead 2 has always had lots of banding in dark areas as well. Always blamed it on the wide color gamut monitor(many I have tested just mush low colors together.) I use.

Anyway, GW2 and Bioshock will get some tests(I just played Bioshock not too long ago, but I will pay less attention to killing things and more to colors.)

I will test and AMD card(5770 or 5870 depending on what I have more easy access to) and a GTX 650 ti(this will be in its own system and happens to run analog video out) and GTX 670(same system as the other cards).

I once owned a screen from Sony that has the worse color banding I have EVER seen. It was able to get real dark colors good, but had banding in most lighter colors.
 
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My first thought was about my screen, even though it's been working a while without any color issues, so I've tried to replace it with exactly the same model that certainly does work perfectly, but the problem appeared on that one too. The laptop also had its display changed a long time ago, and the banding was clearly recognizable on both of them.
It could be something wrong with the hardware, but I don't know - getting a pair of fine working PCs broken almost at once seems pretty much impossible.
 
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What exactly do you mean by color profile? How could I install it?
As far as I know, I have both display and nVidia driver color settings reseted to defaults, but everything seems to be fine with them, and I think that's not what you meant. d:
 
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Everything there is on its default settings, and changing those parameters doesn't seem to affect the image I get.
The problem's got to be deeper than we think. I shall scan my PC with an antivirus just in case - who knows?
 
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Okay, the problem seems to be gone for some reasons, but not completely: I keep getting negative results on the Gradient, but somehow PNGs are now completely fine. I'd still like to know what the hell that was, so feel free to guess anything.
Anyway, thanks for your help, nukemaster, I appreciate that. <3
 
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Maybe they are, but that doesn't really explain why I had the same effect on every PNG image, even on my HDD.
Weird, I still see my own screenshots above with the banding, but when I make a new one - everything seems to be fine.
 
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Hi - One thing you should do (along the lines of nukemaster's chart above) is to calibrate your display in Windows. Go to color mgt (via Control Panel, all color mgt items), click on advanced, then calibrate display, and follow the steps.

You should be better off than you are now, but it's possible your monitor just isn't very good in this regard.
 
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My monitor is fine, I took it in incase of repairs and I was told it was fine.

I've had this issue appear and dissepear.

What could cause it?
 
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