[Livin]

I have recently noticed what I'm calling 'Horizontal Banding'.

It is most visible on dark areas of the screen and it can best be described by saying it shows even horizontal bands of alternating darker and lighter stripes across the screen... in a very even, consistent pattern. I will try to get a screen shot soon.

I have 2 MKVs that are VERY similar and it shows banding on one, but not the other.

file specs...

• banding: video stream AVC, 1280x720, 23.976 fps, 3104 Kbps
  
• no banding: video stream AVC, 1280x720, 23.976 fps, 3072 Kbps
  

When played back with WMP banding does not occur on either video, they are perfect. Since all other things are equal, I suspect the issue is XBMC's
decoding.

anyone else see this?

[kricker]

Can you take a screen cap of it? I personally have not seen it on my nightlies, although ironically enough I am not running the most current.

[Livin]

just updated to the latest, still an issue. Since the posted images are small, you will need to zoom in on the black areas to see the banding. On my 65" screen it is impossible to miss even with casual viewing.

screens:

problem...


no problem...

[Livin]

kricker - any thoughts?

[kricker]

No, sorry. Can you up a small sample that shows the issue?

[Livin]

No, sorry. Can you up a small sample that shows the issue?

posted 5MB clip...
http://www.mediafire.com/?25b6t15x8yow8c8

[jhsrennie]

Hi Livin, I tried your sample and it does not show the banding here. That's with an NVIDIA 9400GT and DXVA2 enabled.

JR

[kricker]

Same here. I see no banding on my Setup. Nvidia GTX 460 with or without DXVA2 enabled.

[CrystalP]

Well I can barely see something around 00:07 in the dark area between the two heads. It's necessary to have the screen calibrated to show colors really close to black.
It happens with XBMC (dxva or software decoding), VLC and MPC-HC. So I'm inclined to say it's an artifact in the encoding.

[kricker]

What he was talking about is the horizontal banding shown in his screenshot. Even with my monitor brightness jacked to the max, I do not see it in the sample clip. I can see it clearly in the sample image.

[Livin]

on my 65" LCD, which is contrast/brightness/color calibrated, it is easily visible from 15-20 feet away in a well lit room - very annoying actually.

[kricker]

On my calibrated 27" monitor from 6" away I can not see it on the clip. I do see it on the still frame. I assume you already checked for newer drivers and made sure they are not doing anything strange in the drivers control panels. Have you looked using any other computers you may have?

[CrystalP]

What I saw was not nearly as noticeable as in your screenshot, and definitely not visible in casual viewing. I had to pause, crank the settings, to barely see a sort of band-like artifact. It may unfortunately have to do with video processing in your screen or interference if you have an analog cable, VGA or component.