Gray bars appearing on preview vids...

[somunny]

I searched for an answer to this and came up with zip so...

For preview videos that don't use the entire space provided (vertical games, e.g.), I'm getting gray bars as the border for the video.  I'm running the exact same setup (software wise) on another machine and the border is black.

Any settings I can look into?

Thanks,

Steve

[Minwah]

I've seen this before...I presume there must be a DirectX setting or something - have a look in the Display Properties for a brightness control.

That's just a guess, please someone correct me if you have a more educated answer

[cdbrown]

What are you using to watch the previews?  Is this in a FE like mamewah as it might be that the layout has a grey background behind the preview area instead of a black one?  It's hard to say without knowing what you are watching them with.

[youki]

Are you sure you are in the same color depth on both machine?

For exemple if on one your in a 16bit/color mode (655535 colors)  and on the other one in a 24bit/mode (millions of colors) , it couls make the difference.

Because technically, depending how the FE is coded , if it use a "Transparent color" , if that color is defined in 16bit or 24bit, in one case the color can be considered as transparent in the other not.

[somunny]

Well, you think by now I would know to include all the necessary information in my first post.  Sorry.   

Mamewah running on XP (Pro on the unit showing vids okay and Home on the comp showing vids with gray bars).  The background for the video preview window is black.  The color depth suggestion sounds interesting so I'll check that when I get home.

I literally copied all MAME/Mamewah related folders over to the new cabinet from one that is currently dialed in and showing videos with the black borders.  That would lead me to believe it's some XP, WMP plugin or codec setting or other display setting.  Thanks for the suggestions so far.  I'll post what I find when I get home and check out these leads.

Thanks!

Steve

[NIVO]

have you changed from a crt monitor to lcd by chance? Some lcd's are much poorer at black color depth and they end up coming off as grey(s).

[somunny]

cdbrown had the answer.  Looks like the layout designer reset the background color to gray when I moved the files over.  I was assuming that 'background' meant the skin I made for Mamewah not the actual .lay file background.  Big difference!

Anyway - all fixed.  Thanks for the help!

Steve

[cdbrown]

Glad it worked.  Always go for the simplest solution.

[fatfingers]

Glad it worked.  Always go for the simplest solution.

Always go for the simplest solution

[cdbrown]

I would have pointed at this

[Minwah]

I would have pointed at this

I was taught KISS at school.....obviously didn't take heed too well this time.. 

[buks]

I'd always assumed the grey bars were something to do with the aspect ratio or something. I changed my background colout to black last night and the grey bars are gone ! Nice one !