What to Do

The first step in further increasing image quality is a modification of the Video Overlay. Luckily, the Geforce display manager has an easy panel, just for this. Open up your display settings found in the control panel, and open up Advanced > Geforce Tab > Additional Properties > Overlay Color Control Tab. Here we are presented with four sliding bars, labeled Brightness, Contrast, Hue, and Saturation.

The next step is to power up your preferred software decoder, and begin playing a DVD. Find a spot in the movie were the scene is well lit, and has sufficient colors in it. Pause the movie, but keep it windowed so you are still able to see it while making adjustments. Slowly adjust each of the settings until you find a more vibrant picture. In most cases, upping the contrast 10-15%, and the brightness about 5-8% makes the image look sharper, and more dramatic. Adjusting the hue is more of a personal preference, in most cases it won't have to be adjusted. If the colors seam a little off, you may want to move the bar tiny amounts until the colors seam more natural. Saturation adjust the amount of color used, this is the trickiest bar to get perfect. If it's moved too high, the colors bleed and look overdone. If moved too low, the colors look extremely dull and boring. In most cases, moving the bar up 3-8% is enough, making the colors stand out, with out bleeding or looking overdone.

Conclusion

DVD's have become popular because of their great quality and modest price. Just because your watching a DVD, doesn't mean the image quality can't be better. While each movie you watch could possibly require a slight change, it can make a huge difference, even when the image quality is impressive already. The Geforce card makes it incredibly easy to tweak the Hardware Overlay, giving no reason not to make a few adjustments for your viewing pleasure.

by Ross Johnson

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