CRT Monitor gamma problems with DVD / games consoles

[ErrorDog]

Hi,

I have an SGI 24" widescreen CRT monitor that I use for gaming (all consoles) and DVD / video. I have a couple of component -> RGBHV transcoders, but my problem is that neither have gamma correction (and neither does the monitor).

This is pretty annoying because the gamma is clearly wrong when I put DVD / PS/2 / Xbox / Gamecube signals through to the monitor. The picture is sharp and stable, but the darker parts of the picture fade out to black too quickly. It's definitely a gamma problem; I can't fix it by adjusting brightness or contrast. I've loaded a couple of games that have brightness settings with graded colour bars and compared how they look on a TV to how they look on the monitor. On the TV they look non-linear - the mid-range point is closer to the brightest point than the darkest. On the monitor the grade looks linear.

So my question is; what can I do about it? Does anyone know of a device I can buy that will correct gamma either for an RGBHV or component signal (ideally with high bandwidth to cope with hi-def signals)? I've looked around a bit and can't see anything.

Any help would be appreciated as this problem is preventing me from what would otherwise be a great picture...

 

[NonPayingMember]

Most video processors have some gamma adjustment, others are better though e.g. Lumagen has a full-on 11-point adjustment for total image control, but even the baby Cinemateq has the ability to flick through a few gamma options.

 

[ErrorDog]

Thanks for the reply. I've been looking into a lumagen scaler actually and it does look like it'll do what I want. I've found it a bit harder to get information on cinemateq scalers, but it seems to me that they cannot process anything other than standard interlaced inputs. Is that correct?

If so I realise that would be fine for DVDs because you would want the scaler to do the de-interlacing anyway, but it's no good for gaming because an Xbox or whatever outputs a real progressive image (not an interlaced one with the missing lines filled in).

 

[NonPayingMember]

Correct. Cinemateq won't touch progressive or HD signals so not suited to your games setup. You will need to have multiple boxes sharing single inputs though, so I hope most boxes require amount the same amount of gamma adjustment otherwise it could get messy. Although thankfully the Lumagen does have a massive amount of memories so you can have different configurations assigned for the different consoles.

 

[ErrorDog]

Looks like I'll probably go for the lumagen then. Good point about the different inputs, but I've got a component matrix switch that will connect my consoles to the scaler. Then I should be able to program my pronto to switch settings on the scaler every time it changes the switch box if necessary.

Thanks.