Video colors appear inverted

Bug #424864 reported by James Lewis
204
This bug affects 52 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Totem
Unknown
High
totem (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Low
Unassigned

Bug Description

When playing any video, with Totem, mplayer or VLC with the non-free NVidia driver installed, it appears that the blue and red channels are swapped so the colours look messed up.. It's the 180 driver that was loaded, and switching back to the free driver resolves the issue.

The normal desktop, X and Compiz work fine... the problem is only with video playback.

james@hardline:~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu karmic (development branch)
Release: 9.10
james@hardline:~$ date
Sat Sep 5 16:03:58 BST 2009
james@hardline:~$

Tags: karmic
affects: ubuntu → nvidia-graphics-drivers-180 (Ubuntu)
Revision history for this message
James Lewis (james-fsck) wrote :

I've just noticed that a video worked ok in mplayer, then when I tried one with totem it had the problem.. then doing back to mplayer the problem was evident on a video which was not previously affected in mplayer...

Revision history for this message
James Lewis (james-fsck) wrote :

OK, Now I'm not sure what to do with this bug... I found the solution, it's not with nvidia, the problem was caused because somehow during the upgrade from 9.04 to karmic alpha 5 the HUE setting in Totem got moved all the way to one side.

This could be an issue for users upgrading from 9.04, so I think it's still an issue.

I could break it down to 2 different problems.

1. The update of totem left a setting way out of whack...

2. When you exit totem it does not restore the default settings.

Revision history for this message
Casper Aleva (tonus) wrote :

Confirmed. I have the same "blue faces" problem in alpha6 + latest updates + non-free nvidia driver. HUE reset via totem does indeed fix the problem.

Revision history for this message
James Lewis (james-fsck) wrote :

I did not have the problem on a "Fresh install"... so it seems to be an upgrade problem, could this bug be moved to a "totem" bug my guess is that the version of totem in 9.10 reads the old config file and causes this.

Revision history for this message
Peter Halicky (peto-halicky) wrote :

I have just upgraded from 9.04 to 9.10 Beta and had the same problem. Moving the "Hue" slider to the center fixed it for me...

Revision history for this message
James Lewis (james-fsck) wrote :

I think this is actually a bug with Totem, since after the upgrade, totem's configuration is screwed up, and totem changes the HUE... it's not an nvidia issue. Can the bug be moved to an issue with totem.

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James Lewis (james-fsck) wrote :

Also, this would be really nice to resolve before 9.10 releases, otherwise everyone who upgrades might get a funky hue problem with all their video playback!

Revision history for this message
Tobias Axelsson Heia (merald) wrote :

Can confirm, i386_64, T61P, nVidia Corporation Quadro FX 570M after upgrade from 9.04.

Bryce Harrington (bryce)
tags: added: karmic
Revision history for this message
SqUe (sque) wrote :

I can confirm the same problem and the fix with reseting hue to default. What is really wierd is that VLC gets affected too! And it is affected in real time (playing video with vlc and changing settings from totem). Are those settings of Totem or it is just a UI for gstreamer?

Revision history for this message
James Lewis (james-fsck) wrote :

It also affects mplayer, so I imagine it's setting somthing in the graphics driver/video card which would explain why it doesn't work wil the less fully featured open driver.... it may be the facility to set the hue is not available in the free driver.

Revision history for this message
Faiper (faiper) wrote :

I can confirm the same problem here. Nvidia GTS 250 and Ubuntu 9.10.

Revision history for this message
mrfelton (tkp) wrote :

Same for me after upgrading to Karmic. Nvidia chipset. Adjusting the Hue slider in Totem fixed for all media players (totem, vlc, mplayer)

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weliad (weliad) wrote :

Same issue with the final release.

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pq (pqnet) wrote :

confirmed, both totem and mplayer, resetting hue setting on totem corrects both

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Arthur Moore (arthur-moore85) wrote :

Please note,
I can also confirm the same problem with the HUE fix through totem player. This is now in the released 9.10 version.

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Mauro de Carvalho (mauro-dec) wrote :

I can confirm this happens on a fresh install using a previous home directory with configs from ubuntu 9.04.

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Tito (tito-webtito) wrote :

I just upgraded from 9.04 and I noticed this bug. It affects both Totem and VLC (I wonder how/why...).

Revision history for this message
vrajmohan (r-vrajmohan) wrote :

Ditto. Upgraded from 9.04, experienced thus bug and fixed by changing hue settings from Totem.

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Robert Stel (rhstel-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

me three nvidia 9800 card upgrade from 9.04 to 9.10.

Revision history for this message
IvoG (ivog) wrote :

Confirmed. Here to.
Nvidia 185.18.36 drivers. Geforce G9600GT. Just upgraded from 9.04 to 9.10.
Also bug fixed when changing the hue-bar back to the center in totem ( under Edit-Preferences-Display ).

Revision history for this message
Andreas Chatziagapiou (xagapiou) wrote :

Confirmed here too.
Fixing the hue in totem (see above comments) fixes the problem in whole system.

Revision history for this message
Povilas Balzaravičius aka Pawka (pawka) wrote :

Same here (upgraded to 9.10). After blue faces comes, setting HUE at default position in VLC helps only until I open video file with Totem. Then again HUE goes to min position. Setting HUE to default in Totem fixes the problem.

Revision history for this message
Clóvis Fabrício (nosklo) wrote :

I can confirm this bug as well. I've tried in different machines, all with nvidia proprietary drivers, and all after upgrade - totem's hue bar goes all way to the left.

Changed in nvidia-graphics-drivers-180 (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
affects: nvidia-graphics-drivers-180 (Ubuntu) → totem (Ubuntu)
Changed in totem (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Low
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Revision history for this message
brx75 (brx75x) wrote :

I've the same issue in 9.10 final. I think the problem could be somewhere in the configurations of the gstreamer backend. If you run gstremer-properties, then go to the Video tab, you can test the output. Using as default output X11/XShm/Xv presents the problem. Changing the configuration in totem (gconf key /apps/totem/hue=32767) affects the Video test too.

Revision history for this message
guruyaya (guruyaya) wrote :

Fixing the hue on totem worked for me. But the package should be with the right Hue set.

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Ian (superian) wrote :

Ah, thanks for finding what was causing this one (x64 9.10 upgraded from 9.04) - it really should have been fixed before release.

If anyone needs hand-holding to find the setting, it's Totem aka Media Player / Preferences / Display / Hue slider - set to the middle, or just press 'reset to defaults'.

Revision history for this message
Mikael B (mikaelbje) wrote :

Worked for me too. Also works changing X Server Color Correction or X Server XVideo Settings in the NVIDIA X Server Settings application, but these settings don't remain after restarting the video player.

Revision history for this message
pltxtra (pltxtra) wrote :

Hmm, I had the issue but the hue slider WAS in the middle... Moving it to either end (min or max) fixed the problem though, strange!

Revision history for this message
dmuir (dmuir) wrote :

Adjusting the hue in Totem fixes the issue for me, except if I open the NVIDIA X Server Settings application. It then gets screwed up again.

Gregory Fong (gvfong)
summary: - Video colors appear inverted in Karmic Alpha 5 with non-free driver.
+ Video colors appear inverted in Karmic.
Revision history for this message
José Jorge Enríquez (jenriquez) wrote : Re: Video colors appear inverted in Karmic.

Restoring defaults inside Totem does not work for me, had to move the Hue setting to the far right.

Revision history for this message
scorp123 (scorp123) wrote :

Just upgraded to 10.04 and the problem is still here. :-/

summary: - Video colors appear inverted in Karmic.
+ Video colors appear inverted
Changed in totem:
importance: Unknown → High
status: Unknown → New
Revision history for this message
James Lewis (james-fsck) wrote :

When I initially logged this problem it was caused when you upgraded, rather than did a fresh install.... Clearly it is related to a configuration parameter which is held over from an older version of Totem. Can I ask anyone who has this problem to either create a new user which has not existed before, and test Totem when logged in with that username, or to close totem, delete/move aside their .gconf/apps/totem folder and test.

Hopefully this will show that when totem starts with no-pre existing configuration this problem does not happen.

Note that you may need to reboot or re-start X to reset the initial state before testing otherwise your result may be a false positive.

Revision history for this message
aashu.dwivedi@gmail.com (aashu-dwivedi) wrote :

I did a fresh install of Ubuntu 10.10 and the bug is there . its there in totem and vlc too

Changed in totem:
status: New → Unknown
Revision history for this message
Andreas B. (andreas-b123) wrote :

This bug is still present in 11.04 with NVidia closed source driver.

Revision history for this message
OttifantSir (ottifantsir) wrote :

This bug is also present in 11.10 with Intel GMA915 graphics on a Dell Inspiron 9400 (E1705) and a HP Probook 4525s with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5000 with proprietary drivers. I'd say this bug is with Totem, and only Totem messing up the settings. Both Dell and HP are fresh installs though updated (just update, not release-update), and it's not always there after an install, but might show up again after an update. And as can be evidenced by how far back in time this bug goes, I'd say it's about time someone checked out Totem.

This bug isn't consistent for chipset-maker, chipset or even on the same machine. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not. But the fix is always to turn the hue in Totem down to minimum. The only program EVER to not be affected by this bug is Totem. It doesn't even respond to the hue-slider at all. No matter if it's at absolute minimum, absolute maximum or anywhere in between, the colors WILL NOT CHANGE in Totem.

Revision history for this message
Teo (teo1978) wrote :

I have the same (apparent) problem but the HUE slider in totem is OK, and it happens in all applications playing videos, with all or almost all codecs.

Revision history for this message
Alex Tasin (alextasin) wrote :

the reset of settings in both VLC and Totem resolve the problem, but not all users are able to come here on launchpad to find a solution.

Revision history for this message
Paul White (paulw2u) wrote :

The upstream bug was closed "RESOLVED NOTGNOME" on 2011-04-06

52 Launchpad users reported a problem which hasn't been commented
on for around seven years so I'm closing this as an issue that has
been fixed (possibly in another package).

Changed in totem (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Paul White (paulw2u) wrote :

Further to comment #38, not an issue here in Ubuntu 18.04 or Ubuntu 19.10 (dev).

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