Wierd "grayscale" video issue.

Okay, here's the problem. About 4 or 5 months ago (not sure exact time of start), SOME video I would play would not give correct color. Instead, the video would be in a "grayscale" going from a bright washed out white to a dark blue-ish almost black. Totally odd. SO. Here are some facts.

It is not a program problem. It happens whether I use WMP or Zoom player or BS Player.
It is not a codec problem. It happens on ALL codecs except....see the next point.
Both QT and RM files work fine. Nice pretty color with no issues.
It is not a file problem, as it happens with every file, whether downloaded, created myself, OR a web stream such as MSN Video.
It is not a monitor issue, I have tried another monitor.
Since its not just on one player, it can't be a plugin problem.

I have replaced the following with no fix:
WMP
DirectX
NVidia Video Card drivers
BS Player
EVERY Codec I could find


If I could figure out how to screen-cap WMP playing a file to show you what I mean by grayscale, I would. Any ideas on how to do that?

More importantly, any ideas AT ALL on what this could be? Before I reinstall Windows I want to hear some ideas, please! =)

Thank you in advance for any help.

In WMP try going into tools/options/performance and turning hardware acceration off. That may solve the problem. You could also try doing that globally by right clicking the desktop and selecting properties/settings/advanced/troubleshoot to try and get a screenshot.

Also, have you installed the codec pack available here?...

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/...Codec_Pack.htm

Thanks fink, I'll try both turning off hardware acceleration and replacing the codecs again.

By the way, with a gig of ram and a 3.0ghz P4, why would I need to lower hardware acceleration? My Vid card is an Nvidia 6800 GT, I'd think that would be okay with hardware acceleration on?

AHA!!!!!!!!! OMG THANK YOU!!! Lowering the hardware acceleration to the "get rid of DirectDraw and DirectX stuff" worked! I think it's some weird program affecting it. Grrr. But it works. So thank you so much.

It's very possible the 'program affecting it' could be 'real player' and/or 'quicktime player' if you have those installed as full programs. You might try uninstalling them both and using the alternates for Real and Quick from this site ...