<p>I had this issue for a very long time in pretty much every program I played MP4 videos in. It turns out that by default, the Nvidia drivers don't actually have the full dynamic range enabled. I changed it, and tested it just to confirm that it really worked. Just open up the control panel, and change the dynamic range to "Full":</p>

<p><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/yceUE.png" alt=""></p>

<hr>

<p><em>Regarding the <a href="//video.stackexchange.com/a/12801/10669">current accepted answer</a>: it doesn't seem to regard the fact that there will almost certainly be a large performance hit when disabling hardware acceleration, and is not a proper solution as a result. If it resolved the problem for you, it's pretty likely that just changing the driver settings (my answer) is far better than outright disabling hardware acceleration.</em></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-04-12T01:22:46.550Z
2015-04-12T01:22:46.550Z
CoolOppo
<p>The root cause is very likely the color space settings in your file. The video is also grey in Firefox on my machine but not in Chrome.
If you open your file in <a href="http://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo" rel="nofollow">MediaInfo</a> you can see this at the bottom of the video stream:</p>

<pre><code>Color primaries                          : BT.601 NTSC
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.601
</code></pre>

<p>This should say BT.709 in all three categories. What is happening that the player is honoring the color spaces differently and mixing stuff up. This setting likely started out in the Flash export to mov. Handbrake shouldn't do that without explicitly giving it a command line option to do this.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-08T14:53:39.160Z
With Mediainfo, the MOV has no color primaries, Transfer characteristics or matrix coefficient info. If I export the MOV to H.264 with Avanti 0.8.1, same result - no color primaries etc. So, it must be Handbrake? But, problem within the problem - my Avanti export is "invalid" for IE 11 and Firefox (but not for Chrome), so I cannot tell whether the gray/black issue is solved in my IE (and your Firefox). I've put both videos here: www.casedasole.it/video/ie.html -  NB: there's no audio, it's just a test of the black.
plugincontainer
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-08T15:07:19.563Z
Thats expected that these things don't show up in the mov, those are h264 specific flags. Handbrake just uses what it gets fed and the BT.601 color space is very likely set in your source codec. What codec are you using in you mov export? You might want to try the "Animation" codec and then try exporting with handbrake again. Also try the Normal and Android High preset this time (might need to adjust the resolution manually).
timonsku
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-08T15:58:25.157Z
The MOVs are Animation, have no info on the specific codec. Exported with Handbrake as Android or Normal, I still get gray - http://www.casedasole.it/video/HB.html  ...I'd like to see what Avanti makes of these files, but - as I wrote above - the files it makes are invalid. In fact, when I use Avanti to export any regular MOV (audio and video) as H.264, there is no video in any of them, only audio. Could we sidetrack to see what the Avanti issue is, so I can use it to export the mp4s, hopefully with real black? My unsuccessful settings are here: http://www.casedasole.it/video/avanti.html
plugincontainer
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-08T16:42:07.997Z
With Animation do you mean your video content or the codec?
I would recommend to not use Avanti, its a horrible GUI for ffmpeg.
You might want to try to just use ffmpeg itself with this command: `ffmpeg -i input.mov -vcodec libx264 -preset slow -acodec copy -pix_fmt yuv420p output.mp4`

Though note that ffmpeg/avanti and handbrake both use x264 as the encoder.
timonsku
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-08T18:13:59.503Z
The MOVs were exported from Flash with setting "Animation", millions of colors. I downloaded and unzipped ffmpeg, 7MB of stuff, but no exe. Gee, even exe's are GUI? Anyway, I'll test a little more with Avanti, to figure out why it exports the audio without the video (just for contrast, an AVI exported from Flash and then exported as H.264 with Handbrake has video but no audio). Thanks for the tips, will update later.
plugincontainer
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-08T19:23:38.020Z
This sounds like it: "Q: How can I see if the levels are wrong? A: The video looks washed out and the colors are not vivid. Black is displayed as dark gray." http://avisynth.nl/index.php/Luminance_levels ... some stuff to read...
plugincontainer
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-08T20:50:36.053Z
Yes thats a very similar issue but you shouldn't have different results in different browsers on the same machine.
You probably downloaded the source code of ffmpeg.
If you are on windows download here: http://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/
If you are on mac download here: http://www.evermeet.cx/ffmpeg/

Just download the 32bit static build.
timonsku
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-09T11:59:58.393Z
Thanks for bearing with me. Downloaded ffmpeg-latest-win32-static.7z from zeranoe, found three exe, none of which did anything except flash white text in a black windowette for a split second before disappearing. Ffmpeg documentation is like an advanced Tibetan language class. So, giving up on seeing if ffmeg exports mp4s with black black not gray black. What to do? How about - http://vimeo.com/album/2830795/video/37582984 (at 05:15), i.e. correct alpha with QT Pro? Also I noticed the MOVs are color space  RGBa, while the mp4s from Handbrake are YUV. Any significance?
plugincontainer
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-09T12:42:15.580Z
I guess you haven't use a command line tool before?
Open a "Command Prompt" window and drag and drop the "ffmpeg.exe" into the cmd window. Then just use the command I posted but you can ommit the "ffmpeg" part. Then replace input.mov with the path to your mov and the same with output.mp4. You can drag and drop here aswell, just go to the right position with the text pointer and drag and drop the old input/output file into the cmd. Its actually very easy to use once you get the hang of it. Dont bother with the manual, look up online tutorials for the basics.
timonsku
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-09T12:44:17.100Z
Well yes there is of course a conversion between RGB to YUV but it should still output a 100% black. What he describes in the video only really applys to uploading to Vimeo, he bascially tailored the file to the vimeo h264 encoder.
What you can also try is to export your file as an Avi with HuffYUV encoding and see if that makes a difference.
timonsku
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-09T14:10:43.687Z
Of course my answer only addressed IE. Why the blacks are gray in your Firefox and not mine is another question.
plugincontainer
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-09T14:15:58.777Z
Probably also hardware acceleration, my FF is not running with standard render settings. Nice find!
timonsku
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-08T10:08:27.590Z
2014-10-08T10:08:27.590Z
timonsku
<p>The solution was to turn off IE-11's "hardware acceleration" feature which (<a href="http://support2.microsoft.com/kb/2528233" rel="nofollow">says here</a>) "lets Internet Explorer move all graphics and text rendering from the CPU to the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)".</p>

<p>I disabled that under Tools -> Internet Options-> Advanced by selecting "Use software rendering instead of GPU rendering".  <a href="http://support2.microsoft.com/Library/Images/2685831.png" rel="nofollow">It's pictured here</a></p>

<p>Then, after obligatory re-start (of IE), all the grays were black and colors bright in IE-11. 
Now, how I communicate this knowledge to IE users viewing my washed-out videos is a tough new question.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-09T14:14:53.220Z
Thats a hard nut. Something you can't really tell your users, they either ignore it or will be too lazy to do that or simply dont want to.
There is also webm as an HTML5 alternative but thats not supported by IE. The only real alternative would be using Flash Player as its probably installed on most machines that primarily use IE.
timonsku
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-09T14:24:01.623Z
Thinking of IE, I have left a flash fallback. Until next time...
plugincontainer
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-09T14:05:46.483Z
2014-10-10T05:19:37.663Z
2014-10-10T05:19:37.663Z
plugincontainer
<p>I exported a Flash movie with a black background to MOV, and converted the MOV to mp4 (H.264). In Quicktime player, the background of the MOV and mp4 are black. In native players in Firefox and  Chrome (desktop) and Safari and Chrome (ipad), the background of the mp4 is black. In IE11... it's dark gray. </p>

<p>The actual gray is rgb 16 16 16, hex #101010. 
Any ideas?</p>

<mp4>
Why is MP4 black background gray in Internet Explorer 11?
plugincontainer
# Why is MP4 black background gray in Internet Explorer 11?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-10-07)

I exported a Flash movie with a black background to MOV, and converted the MOV to mp4 (H.264). In Quicktime player, the background of the MOV and mp4 are black. In native players in Firefox and Chrome (desktop) and Safari and Chrome (ipad), the background of the mp4 is black. In IE11... it's dark gray.

The actual gray is rgb 16 16 16, hex #101010.
Any ideas?

**Tags:** mp4


---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_0 on 2014-10-09. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

The solution was to turn off IE-11's "hardware acceleration" feature which ([says here](http://support2.microsoft.com/kb/2528233)) "lets Internet Explorer move all graphics and text rendering from the CPU to the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)".

I disabled that under Tools -> Internet Options-> Advanced by selecting "Use software rendering instead of GPU rendering". [It's pictured here](http://support2.microsoft.com/Library/Images/2685831.png)

Then, after obligatory re-start (of IE), all the grays were black and colors bright in IE-11.
Now, how I communicate this knowledge to IE users viewing my washed-out videos is a tough new question.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: Thats a hard nut. Something you can't really tell your users, they either ignore it or will be too lazy to do that or simply dont want to. There is also webm as an HTML5 alternative but thats not supported by IE. The only real alternative would be using Flash Player as its probably installed on most machines that primarily use IE.  
> **username_0**: Thinking of IE, I have left a flash fallback. Until next time...  

---

### Answer by username_1 on 2015-04-12. Score: 1

I had this issue for a very long time in pretty much every program I played MP4 videos in. It turns out that by default, the Nvidia drivers don't actually have the full dynamic range enabled. I changed it, and tested it just to confirm that it really worked. Just open up the control panel, and change the dynamic range to "Full":

![](https://i.sstatic.net/yceUE.png)

---

*Regarding the [current accepted answer](//video.stackexchange.com/a/12801/10669): it doesn't seem to regard the fact that there will almost certainly be a large performance hit when disabling hardware acceleration, and is not a proper solution as a result. If it resolved the problem for you, it's pretty likely that just changing the driver settings (my answer) is far better than outright disabling hardware acceleration.*


---

### Answer by username_2 on 2014-10-08. Score: 1

The root cause is very likely the color space settings in your file. The video is also grey in Firefox on my machine but not in Chrome.
If you open your file in MediaInfo you can see this at the bottom of the video stream:
Color primaries                          : BT.601 NTSC
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.601

This should say BT.709 in all three categories. What is happening that the player is honoring the color spaces differently and mixing stuff up. This setting likely started out in the Flash export to mov. Handbrake shouldn't do that without explicitly giving it a command line option to do this.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: With Mediainfo, the MOV has no color primaries, Transfer characteristics or matrix coefficient info. If I export the MOV to H.264 with Avanti 0.8.1, same result - no color primaries etc. So, it must be Handbrake? But, problem within the problem - my Avanti export is "invalid" for IE 11 and Firefox (but not for Chrome), so I cannot tell whether the gray/black issue is solved in my IE (and your Firefox). I've put both videos here: www.casedasole.it/video/ie.html -  NB: there's no audio, it's just a test of the black.  
> **username_2**: Thats expected that these things don't show up in the mov, those are h264 specific flags. Handbrake just uses what it gets fed and the BT.601 color space is very likely set in your source codec. What codec are you using in you mov export? You might want to try the "Animation" codec and then try exporting with handbrake again. Also try the Normal and Android High preset this time (might need to adjust the resolution manually).  
> **username_0**: The MOVs are Animation, have no info on the specific codec. Exported with Handbrake as Android or Normal, I still get gray - http://www.casedasole.it/video/HB.html  ...I'd like to see what Avanti makes of these files, but - as I wrote above - the files it makes are invalid. In fact, when I use Avanti to export any regular MOV (audio and video) as H.264, there is no video in any of them, only audio. Could we sidetrack to see what the Avanti issue is, so I can use it to export the mp4s, hopefully with real black? My unsuccessful settings are here: http://www.casedasole.it/video/avanti.html  
> **username_2**: With Animation do you mean your video content or the codec? I would recommend to not use Avanti, its a horrible GUI for ffmpeg. You might want to try to just use ffmpeg itself with this command: `ffmpeg -i input.mov -vcodec libx264 -preset slow -acodec copy -pix_fmt yuv420p output.mp4`  Though note that ffmpeg/avanti and handbrake both use x264 as the encoder.  
> **username_0**: The MOVs were exported from Flash with setting "Animation", millions of colors. I downloaded and unzipped ffmpeg, 7MB of stuff, but no exe. Gee, even exe's are GUI? Anyway, I'll test a little more with Avanti, to figure out why it exports the audio without the video (just for contrast, an AVI exported from Flash and then exported as H.264 with Handbrake has video but no audio). Thanks for the tips, will update later.  
> **username_0**: This sounds like it: "Q: How can I see if the levels are wrong? A: The video looks washed out and the colors are not vivid. Black is displayed as dark gray." http://avisynth.nl/index.php/Luminance_levels ... some stuff to read...  
> **username_2**: Yes thats a very similar issue but you shouldn't have different results in different browsers on the same machine. You probably downloaded the source code of ffmpeg. If you are on windows download here: http://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/ If you are on mac download here: http://www.evermeet.cx/ffmpeg/  Just download the 32bit static build.  
> **username_0**: Thanks for bearing with me. Downloaded ffmpeg-latest-win32-static.7z from zeranoe, found three exe, none of which did anything except flash white text in a black windowette for a split second before disappearing. Ffmpeg documentation is like an advanced Tibetan language class. So, giving up on seeing if ffmeg exports mp4s with black black not gray black. What to do? How about - http://vimeo.com/album/2830795/video/37582984 (at 05:15), i.e. correct alpha with QT Pro? Also I noticed the MOVs are color space  RGBa, while the mp4s from Handbrake are YUV. Any significance?  
> **username_2**: I guess you haven't use a command line tool before? Open a "Command Prompt" window and drag and drop the "ffmpeg.exe" into the cmd window. Then just use the command I posted but you can ommit the "ffmpeg" part. Then replace input.mov with the path to your mov and the same with output.mp4. You can drag and drop here aswell, just go to the right position with the text pointer and drag and drop the old input/output file into the cmd. Its actually very easy to use once you get the hang of it. Dont bother with the manual, look up online tutorials for the basics.  
> **username_2**: Well yes there is of course a conversion between RGB to YUV but it should still output a 100% black. What he describes in the video only really applys to uploading to Vimeo, he bascially tailored the file to the vimeo h264 encoder. What you can also try is to export your file as an Avi with HuffYUV encoding and see if that makes a difference.  
> **username_0**: Of course my answer only addressed IE. Why the blacks are gray in your Firefox and not mine is another question.  
> **username_2**: Probably also hardware acceleration, my FF is not running with standard render settings. Nice find!  

---

