CV1 Red Smearing / Tinted Display

[Cliché]

I've had my CV1 a little over a week and I've noticed a red tint/smearing on the display. It is mostly noticeable on the bottom 1/4 of the display, but there is also some on the top 1/4 of the display. The problem is similar to what is shown in this Oculus forum discussion: https://forums.oculus.com/community/discussion/34368/cv1-screens-grey-not-black , although it seems they haven't found a solution. My problem is not as bad as that on the top, but looks similar, but is more of a darker red smear on the bottom. It's not that noticeable in game because there are panels and the cockpit in the way, but it can show up at times. It is mostly noticeable during the loading screen, or when the holographic ship is spinning and you look away from the ship. I also tried the Apollo 11 app, and the scene approaching the dark side of the moon looks OK, until I tilt my head up and look at the bottom of the display, and then the red smear becomes visible. Normally when I'm looking at dark space, I see a light white/blue tint to the black, and when I tilt my head up and look at the bottom, it's more of a dark black, whit a hint of dark red. Regardless, I'm sure things would look better w/o this issue.

I don't think this is related to the HDMI port / Display port issue. I seem to have full range set, as I don't notice any banding. That assumes when you were talking about banding you meant something like this: https://www.bing.com/images/search?...3c79a45e77c0bbbab33b31488799abc2o0&ajaxhist=0 , but in shades of black/gray? Or maybe this is exactly what you were talking about? [noob]

I have an Asus 1080 and tried installing the latest driver they had on their site, 368.39, but I couldn't get the CV1 to work afterward (it would detect it, but black display), so I reinstalled 368.81 and it started working again, but still has the red smearing. It seems that this is an old problem that I'm reading is supposedly fixed, but it doesn't look fixed to me. So I'm hoping someone is familiar with this issue and can direct me how to fix it. Thanks.

 

[CMDR Minion Blob]

Did you try opening a ticket with Oculus? I have 2 ASuS 1080 strix oc cards as well running the latest Nvidia released drivers but do not have this issue.

Oculus should be able to confirm whether this is a known issue or if there are any workarounds.

 

[Nebula109]

Most users have the red tint it seems.
You need to use the Spud Tool from Oculus which is just a registry hack. This removes the red tint and any cloudiness if you happen to have it. I simply inserted the registry hack myself and then restarted the Oculus service, all the red tint disappeared. Probably not allowed to post the details on here but I got the instructions from an Oculus reddit post.
Very jealous you don't have any colour banding, I assume you have a HD monitor attached?

 

[Cliché]

Yeah, after a little more digging I see that this red tint problem probably affects more than half of Rift users. I tried finding the spud tool, but I couldn't find a download link. I did find a text copy, but the registry hacks it listed were for keys that were not in my registry. I don't know if Oculus still provides the tool, but I guess I'll open up a ticket just to register my defective product and see what happens. I'm very disappointed that Oculus is shipping defective products. It's not as bad as Volkswagen cheating emission testing, but it's still pretty bad.

Very jealous you don't have any colour banding, I assume you have a HD monitor attached?

I do have a HD monitor attached, but doesn't everybody? My Asus card has two HDMI ports, with one "dedicated for HMD devices". I wonder if they did something hardware wise to force full range. I'm not getting banding, but even with gamma at 0, it's still not as dark as I'd like. I wonder if it's related to the red tint issue, or if maybe a display port adapter might make it a little darker.

I also saw where some people that were experiencing banding was being caused by a bent pin on the HDMI connector.

 

[Nebula109]

I did find a text copy, but the registry hacks it listed were for keys that were not in my registry.

No, you have to create the keys yourself, it's quite easy to do. Instructions are here Enable Spud

I do have a HD monitor attached, but doesn't everybody?

Actually no and judging by the amount of posts on the banding issue I think there are a lot of us out there that do not have HD monitors and I think that is the problem cause of the banding issues. Another poster on here found the answer to his problems but it involved using HD equipment with adapters/convertors. It seems to bring up extra options in the Nvidia Control Panel that just doesn't show for non HD monitors.
My son has a HD monitor so I'll use his in due time to test this out whenever he manages to get out of bed!
The red tint is a software issue as far as I know so won't be affected by what equipment you have.

I also saw where some people that were experiencing banding was being caused by a bent pin on the HDMI connector.

Yes that does happen.

 

[Cliché]

No, you have to create the keys yourself, it's quite easy to do. Instructions are here Enable Spud

Excellent - thanks. I was able to test this and it definitely got rid of the red tint and I could see what real black looked like. However, it introduced the banding problem, with the bright planet dark sides and muddy nebulae, and that looks like an old EGA monitor. So I switched it back, and although it's better, I can now definitely see the slight red haze everywhere I look, with extra red on the top and bottom. Still, not too bad compared to banding, but I would like to get true black.

Actually no and judging by the amount of posts on the banding issue I think there are a lot of us out there that do not have HD monitors and I think that is the problem cause of the banding issues.

Sorry, wasn't trying to be flip, but I think I misunderstood you. As far as I know, even 1280x720 is considered HD, and I'd assume all laptops would have at least that resolution, with a minimum of 1920x1080 for desktops. I have a 2560x1440 on a display port connection. If you were talking about an HDTV on another HDMI port, than no, I don't have one, and I don't see any extra options or a Rift listed as another monitor.


I'm going to try a 4k display port adapter and the spud tool again to see if I can get real black w/o any banding.

 

[Nebula109]

Its ok I didn't take it as being flippant, really interesting you found the Spud Tool introducing the banding while getting rid of the tint.
My monitor is 1400 x 900 so well under the HD format for HDMI and I think its fairly common. With a Full HD monitor you should get some extra options in the Nvidia Control Panel under 'change resolutions' then set the output color format to YCbCr422.
If you haven't seen it already this post is well worth a look. https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...k-levels-finally-fixed-for-me!-Weird-solution

Keep plugging away as some have managed it to some degree.

 

[Cliché]

I've been discussing the issue with Oculus Support. This is what they have to say:


I do want to assure you that our engineers are aware of this behavior and are actively working on a widely distributed software update for it.

Unfortunately, we can't provide a timeline for when that we will available, but I can say that it should be rolling out very soon.

In the meantime, you are welcome to use the Rift while Spud is disabled.

Should any other issues arise, we'll need you to re-enable Spud so that we can properly troubleshoot those issues.

Rest assured that using the Rift with Spud disabled will not void your warranty in any way, and it should not damage the device.


So I'm feeling a little better about the red tint issue and am confident it will be corrected. In the meantime, I should have my displayport adapter today, so I'll try it with spud disabled and see if the banding issue goes away.

 

[Nebula109]

It's much appreciated you letting us know and the fact that the Spud Tool is ok to use, the Internet is quite busy with users speculating the Spud Tool could cause damage in some way.
Keep us informed with the displayport adapter, mine didn't make any difference but I've still haven't managed to prise my son's HD monitor away from him yet to test further.

 

[Cliché]

Well, the displayport adapter did not correct the problem with the banding introduced by disabling spud. However, on the whole, I much prefer the absence of the red tint compared to the introduction of banding, which didn't really show up to much in the RES (very noticeable in hyper and looking at the galaxy in deep space). I think I'll live with the banding until the official red tint fix is released.