The VideoLAN Forums

My issue is that when I am watching dark scenes in movies, VLC seems to be compensating for the darkness by dimming the total picture. This only happens in fullscreen and only after the toolbar retreats. Then it visibly brightens when the scene chages. An example is a when I'm watching a movie and a scene in daylight goes to a scene at night, just after the scene shift there is a visible dimming of the entire screen. There also seems to be a range of how much dimmer it gets based on how dark the scene is.

I'm on a desktop, so this isn't a power settings issue and my display isn't the cause.

There's a chance that this is related to the video card/hardware, but I doubt it. Just in case it is an NVIDIA GeForce GT 630.

I think what I really need here is the right word to search for. Is there a setting that automatically darkens and lightens what you are viewing?

Thanks for any and all help!

No, VLC has no automatic brightness adjustment. Check your display driver settings and also your monitor settings.

I'm having a similar issue as well. I know this is supposed to be Windows only, but maybe since I'm using Kubuntu and it happens to me, perhaps the thread might be moved to a more generic category?

Anyways, I have two displays setup on Kubuntu 14.04.2. Well, its actually Ubuntu server with KDE added. Nothing really out of the ordinary nor additional repositories besides that and Google Chrome installed (please don't hate me). The rest of everything is from regular repositories.

So after watching a video on the secondary display through VLC, the display automatically dims. I can use other video players (Dragon, MPlayer, etc.) and it does not dim. I can watch YouTube in Chrome or Firefox and it doesn't dim after playing. I can have nothing on the display and it doesn't dim, even up to 60 minutes when the screen save kicks in. If I start VLC, and put it on the secondary display, it does not dim. Its only if I put VLC on that display, and about 5 seconds after the video stops, the display dims. Not a big deal, just a little annoyance.

The version installed from the repositories is 2.1.6 (Rincewind). Oh, the primary display is on DVI and the secondary is on HDMI. I don't know if that matters, I might be able to drum up a different display to test too. BTW, I can do anything on the primary display and it still happens; meaning I can be checking email or writing code or something, and the secondary display will automatically dim about 5 seconds after the video ends even as I'm typing. If I need to turn on debugging or anything, let me know. If I need to install a different version, new repository, etc., I don't mind playing around with versions.

Oh, if I should re-post in another category, just let me know too.

This is a late reply because I just experienced the issue, but I thought I'd post regardless. In my case I started noticing the intermittent dimming recently, and not having found any settings in VLC, I turned to my monitor's settings even though the issue manifested itself only while running VLC. Well, the display has a "smart energy saving" feature, which was enabled. I disabled it and the problem was solved. It may be that for some reason other apps have an override for this monitor feature whereas VLC doesn't, I am not sure. Regardless, there was no reason for me to have it enabled because I can set the monitor to automatically shut off after x min. of inactivity in the OS's power settings.
So, in my case the problem was with the "smart energy saver" feature for the monitor being enabled, and as soon as I disabled it the problem went away. I hope this helps.

This is a late reply because I just experienced the issue, but I thought I'd post regardless. In my case I started noticing the intermittent dimming recently, and not having found any settings in VLC, I turned to my monitor's settings even though the issue manifested itself only while running VLC. Well, the display has a "smart energy saving" feature, which was enabled. I disabled it and the problem was solved. It may be that for some reason other apps have an override for this monitor feature whereas VLC doesn't, I am not sure. Regardless, there was no reason for me to have it enabled because I can set the monitor to automatically shut off after x min. of inactivity in the OS's power settings.
So, in my case the problem was with the "smart energy saver" feature for the monitor being enabled, and as soon as I disabled it the problem went away. I hope this helps.

Yes rather a late reply but I can also confirm that I to have 3LG Monitors all with "smart energy saving" by turning this off, it stops the dimming on the videos

I found that I had my screen at a lower resolution to the video I was trying to watch was causing the problem turning my resolution to the same as the video sorted it out, I realised when I tried another video and realised the video was 720p and not causing the problem and remembered turning my resolution to 1080p but the video I wanted to watch was 2160p but yeah this fixed it for me

For me, it was having HDR enabled in Windows video settings that was causing the issue. I believe this only can be enabled if you're using a Display Port connection. Once I turned that off, the dimming in full screen (once the playback bar would drop of of sight) ended.

My problem was: 5 sec in fullscreen VLC - dimming the brightness up to minimum.
Solution: in NVIDIA Control panel->Adjust video color settings. Turn this off. Let videoplayer be in charge, not nvidia.