Laptop display brightness increases when I run Pro Tools - why?

[iain_m]

Hi all

I've noticed on two different laptops that running Pro Tools 9 slightly increases the brightness of the screen. The brightness returns to normal when Pro Tools is closed.

One laptop (which I no longer have) was a Dell M6600 using Intel HD3000 graphics, and the other (my current one) is a Samsung NP700G7C using a GeForce GTX675M. Both laptops run Windows 7 64-bit.

Has anyone else experienced the screen brightness change? I tried searching the forum but couldn't find anything on this topic.

Thanks.

[dave911]

Don't have any special knowledge about this, but video drivers usually allow applications to control brightness, contrast, gamma, etc.
Since PT has a control to adjust the brightnes of screen in the Color menu I'm not suprised you see a difference.

[iain_m]

Originally Posted by dave911

Don't have any special knowledge about this, but video drivers usually allow applications to control brightness, contrast, gamma, etc.
Since PT has a control to adjust the brightnes of screen in the Color menu I'm not suprised you see a difference.

Thanks - I wonder if it is also related to the fact that I have turned Aero off for Pro Tools (right-click > disable desktop composition) to enable lower buffer sizes.

Having lowered the brightness while PT is running, it seems that it now stays at the same level whether PT is running or not. I'll keep an eye on it.

[dave911]

Don't know about ATI but Nvidia allows you to create a profile for each application in the control panel.
Also, my Lenovo laptop has two graphics processors so you can choose power savings or high performance for each app.
Lots of modes going on.

[The Weed]

Turn down the brightness in Pro Tools.

Cheers,

[iain_m]

Originally Posted by The Weed

Turn down the brightness in Pro Tools.

Could you tell me where I'd find that option? I can see the setting in the colour palette to change the brightness of the track GUI, but not of the whole screen.

[The Weed]

My apologies, it's a long time since I've used the brightness and saturation controls in Pro Tools as I set them a long time ago and just use templates that have the settings I want.

While you can change the brightness and saturation in the colour pallette these controls are only for the channel strips in the Mix Window and the corresponding areas in the Edit Window. Those controls will not affect the saturation and brightness of the rest of the screen real estate, at least that I can see.

That said, is the brightness/saturation you are seeing actually confined to the areas mentioned above and your eyes are being tricked into thinking it's the entire screen or is it in fact the entire screen that is brighter when Pro Tools is open?

Cheers,

[iain_m]

Hi again,

After some experimenting it turns out that Windows stores different screen brightness levels for programs that run with Aero, versus those that run with Aero off.

The tweak suggested by Avid ("disable desktop composition" for PT) turns off Aero and causes Windows to switch over to the brightness level for the non-Aero configuration.

The solution is just to set the Windows screen brightness to the same values when PT is running and when it's not. Windows still switches between these values, but because they are the same there is no change in screen brightness.

[The Weed]

Good catch/tip.

Cheers,

[dave911]

Interesting.
Where are you setting the Windows screen brightness?