Knowledge Base

Problem

When drawing arenas or zones in EthoVision XT, the background image appears very dark, making it difficult to see the arena layout. Separately, some users report the detection settings screen appears entirely black, preventing acquisition.

Details

Two related but distinct causes:
1. Intentional UI darkening: EthoVision deliberately darkens the background image when arenas and zones are being drawn so that the drawn outlines and zone boundaries stand out more clearly. This affects all versions during arena/zone creation and cannot be disabled.
2. Black detection/acquisition screen: The detection settings screen renders black when another application (e.g., a separate video recording program) is occupying the GPU, preventing EthoVision from rendering the video input. Observed on shared lab computers running multiple video tools.

Solution

For the dark arena background (intentional behavior):
1. Understand that the darkening is by design to improve visibility of drawn zone outlines — it is not a camera or display problem.
2. To work around the darkness, maximize the arena drawing window and zoom in as needed.
3. Ensure your background/reference image is well-lit and high-contrast before entering arena setup.
4. There is no setting to disable this behavior; it is a known limitation of the UI.

For a fully black detection/acquisition screen:
1. Close all other video recording or capture software running on the computer before launching EthoVision.
2. Restart EthoVision and attempt to open the detection settings again.
3. If the problem persists, reboot the computer, then open EthoVision before launching any other software.
4. If the issue cannot be resolved on the current machine, move the acquisition session to a dedicated computer used exclusively for EthoVision.