Video quality issue

I just got a Dell Studio 1737, with an LCD monitor (1440x900) with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650.
The screen looks great, but I'm having a little problem when watching videos.
It's especially noticable in dark scenes. It seems as though it's not displaying all the colors it should, becuase you can see shades of gray that don't blend together.
Scenes just look generally gray and washed out, and almost as if they're low-resolution or low bitrate movies, which they are not.

It doesn't seem to be a problem when viewing photos, only videos. It happens with .mpg files using both WMP11 and WinDVD5,
and also using .mov files with Quicktime 7.5.5, which leads me to believe that it's not a codec issue, since it happens with different file types. (?)

The ATI display manager shows the color quality as High-32 bit (the highest available) with a 60 Hz refresh rate.

Anybody have any ideas given the limited information I've provided?

I've attached a screenshot from the 1080p Star Trek trailer downloaded from apple.com so you can see what I mean, especially in his dark jacket.

Thanks for your help.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e384/chuck95/ST1.jpg

 

have you modified your colors settings in the Catalyst control manager?

 

No, I didn't make any changes, but to be sure, I restored the factory defaults. The videos look the same.

 

As you said, it may not be a codec issue. But to make sure download and try VLC player (Has built in codecs).

 

Hey,
Sorry for the delay in getting back to this.

I downloaded the movie and played it back in VLC.
VLC doesn't seem to let me watch the video at it's full resolution, as it fits it to my screen.
But even though it's a little smaller, you can still see that the problem is still there.

Anybody have any ideas?
Thanks.