Hello folks. Firstly, I do understand that this question has been asked a number of times, but I did not find the discussion or answers to be useful. I have had this issue for a while using various versions of media encoder, using source footage from a variety of cameras, including the Canon T5i and 5D MKII, the blackmagic Cinema and Production cameras, and the Sony Sony PXW-FS7, recording in various codecs.
My System: Windows 7 Pro / 64GB Ram / Nvidia Quadro K4200 GPU / Adobe CC2018
To rule out camera or codec related issues, I created a test project in Adobe After Effects CC2018 in order to generate a gray tone bar. The test image comp is 4kUHD 3840x2160 @30fps 5 second duration with 5 bars 0% saturation 0 degree color angle, with gradations of 0 brightness, 20 brightness, 50 brightness, 80 brightness, and 100 brightness. Here is a screen shot of my After Effects workspace:
When I render this out using the default avi settings from After Effects, the gamma looks correct. I have found this to be the case with previous versions of After Effects. Here is a screen shot of the video being played in VLC:
AVI
I then rendered the comp using Adobe Media Encoder. I encoded an h.264 and an h.265 version both using their respective default options for bitrate etc.
H.264
H.265
For thoroughness I have included a link to a zipped version of the project which includes the rendered
tests: Dropbox - ColorTest.zip
I am open to the possibility of this being an issue with the default settings, but I also find that prospect to be disappointing on a number of levels. In case I have not pointed it out yet, or you have not noticed, when comparing the compressed versions to the avi version, the bightness 0 bar is too light (5%?) and the brightness
100 bar is too dark, making the overall image appear dull.
I have followed suggestions from a number of other threads, I have compared CPU only with GPU rendering.
Any assistance is appreciated. Codec settings? AME or Premiere app specific settings? I just don't know. Mysterious it is.
-Matthew
2
Replies
So as is usually the case, within minutes of clicking submit on the original thread, I found another form thread which
discussed nvidia color settings.
Big Color Shift between exported H264 mp4 and Program Monitor
The relevant answer is the third response from the top. In a nutshell, it suggests opening the nvidia control panel,
and checking a settings area under the video colulmn item on the left, "Adjust Video Color Settings"
I had it set to "make color adjustments with the video player" and under the advanced tab it was set to a color range
of 16-235. This is why my renders looked bad to me, and also why the saved screen shots still look different from each other.
The screen shots are accurate, an accurate display of the two different color display settings as chosen by VLC player, and
executed by the GPU.
When I changed the setting to make color adjustments with the Nvidia settings, and set the color range to 0-255
all three renders view the same in VLC media player. In my own defense I have been doing IT related work for years but
my focus was on networking. Video production is still relatively new to me compared to that 😄
I won't say yet that this conclusively cures all of my possible render issues, or fixes the poor choices I make during grading,
but it came a long way in making me feel less silly lets say.
The moral of the story.. screen shots can and do lie lol
*EDIT* I realize after additional thought, its not that the color display was locked in at 16-235, but that the desktop was changing
based on the application request, which would explain why a video might look correct in Premiere or AE, but not in a media player.
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