Deep colours in FCP, washed out after export

[Manus Sweeney]

Hello,

Recently Im noticing more and more the difference between colours played in FCP timeline and afterwards exported and played in QT. The exported videos are also missing the depth of colour when uploaded to vimeo etc.

Video is from a 7D, transcoded in FCP to Prores422, and exported later to h.264 through compressor.

This is quite frustrating and am wondering is there any good solution or workaround. I came across these articles about a new transcoding software also:

5DtoRGB Color Tests MotionLife Media Blog
ProVideo Coalition.com: FRESHDV by Matthew Jeppsen & Kendal Miller

[David Knaggs]

Hi Manus.

It is a known problem with Compressor that it washes out the image when exporting H.264.

There have been a number of threads in this forum about this problem.

A fix that I currently use is to utilize the Gamma Correction filter in Compressor and set it to 1.11 (from 1.00). If you search the above-mentioned threads, you will find that others apply even more. Adjust it until you feel you've got a close match.

[Manus Sweeney]

Great thanks! I will try it, and sorry if the question was already adressed before

[Jordan Hooper]

Hey Manus and all, I recently went seeking the answer to this H264 problem and found a wealth of knowledge about it and a version of H264 encoder that totally solves this problem and it's fast. And it's FREE!

Check out x264. The developer updates often and it clearly is the way to go if you're posting to YouTube and Vimeo etc.

Read one of the recent reviews and where to get it from here:
x264Encoder vs the Apple Codec

Let me first warn you that the developer is totally brilliant and takes for granted that you know a lot about H264 in his "README" and "README TIPS" that come with his encoder.
MyCometG3

But before you do any of this I strongly recommend reading up on H264 at:
Streaming Learning Center
I have a much better working knowledge of H264 by reading all the posts about it. Start by following the links on the left including and under "Encoding your video." Honestly just poke your way through everything on that website and you'll be way ahead of the game.

To specifically solve the gamma problem when using x264 all you do is choose the gamma profile of HD 1-1-1.
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/attachme...1&d=1283668646

I found this encoder really confusing at first but it works well with default settings. I'm not sure if it can be set up as a Compressor profile but I have used it with success by exporting my FCP project as "QuickTime Movie..." with "Current Settings" and "save as reference movie" checked. Then open it with Quicktime 7 and export it starting here:
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/attachme...1&d=1283670484
1. Choose Movie to QuickTime Movie 2. Click Options

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/attachme...1&d=1283670484
Click on Settings

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/attachme...1&d=1283671265
1. Choose x264 2. Choose appropriate Key Frame that you learned by reading the recommended tutorials. 3. Choose Frame Reordering to enable B-frames (also learned in tutorials). 4. Quality here will be over-riden by the choices made in Options 6. 5. Set data rate (read tutorials). 6. To move on to x264 settings. 7. Developer suggests "Faster encode" is not only faster, but may yield better outcome by checking "crf (DataRate: auto)" in x264 settings Flags, or experiment with "Best quality" but be warned about large file sizes.

Having clicked "Options" in the dialogue above:
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/attachme...1&d=1283672203
1. Check, only if you chose "Faster encode" in the previous dialogue. 2. For increased detail (learned in tutorials)

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/attachme...1&d=1283672792
Just use default unless you learned a lot about keyframe intervals from the tutorials and want to experiment.

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/attachme...1&d=1283672792
Leave it.

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/attachme...1&d=1283672792
1. Fix the gamma issue. 2. Check only if you are making just for iPhone (read those tutorials).

Yeah, I know there's a ton here but if you want to master H264 like I needed to then start reading those tutorials at Streaming Learning Center

One of the advantages of fixing the gamma problem this way compared to adjusting it within FCP is that you don't have the additional steps of color correcting and rendering before outputting to H264.

Good luck!
I was hoping the attachments would all show up instead of just a link where I put them. Just click each link to see the one my comments match up with. Sorry bout that.

[Manus Sweeney]

thanks for posting all that jordan.. lots to look into and try!

[James Wong]

Hi all,

This is was a useful thread to stumble into - I've edited projects in the past for web trailers and noticed the washing out as well - I thought it was just my system - didn't get any answers previously about it here (probably different explanation at the time). Just wanted to say "thanks" for providing the solutions/workarounds :)