32 bit full range

[Steve Boutin]

Hi. When setting up my project to use 32 bit (levels or full range), the snapshots from the timeline are darker than the clip that the snapshot was taken from. I can't do a freeze frame because of this. 8 bit works fine. Anybody know a fix or a reason for this?

Thanks, Steve

[Steve Boutin]

BTW, that's Vegas Pro 9e.

[Craig Longman]

It sounds like that darn cRGB versus sRGB monster again.

In 32bit mode, many (most? all?) of the Sony codecs in Vegas decode to cRGB. In 8bit mode, they decode to sRGB. If you're looking at the preview in a window, you're seeing it in cRGB space. It will _seem_ darker, but you're actually seeing it closer to what a monitor using sRGB colour space will look like. If you have two monitors, try setting the display to full screen on the second monitor, then you can choose the colour space used. If you drop cRGB -> sRGB filter on the output window, you will likely see the colour you're expecting. However, it's using 16:16:16 for black, which on a computer monitor is an dark sort of grey, and 235:235:235 for white, which is a light sort of grey.

Personally, as I'm on a computer window preview as an output most of the time, I always work with my preview in cRGB mode. So, putting a sRGB->cRGB on the preview in a window. Or, if I switch one of the other monitors to be a fullscreen preview, I can put it in sRGB and then tell Vegas to use that and it looks accurate then, well, as much as my uncalibrated monitor can show it.

If you can afford a DV output device, then watch it there, I think it can also be configured to use specific colour spaces.

Here is an excellent article by Glenn Chan that both discusses the 8-32 issues, and links to articles on various cRGB, sRGB and other colour issues.

http://www.glennchan.info/articles/v...or/v8color.htm

This sounds like it might be what you're seeing, I hope this helps.

[Craig Longman]

Quick follow up, if you do use a cRGB->sRGB filter on the preview window, then be aware that the codecs also except cRGB when they're encoding, so you will need to remember to disable/remove the filter before rendering. Glenn is pretty against using a filter on the output window, for that very reason. The best solution is watching it on a separate monitor using the correct colour space. However, if you're careful, the filter solution works OK.

Vegas really seems to make this issue way, way more difficult than it should be. With their codecs, they know what it's putting out, and they really should have made Vegas more aware of it. It's on the list of things I'm going to submit and complain about RSN... =)

[Steve Boutin]

Thanks Craig. That's exactly what I needed to know. I wasn't aware of that. Yes, this is something that Sony needs to take care of, it's confusing.