h.264 always washed out...? Whats a good alternative..? Cheers

D

Drcoffee

Well-known member
h.274 codec is always washed out and desaturated on my Apple Cinema & PC display. I've given up with it, whats a good alternative..?
 
it's washed out because you aren't color correcting with a broadcast monitor. it's not the codec's fault.
 
Its not for broadcast though, its for viewing on Mac's and PC's online.... should I still need a broadcast monitor for this..?
 
Why are you worried about a little wash out if its only for view on computer monitors? It is going to look different on probably every monitor out there. People mostly don't calibrate their systems well. Just because you make it look good on your computer monitor doesn't mean its going to look good anywhere else.

If you color correct and monitor using a broadcast monitor you can at least know its as good as it should be in a theoretical sense. Then when it leaves your environment, you know there's not much more you could do. But with your computer monitors you don't know that its leaving your environment at its best. That's really all it comes down to. But again, how bad is the wash out exactly? Even if noticeable, if its not ruining the image, then it might not be worth stressing over considering the final delivery.

Cheers.
 
Cheers for the advice Varicam.
I was wondering, is there a difference between setting the colours in FCP for PAL Broadcast and setting colours for h.264 online video...?

Or is a colour grade set on a broadcast monitor supposed to be universal across all media..? So anything it looks wrong on is the hardwares fault..?
 
Thanks for the link Larry, I've seen and tried that method before, to no effect.. I've test their examples, which also does nothing for me
 
Drcoffee said:
Thanks for the link Larry, I've seen and tried that method before, to no effect.. I've test their examples, which also does nothing for me
Click to expand...

On PC... it works, but I can't save it changed in QT Pro??? Anyone else have this problem?
 
Drcoffee said:
Or is a colour grade set on a broadcast monitor supposed to be universal across all media..? So anything it looks wrong on is the hardwares fault..?
Click to expand...

As already mentioned, it will go across everything. You want to use the broadcast monitor to build a "best case scenario" version of your project. So everything should be legal (broadcast safe), all the colors to the hues and saturations you want. And then you output that and hope that people playing it back take the time to setup their equipment properly (which isn't too often, but you can't control that).

Cheers.
 
Would I be better off using a standard CRT television for colour correction over an apple cinema display? I'm priced out off broadcast monitors.
 
Yeah, a CRT TV setup using bars will show be closer to accurate than a computer monitor but it still won't be accurate.


-A
 
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