Brightness problems with Mac and PC

K

Kermit

New member
Hi, I've got a problem in my workflow between Mac and PC.

First of all I import some DVCProHD Footage into Final Cut on my Mac. Than I export this footage and open it in After Effects (CS4) on my PC. Now, without applying any changes to the footage, I render it out from After Effects. When I now open the original Footage and my After Effects rendered File in After Effects on my Mac, the PC rendered Files is a bit darker than the original.
It doesn't matter if I use DVCProHD, ProRes, Animation or Motion JPEG.

The only way I find out working, is to first open the footage on After Effects on my Mac and convert it to a tiff-sequence. So the PC can read the sequence without using Quicktime and so there is no gamma shift. But this isn't a good workflow, because i had to convert the video multiple times and had a tousands of tiff files.

What I want is a simple Way to export files from Final Cut or After Effects on a Mac, edit them on my PC and reimport them to Final Cut or After Effects on Mac, without getting any Gamma shifts.
 
I may be wrong about this but I think there is a distinct difference in gamma between any PC and a Mac (so if you're editing footage on the two different platforms you are going to see this).
 
That is my understanding as well. PC gamma shows a different and darker curve than MAC.

Frustrating it can be.

What happens when the Footage is sent back from your After Effects suite to your mac?
 
I have this issue and have yet to find a workflow to correct it.

I edit PC and export a full rez QT (.mov) so that my Post House can master it via FCP thru a Kona Card to tape.

When material is broadcast (TV) it is always too "bright and light".
 
rook said:
That is my understanding as well. PC gamma shows a different and darker curve than MAC.

Frustrating it can be.

What happens when the Footage is sent back from your After Effects suite to your mac?
Click to expand...


In the stills world, there are two elements involved, the image profile, and calibrating the monitor.

One would expect that with a calibrated monitor, that whatever the default monitor settings are, that they would be corrected by the calibration process.

Also, if one has 'scopes' in one's NLE package (either primiere or FCP (not Express...)) that one could look at the signal and make sure the values are correct for whatever output the material was targeting.

As for video 'profile', I believe there are some for the various video formats, NTSC, PAL, etc. but I've not gotten into that area to much...
 
Scopes become meaningless because of the different ways MAC and PC interpret the image.

I have done tests that confirm this. The scope in Premiere matches the scope in FCP and also the hardware scope. The "light/bright" issue still occurs.
 
There's a gamma issue (1.8 vs 2.2) between the two systems. Even going from FCP to AE on the same Mac can exhibit issues with some codecs. Image sequences might be a possible solution, or 10-bit uncompressed QTs might fix you up too. You can change your Mac gamma in your Display preferences (go to Calibrate and set your gamma to 2.2). This might help you see things more similarly.
 
The issue for me is not seeing the two similarly on 'puter screens.

It is the processing done in a MAC (FCP) to files created on my PCs that "alters" how the video looks when broadcast. It converts the gamma and luma in the process.
 
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