Colour colour colour !?!?!?!?

J

Jay Laville

Well-known member
Hi guys am pulling my hair out cant figure out what to do.

I did a video and edited in FCP, wanted background black and done some crops and in some clips put merge two clips together, on Mac screen looks great cant see where I cropped, and black looks black, I then exported to quicktime h264 and watched as a self contained movie in quicktime, still looks great. I then upload to vimeo, still looks great. I then go round to my friends he has a Dell laptop and showed him the video from vimeo and it looks so washed out and you can see the lines where I cropped and looks horrific, black looks washed out grey.

Video here: http://vimeo.com/5837155

So I view other video like filmfellas : http://vimeo.com/3107303

where I know they use black blakground and theirs look fine. What am I doing wrong, and which is correct, if I were to put on tv would it match mac or pc, and if I want for web do I do a video where i up the contrast for pc and do a different video for mac or is there a monitor I can buy which will give me accurate reading as am so confused.

Please help thanks
 
Have you tested it on other computers besides your friend's? It looks fine to me. My first guess is that there's something wrong with your friend's laptop (too bright, wrong gamma).

Does it look similar when you play the original video through Quicktime?

What version of Flash is your friend using? And what browser? Old versions of Flash don't color manage so can cause problems.

Etc.

What am I doing wrong, and which is correct, if I were to put on tv would it match mac or pc, and if I want for web do I do a video where i up the contrast for pc and do a different video for mac or is there a monitor I can buy which will give me accurate reading as am so confused.
Click to expand...

It'll match neither. Your monitor uses a different color system than a TV. If you want to an accurate preview, you need to get a broadcast monitor.

For web, you'll always have slight difference due to the all the different hardware that everyone uses and the fact that most users don't calibrate their monitors. However, color managed applications (like Quicktime) should get you as close as possible.
 
A quick update. I download the full resolution video you uploaded the Vimeo. At 00:22 (and in some other parts as well) I can see the background is slightly gray at the top and you can tell where you cropped. I can see it in Quicktime and VLC on a 2.2 gamma system. If you disable the Final Cut Studio color compatibility in Quicktime, you can see it slightly easier. Viewing it on a 1.8 gamma system makes it more apparent. Looking at the vimeo footage again in full screen mode, I can see it as well.

Solution: crush the blacks further on those segments. Also get VLC so you can double check outside of Quicktime.
 
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Hi cools, thanks so much for the advice, am going to have a mess about with the blacks now, and update you, much appreciated :thumbsup:
 
I've noticed on most PC's the gamma settings in QuickTime Player are too high. Blacks are always washed out and easily expose those kind of things. I hate it because it makes everything look so flat and fugly. I hope QuickTime X finally rids of all that gamma bug crap.
 
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