H.264 quirk

MalcolmOng

MalcolmOng

Veteran
Hi guys, hopefully you can help me out here -

I have a h.264 compression problem. I output to h.264 directly from adobe premiere 2.0's media encoder, and when i do although the footage quality is great, its too light. The image looks beautifully saturated in my editor, but when outputted it looks painfully washed out.

My settings are mostly default, except for the size of the output file which i alter by changing the image dimensions.

Anyone got any ideas?
 
MalcolmOng said:
Hi guys, hopefully you can help me out here -

I have a h.264 compression problem. I output to h.264 directly from adobe premiere 2.0's media encoder, and when i do although the footage quality is great, its too light. The image looks beautifully saturated in my editor, but when outputted it looks painfully washed out.

My settings are mostly default, except for the size of the output file which i alter by changing the image dimensions.

Anyone got any ideas?
Click to expand...

that's the same problem I have. It's called the "gamma fix" error. The windows encoder for H.264 sets the gamma too bright. Find someone with a mac and encode it on theirs.
 
I'm windows based, and unfortuantely other than my lil ol' ibook i'll have no way of encoding on a mac. Is there any possible fix of the gamma error?
 
i export out of premiere pro 1.5 into h.264 and the image looks fantastic... but the file size is OUTRAGEOUSLY LARGE!!! - this is so irritating as almost every video i watch online is .mov with h.264 compression and it loads immediately. mine would take days!!!


grrrr.... i guess i'm stuck with .wmv...
 
Kyle...have you set your H264 data rate to a reasonable size...the default is automatic in Quicktime Pro, but if you put it to somewhere in the 900-1200kbps range it will bring down your file size. (You didn't say how long your movies were, so I'm assuming they are shorts...long form movies would require lower data rates to keep them within reason.)

Hope that helps.
 
When exporting out...(do not use Share function) chose "Quictime to Movie"...click on options and you'll see all sorts of areas you can adjust.
 
Try my tutorial if you are windows XP based for Mpeg-4

http://alex.nigma.info/?p=135

There is also h.264 in the StaxRip program, but the decoding h.264 in Quicktime is flakey at best unless you have a Quad Intel machine. Mpeg-4 is a better solution for QT7 users at this point.
 
I exported a QT ref file from Avid and then through QT PRO exported a H.264 file. I got the brightness problem too, but I fix it by adding a filter in the export options.

Anyway, I got a problem that is totally weird. When I exported a 4:3 movie before, I got it down to 32mb but with supa quality, just like the HD files on Apple.com. But then I did a 16:9 export out of Avid and when I try to export the file with the same setting (except the aspect ratio) it now takes over TWO DAYS (!) to export a three minute file. And the file gets around 150mb (!).

Now, when I do the same with 4:3 material, it does the same thing... what happened? Also, the 16:9 BIG file is behaving strange when playing it in QT.
Whenever you put the marker somewhere else while playing, it takes around 9 seconds for QT to respond, do it to much and it crashes QT.

What da he...?
 
solution

solution

on premiere pro 2.0 (windows environment) just add to your entire sequence a Gamma Correction filter with a value of 15 .

Do it just before lauching a H.264 compilation, like that you can work with a normal gamma level.

Greg
 
Last edited:
I'll vouch for Demistate's mp4 tutorial! The results are amazing even when compared to .mov's made in quicktime pro. All my uploaded video files are now made using this method. You guys should test it out.
 
I can get very good compression and file sizes with h.264 .mov's (on a pc), but I have the same problem of milky final outputs that I have heard several other PC users express.

I certainly don't want to expect people to change their players settings to view my file so it 'looks the way it should'. I don't notice this issue when viewing .mov's from folks that exported them using a mac. It seems to be an issue for PC users.

I would just like to find a way that folks can use to export an H.264 .mov and have the colors remain as they are supposed to (when exporting using a pc).

Jason
 
One little trick I have found with the gamma issues (mine are most always Sorenson 3 based encodes) is to simply go to Movie>Show Video Controls, or Ctrl+K.

I have no idea why, but as soon as you enable that, and you don't even have to make any adjustments, the video goes back to normal. Could be a bug, I dunno, but it has worked since version 5.

It might work with an h.264 encode. Only problem is that is eats a little processor, and can make your video a little choppy. Well, that and the fact that there is an adjustment meter on the bottom of the screen.

Lastly, when I take something I have encoded with Sorenson which plays lighter and with less contrast in the Quicktime player and open it in an NLE or something like After Effects, it goes back to normal. what looks like a 9R,9G,9B or higher goes back to good old 0,0,0 black.
 
Last edited:
if I'm not mistaken, this is the fact that your video cards are using what it's called "overlay" therefore video can be displayed as per your video card's color corrected view.

once you go to a program that doesn't support a video card's overlay feature, then it goes to that milky washed out view. it happens even in your editor. if you click out of the software to anothe window, it also changes the color. but as soon as you click back to your editor it should go back to the overlay mode.

I believe that windows only allows one application to take over the video Overlay of the graphics card.
 
siniarch said:
if I'm not mistaken, this is the fact that your video cards are using what it's called "overlay" therefore video can be displayed as per your video card's color corrected view.

once you go to a program that doesn't support a video card's overlay feature, then it goes to that milky washed out view. it happens even in your editor. if you click out of the software to anothe window, it also changes the color. but as soon as you click back to your editor it should go back to the overlay mode.

I believe that windows only allows one application to take over the video Overlay of the graphics card.
Click to expand...

Actually, it's exactly the opposite. Windows media player always played my DV encoded videos too dark and overly saturated. When I disabled hardware acceleration in the options for WMP the problem went away. Quicktime when not playing with the sorensen codecs, like with the animation codec does not do that.

Also, if was an overlay issue, enabling the Video Controls wouldn't change anything, and yet it does. So it is an issue with the player.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top