Footage too dark ONLY on premiere at DVinfo.net

Rafael Lopes · August 6th, 2006, 02:55 AM

Hi,

Lately I notice that whenever I'm color correcting HD footage it always looks way darker than the original footage. Actualy, I have a TV monitor hooked to the pc and the footage looks dark there too WHEN I'm editing on premiere. When I'm playing the footage straight from the camera or from the orginal captured file on media player classic the TV monitor displays the exact image that was originaly captured. Now get this. When I end color correcting the footage and I export it to whattever format I want to export and then I play it OUTSIDE PREMIERE it's too milky because the only reference I have when I'm color correcting is the premiere monitor and the TV monitor. This is really weird. This is truly a pain in the ass because when I finish color correcting the footage looks perfect ON PREMIERE and ON THE TV MONITOR, but when I export an mpeg or a quicktime and play it back on the pc monitor and on the tv monitor it looks nothing like what I wanted.

Any advice? Maybe there's a way to mess with the brightness and contrast ONLY on premiere. Please, any help is apreciated.

K. Tessman · August 15th, 2006, 12:21 PM

I've noticed this, too. I'm not sure if it's a gamma calibration issue (either with the Adobe Gamma utility, or the graphics driver). I'd like to figure out how to ensure that in-program playback and exported video look exactly the same on the same machine.

Matt Vanecek · August 30th, 2006, 12:53 PM

I've noticed this when exporting to Quicktime. Brightness or gamma seems to be over-driven in the Quicktime export. Exporting the same sequences unchanged to AVI produces good results, and the AVI played back in WMP or from DVD matches what I see during color correction.

Generally during playback of HD (or SD) inside Premiere, Premiere plays the footage at not-full-quality. To me, it is darker when playing, but when you stop playback, the image is once again rendered at full-quality.

Of course, I use PPro 1.5.x w/stock Cineform HD that came with PPro. Also, I've found Color Finesse in After Effects to be better for color correction. But that's just me...

ciao,
Matt

Christopher Lefchik · August 30th, 2006, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Vanecek

I've noticed this when exporting to Quicktime. Brightness or gamma seems to be over-driven in the Quicktime export. Exporting the same sequences unchanged to AVI produces good results, and the AVI played back in WMP or from DVD matches what I see during color correction.

The QuickTime issue is different from whatever is going on with the Premiere monitor. The problem with brightness when playing QuickTime files is an issue with the QuickTime Player itself, not the QuickTime container or codec used. See this thread: H.264 Brightness / Contrast issue...

Rafael Lopes · September 16th, 2006, 02:44 AM

This happens no matter what format I choose to export. Yesterday I finished editing a video and when I looked at it on the premiere monitor and on the tv it looked exactly like I wanted it to look. I played it on the timeline many times and it looked perfectly...but after I exported it and played it on the desktop it looked nothing like what I wanted (on the video player and on the tv monitor). I'm seriously considering changing to some other editing software. It's impossible to work like this. There's GOTTA be a way to fix this, to calibrate the colors/contrast on premiere only. I don't want to be FORCED to learn another system when I've been working with premiere for over 7 years.

Rafael Lopes · September 16th, 2006, 03:36 AM

Here is what I'm talking about:

http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/8309/1158399244.jpg

The quicktime footage is very different from my origina footage after cc.

Rafael Lopes · September 16th, 2006, 10:56 AM

I've been doing some tests and the only way I can make the exported footage look like the footage on the timeline is by exporting an mpeg it using the adobe media encoder. All other options on "export movie" look different. I also tried exporting a frame and it looks ok. The problem is only when I try exporting using "export movie".

Rafael Lopes · September 19th, 2006, 05:08 AM

I just found out a new aditional problem. When I capture the footage on premiere it looks way darker then the original. I played the footage straight from the camera to a TV set and it looked the way it was shot, the way I liked it...but when I captured it on premiere and played it to the same tv set it looked way darker. I copied some tests to my usb stick and tried to view the footage on different computers and it looked dark in all of them.

Rafael Lopes · September 19th, 2006, 02:44 PM

Ok, I just captured footage with Vegas and it still dark. It MUST be something to do with the graphic card. I already reinstalled it but no go. Any advice on a GOOD and FAST graphic card to edit with premiere pro 2.0?

Graham Hickling · September 19th, 2006, 10:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rafael Lopes

...but when I captured it on premiere and played it to the same tv set it looked way darker. I copied some tests to my usb stick and tried to view the footage on different computers and it looked dark in all of them.

When you say "Capture" are you doing this by firewire? Because thats just a bit-to-bit file transfer and wont change the color of anything.

How are you playing back to the TV, from the camera and the computer? If you transfer your edited files back onto the videocamera and play them from there are they still dark on not?

I'd guess that your videocard playback settings - gamma or whatever - are a bit out of whack.

Rafael Lopes · September 22nd, 2006, 07:42 AM

Yes, I'm capturing via firewire.
Ways I played the video and it still looked dark:
- from the premiere timeline to an external tv set (via s-video)
- from the vegas timeline to an external tv set (via s-video)
- from windows media player to an external tv set (via s-video)
- from media player classic to an external tv set (via s-video)
- from vlc player to an external tv set (via s-video)
- directly on the premiere monitor
- directly on the vegas monitor
- directly on windows media player
- directly on vlc player

Ways I played the video and it looked like it was supposed to look (like the original footage):
- from the camera to different tv sets
- on the camera lcd
- copied the footage after I captured it to a DVD and played it on my (non-pc) dvd player

Most probable conclusion: the F*@#% graphic card!

K. Tessman · September 22nd, 2006, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graham Hickling

I'd guess that your videocard playback settings - gamma or whatever - are a bit out of whack.

Like Rafael, I've come to this conclusion, too. Although unlike Rafael, for me the same video file plays back lighter in Windows Media Player, etc.--it only exhibits the slightly darker appearance in Adobe applications (Premier, After Effects), leading me to wonder if there's some different way in which they handle playback, overlay, etc., and what I might do to correct the discrepancy.

Kevin Janisch · September 22nd, 2006, 11:19 AM

Rafael,

I read about this a while back and it took me a few minutes to find the site, but it's not your graphics card. It has to do with "setup" differences between the camcorder, TV, and NLE. Read about it here:

http://www.signvideo.com/dv-black-le...tsc-part-2.htm

Kevin

Rafael Lopes · September 22nd, 2006, 02:34 PM

At the end it WAS the graphic card. I downloaded the 91.31 forceware and the problem is solved!

Alec Eriksson · October 2nd, 2006, 04:15 PM

I've just noticed that I too am having a similar problem to you all. I'm capturing my video via firewire and Premiere (CS2), editting in Premiere, and then rendering the editted footage via "Export..." as DV AVI.

Seems like ONLY Premiere is playing the footage too dark and I've just noticed this because over the weekend I was experimenting with my DV camera shooting in manual mode and intentionally underexposing for better color latitude. On prior projects I've usually shot in some form of auto exposure which kept the footage similarly exposed across clips as well as generally closer to the final exposure and not as noticable (though I thought maybe I was going crazy when previous footage looked a hint too bright).

I'm on a NVidia based workstation with integrated graphics so I'll try updating the drivers but now I'm quite worried.

August 6th, 2006, 02:55 AM	#1
Rafael Lopes Trustee Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Rio de Janeiro Posts: 1,239	Footage too dark ONLY on premiere Hi, Lately I notice that whenever I'm color correcting HD footage it always looks way darker than the original footage. Actualy, I have a TV monitor hooked to the pc and the footage looks dark there too WHEN I'm editing on premiere. When I'm playing the footage straight from the camera or from the orginal captured file on media player classic the TV monitor displays the exact image that was originaly captured. Now get this. When I end color correcting the footage and I export it to whattever format I want to export and then I play it OUTSIDE PREMIERE it's too milky because the only reference I have when I'm color correcting is the premiere monitor and the TV monitor. This is really weird. This is truly a pain in the ass because when I finish color correcting the footage looks perfect ON PREMIERE and ON THE TV MONITOR, but when I export an mpeg or a quicktime and play it back on the pc monitor and on the tv monitor it looks nothing like what I wanted. Any advice? Maybe there's a way to mess with the brightness and contrast ONLY on premiere. Please, any help is apreciated.

August 15th, 2006, 12:21 PM	#2
K. Tessman Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2005 Posts: 66	I've noticed this, too. I'm not sure if it's a gamma calibration issue (either with the Adobe Gamma utility, or the graphics driver). I'd like to figure out how to ensure that in-program playback and exported video look exactly the same on the same machine.

August 30th, 2006, 12:53 PM	#3
Matt Vanecek Major Player Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Denton, TX Posts: 334	I've noticed this when exporting to Quicktime. Brightness or gamma seems to be over-driven in the Quicktime export. Exporting the same sequences unchanged to AVI produces good results, and the AVI played back in WMP or from DVD matches what I see during color correction. Generally during playback of HD (or SD) inside Premiere, Premiere plays the footage at not-full-quality. To me, it is darker when playing, but when you stop playback, the image is once again rendered at full-quality. Of course, I use PPro 1.5.x w/stock Cineform HD that came with PPro. Also, I've found Color Finesse in After Effects to be better for color correction. But that's just me... ciao, Matt

September 16th, 2006, 02:44 AM	#5
Rafael Lopes Trustee Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Rio de Janeiro Posts: 1,239	This happens no matter what format I choose to export. Yesterday I finished editing a video and when I looked at it on the premiere monitor and on the tv it looked exactly like I wanted it to look. I played it on the timeline many times and it looked perfectly...but after I exported it and played it on the desktop it looked nothing like what I wanted (on the video player and on the tv monitor). I'm seriously considering changing to some other editing software. It's impossible to work like this. There's GOTTA be a way to fix this, to calibrate the colors/contrast on premiere only. I don't want to be FORCED to learn another system when I've been working with premiere for over 7 years.

September 16th, 2006, 03:36 AM	#6
Rafael Lopes Trustee Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Rio de Janeiro Posts: 1,239	Here is what I'm talking about: http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/8309/1158399244.jpg The quicktime footage is very different from my origina footage after cc.

September 16th, 2006, 10:56 AM	#7
Rafael Lopes Trustee Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Rio de Janeiro Posts: 1,239	I've been doing some tests and the only way I can make the exported footage look like the footage on the timeline is by exporting an mpeg it using the adobe media encoder. All other options on "export movie" look different. I also tried exporting a frame and it looks ok. The problem is only when I try exporting using "export movie".

September 19th, 2006, 05:08 AM	#8
Rafael Lopes Trustee Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Rio de Janeiro Posts: 1,239	I just found out a new aditional problem. When I capture the footage on premiere it looks way darker then the original. I played the footage straight from the camera to a TV set and it looked the way it was shot, the way I liked it...but when I captured it on premiere and played it to the same tv set it looked way darker. I copied some tests to my usb stick and tried to view the footage on different computers and it looked dark in all of them.

September 19th, 2006, 02:44 PM	#9
Rafael Lopes Trustee Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Rio de Janeiro Posts: 1,239	Ok, I just captured footage with Vegas and it still dark. It MUST be something to do with the graphic card. I already reinstalled it but no go. Any advice on a GOOD and FAST graphic card to edit with premiere pro 2.0?

September 22nd, 2006, 07:42 AM	#11
Rafael Lopes Trustee Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Rio de Janeiro Posts: 1,239	Yes, I'm capturing via firewire. Ways I played the video and it still looked dark: - from the premiere timeline to an external tv set (via s-video) - from the vegas timeline to an external tv set (via s-video) - from windows media player to an external tv set (via s-video) - from media player classic to an external tv set (via s-video) - from vlc player to an external tv set (via s-video) - directly on the premiere monitor - directly on the vegas monitor - directly on windows media player - directly on vlc player Ways I played the video and it looked like it was supposed to look (like the original footage): - from the camera to different tv sets - on the camera lcd - copied the footage after I captured it to a DVD and played it on my (non-pc) dvd player Most probable conclusion: the F*@#% graphic card!

September 22nd, 2006, 11:19 AM	#13
Kevin Janisch Major Player Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Monterey, CA Posts: 406	Rafael, I read about this a while back and it took me a few minutes to find the site, but it's not your graphics card. It has to do with "setup" differences between the camcorder, TV, and NLE. Read about it here: http://www.signvideo.com/dv-black-le...tsc-part-2.htm Kevin

September 22nd, 2006, 02:34 PM	#14
Rafael Lopes Trustee Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Rio de Janeiro Posts: 1,239	At the end it WAS the graphic card. I downloaded the 91.31 forceware and the problem is solved!

October 2nd, 2006, 04:15 PM	#15
Alec Eriksson New Boot Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: MD Posts: 16	I've just noticed that I too am having a similar problem to you all. I'm capturing my video via firewire and Premiere (CS2), editting in Premiere, and then rendering the editted footage via "Export..." as DV AVI. Seems like ONLY Premiere is playing the footage too dark and I've just noticed this because over the weekend I was experimenting with my DV camera shooting in manual mode and intentionally underexposing for better color latitude. On prior projects I've usually shot in some form of auto exposure which kept the footage similarly exposed across clips as well as generally closer to the final exposure and not as noticable (though I thought maybe I was going crazy when previous footage looked a hint too bright). I'm on a NVidia based workstation with integrated graphics so I'll try updating the drivers but now I'm quite worried.