Dark Rendering
 

I'm using AspectHD and when I render the footage, the footage becomes significantly darker. If I have an undrendered clip it is much lighter than the rendered version. If I apply an effect to the rendered clip, it becomes lighter again, without me ever having tweaked the effect.

Sounds weird, please file a trouble ticket at www.cineform.com/support

I've actually had a problem similar to this myself. I assumed it was just the way Cineform/Adobe behaved together, but maybe I should file a trouble-ticket.

It's not exactly the same thing, per se. However my video footage has always played back brighter/darker (can't remember when is which) when it is either paused versus when it is playing.

This is just in the Adobe preview monitor though...

The second issue is due to the way NVIDIA handles YUV video. Unchecking the ForceYUV mode box in Playback settings will fix that if you are running a recent build of Cineform.

Craig, that is the NVidia overlay issue, the graphics card gets the YUV math wrong. In the latest builds now 3.2.1, you can run the output as RGB, apparantly games use RGB so NVidia knows what that is. ;)

David, it's not just nVidia, as our Parhelia APVe does exactly the same thing with the YUV. It's light in preview mode in PP3, and the colors/saturation/brightness are not the way the video actually appears, but become darker and correct when paused. Since we do color correction in AE, we've ignored it, but it is disconcerting to see. It's only in these last versions we've seen this behavior.

Our Parahelias don't do that. You likely have a setup issue. We recommended the Parahelia card as it was one this they got correct. Which version do you think this appeared?

Now its Doing Something Different
 

So the only thing similar to what Mike said was the "use video systems RGB", so I unchecked that box.

At the time, I'm pretty sure I didn't notice anything, but just now as I'm scrubbing through the timeline it appears to have corrected itself. Maybe it just took a minute to apply?

Now the Rendered version and the Unrendered versions are similar, and please note, only similar. The unrendered version now has a very very slight green boost over the whole picture. (like if the green gamma curve were lifter slightly)

P.S. there is still the magenta cast when playing

That is not what Mike suggested. Undo and get more recent software, and if the problem persists, file a trouble ticket.

It is not what Mike suggested, but coincidentally it did fix my problem (mostly)...

I am running version 5.1.2 build 92 of CineForm's AspectHD, is there a newer update?

I have filed a trouble ticket.

In the mean time I will have to make do with my makeshift solution. I need to Color Grade my footage, and deadlines are fast approaching.

Is there any significant reason I should not continue my work with this solution? It does seem to be 99% corrected.

Thank you again for all your help.

5.2.1 build 98 is the latest. If you are working fine, stay where you are until the project is finished.

Build 98 already? Jeez, I just got 95a installed a couple days ago. You guys are just too fast!

I really don't think I had changed the setup on the card, which worked perfectly under the earlier ProspectHD versions, but with 3.2 (and the beta versions before it) it changed. It was about when we went to YUV

We have always been YUV, we just added RGB for NVidia cards. If you select "Force YUV" it will behave as it did before.

That's what I meant: it was just about the time we selected "force YUV" that it changed...which I did because it was not working correctly (and you suggested as a fix). I'll keep checking things, but it is a bit odd.