Weird problem with program monitor picture
 

Hi all, my program monitor on CS4 (not sure what its called, the top right by default) has a weird problem. Whenever I play something on it, the colours appear washed out and different (say like if you put a translucent green box over the video track). The clip returns to normal if selected (ie with the handles around the footage). I will attach screenshots in a moment. Anyone else have this? Thanks.

Here are two screenshots, one of when the problem is in action and another of what happens when the clip is selected. Also I might add that the footage is fine when exported.

When you "play" the footage I believe Premiere is switching to an overlay mode - so my guess would be that there's a video card driver issue with the overlay. Do you have the latest drivers installed (or vise versa - does it happen with older drivers also)?

What kind of footage is this - avi, mpeg, Cineform?

Thanks for the response. The latest video drivers appear to be installed on my computer. I haven't tried this with all formats, but it appears to happen regardless of what format footage it is. So far I have just been experimenting after getting CS4 so I do not have any additional footage to try.

Anyone else have advice?

At the top right of the program monitor, there's a triangular flyout...
Check to see the playback quality option...There should be Draft, Automatic, and best...
Perhaps draft is selected??

But yes, my other guess would be video card driver issues..

Good luck!!!

Hmm, doesn't seem to be it. It displays this regardless of the quality mode.

Shot in the dark Colin.......

But i noticed that you've got a PAL framesize for the bars, yet i'm under the impression you're working in an NTSC timeline...

Is it possible that you're mixing an matching different colour profiles from PAL to NTSC?

Reinstalled video card drivers, no change.

Peter, as far as I can tell the bars have the same settings as the project.
Thanks for your help, hope I don't have to try reinstalling Premiere...

This is likely caused by strange settings for your video overlay. If you go into the advancced settings for your graphics card, you should be able to tweak the brightness, contrast, gamma, etc. Try reseting to defaults first. Tweak from there. The results of those changes aren't always apparent until you reboot the program.

Didn't work either, thanks for trying though...so now I know it actually probably is an overlay issue, where can I go from here?

edit: tried reinstalling premiere, no luck
also, I am running a centrino 2 2.4ghz processor, 1gb ram, and the mobile Intel X4500MHD graphics card if that helps

Some questions (searching for clues): What operating system and video card are you using? Do you have a single monitor or multiple ones? Do you have any video codec packs, or video hardware (like a Matrox card) installed? Did you/do you have a previous version of Premiere installed (and if so did it work OK?)

Edit: sorry didnt see your edit above about your graphics card.

Hi Graham, the OS is XP Pro SP3 on a ThinkPad X200 laptop - no hardware, single monitor, and I believe I've got the K-Lite Codec Pack on here. Also if it matters VLC. Thanks for your time!

Hey Colin....

I've always distrusted codec packs....
I'd personally get rid of it, and only install necessary codecs, as per job requirements.

Good luck!!!

I agree! That K-lite codec pack would be very high on my index of suspicion (just because those weird colors look a lot like video info is being misinterpreted ... suggesting an issue with the either the videocard drivers or the codec).

Do you get that effect playing back with any other software - Virtualdub, Windows mediaplayer etc?

The problem is that Premiere's overlay is a bit "different" from the overlay in, say, Windows Mediaplayer ...I'm not really sure how it works.