Canvas brightness doesn't match FCP output files

Question

After spending hundreds of hours trying to color correct in the FCP canvas only to create output files (MPEG2 for DVDs and MOV files for online stuff) which are either too dark or too light, too saturated or too bland, I finally realized that what I'm seeing in my FCP canvas window does not match - at all - the final, compressed file when I export using Compressor to an avi, an mpeg, or a Quicktime MOV file.
I invested in a good Gretamacbeth screen calibration device (Eye-One Display 2) only to find that the problem is not my monitor or its calibration, but the software.
I can output to a Quicktime file and play the same clip, side-by-side, with the identical clip in FCP, as viewed through the canvas, on the same monitor. Invariably the FCP canvas image is darker, has higher contrast, and shows much richer color saturation. The Quicktime movie is too bright, and too washed-out looking in the colors compared with the FCP canvas. And when I output to an mpeg2 and author a DVD using DVD Studio Pro, and then pop the completed DVD into my Mac (or TV/DVD player) and view it, it always turns out much brighter and more washed out than what my FCP canvas had led me to believe.
To try to compensate for this, I manually brightened my monitor somewhat and re-edited my footage, trying to boost luma and chroma levels as much as I could without exceeding broadcast standard limits, only to find that now some of the resulting DVD was oversaturated and too dark. I REALLY need an accurate canvas on which to edit; it's impossible to create anything worthwhile if I have nothing else to do than to simply guess how every clip is going to look and pray that the final result isn't too far off.
Has anyone else encountered this? It's a real problem for me. I'm using FCP 5.04 on a dual-processor G5 with 5 GB of RAM and a dual-monitor setup - an Apple 17" monitor and an Apple 23" cinematic display.
Any input or ideas would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help!
Powermac G5   Mac OS X (10.4.3)  

Answer 1

Thanks to both of you, Steve and Shane, for your quick replies.
I always render as I go, and I disabled overlays in the canvas long ago. And I realize that calibration is a key issue, especially for web files, and that the view produced in the FCP canvas isn't a full-resolution representation of the underlying digital file.
But when I'm editing my actors' faces and adjusting their colors to get just the right amount of pink rosiness in their cheeks, and carefully setting the right light levels in the background, and then I output my file to any format and view the resulting file on the SAME CRT on which I did my editing, suddenly their faces have lost all their color, and the background is too light and washed out, even though I'm viewing the thing on the same screen I used to edit it.
So no matter how my monitor is calibrated, I believe that any high-quality output file that FCP creates should resemble, at least in terms of color and brightness levels, the image I edited in the canvas moments earlier, at least if viewed on the same screen. I realize that resolution will vary and one might be more blurry or whatever; that's not the problem.
In fact, if I use FCP to create a Quicktime file and an mpeg-2 for a DVD and then view that file on any of my PC monitors and on my television via my DVD player, it looks remarkably consistent. In other words, the output file looks fairly close, in terms of chroma and luma, when viewed either on my Mac (with the Quicktime player), my PC, or even my TV (viewed as a DVD). The only thing that looks different is if I compare this file to the file I edited, as seen on the FCP canvas, where the colors look much richer and the contrast is a lot darker. Even when viewing both files on the same computer screen, one in FCP and the other in Quicktime, the FCP one looks substantially different. Have others run into a similar problem, or is it just me? I can't believe professional editors have to resort to always guessing whether what they see in the canvas will look anything like their final FCP output, at least if they're viewing it on the same monitor.
So I guess I'm really wondering whether there's some way to independently adjust the visible chroma and luma levels in the canvas itself, to configure them properly, so that what I see when I'm editing will more closely match the files I generate when I'm done, when viewing them both on the same screen.
Thanks again for any light (or contrast!) you can shine on this problem.