H.264 videos washed out colours/gamma bug. Does this really fix it?

Yea, that old chestnut. Having come up with this topic: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1358418&start=0&tstart=0 where someone claimed to fix the problem by using the third party x264encoder for Mac and setting nclc atom to 6-1-6 and making sure the gamma 2.2 setting was unchecked. Although no one else apparently confirmed his solution worked and the topic eventually died.
I later found however after following a link someone posted this article: http://byteful.com/blog/2010/07/how-to-fix-the-h264-gamma-brightness-bug-in-quic ktime/
In it he apparently recommends the same course of action except he (judging by the screen shot) left it at the default of no nclc atom but made sure the gamma 2.2 setting was checked. Some comments seem to confirm it works.
The x264encoder is available for QuickTime from here: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/x264encoder.html
I cannot test it currently. But added to my problem is I usually do my encoding on Windows anyway, and I use Handbrake to do the encodes and I get the same issues. So can anyone with the issue test these methods and see if one or the other works?
Either that or does anyone have another definitive fix for this problem?

I don't know why I bother.

Similar Messages

H.264 Codec making Videos "Washed Out".

Hi guys, I am compressing a normal .mov file using H.264 compression and it always makes the video appear much lighter and washed out. I've tried everything to fix this. Any ideas?

I got jagged edges when I did it in H.264 and .MOV. I just did the "same type" of editing in Pinnacle 12 Ultimate and was totally different. No jagged edges.
I will say, I can't seem to find a good software that does 1280x720 at 30fps that is for the normal user, i.e. not using Final Cut Pro, Adobe anything, or Sony Vegas.
Oh well. It's just for Facebook anyways.
Good luck.
I'm sorry I couldn't be much help. Maybe if you use the color correction options before you export the video file?

Washed out colour

Hi Everyone
When i try to alter washed out colour in my footage using Shadow/Highlight or Gamma ,i get a comb effect on the edge of the subject and if i use auto colour or auto levels ,the colour isn't stable.I need a really good solution to the problem if anyone can help.Thanks

SpeedGrade is the best solution.
http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adobe-at-ibc-2013/adobe-premiere-pro-cc-speedgrade-cc-direct-lin k/

I have Adobe Elements 9 and I used to be able to export HD 1080p videos with no issue. But recently, when I export using H.264 MPEG or MPEG 2, which I normally used, the high resolution videos come out very choppy. How can i fix this?

I have Adobe Elements 9 and I used to be able to export HD 1080p videos with no issue. But recently, when I export using H.264 MPEG or MPEG 2, which I normally used, the high resolution videos come out very choppy. How can i fix this?

mr
Are you running the 9.0.1 Update of the program and on what computer operating system is it running?
Is your video card/graphics card driver up to date according to the manufacturer of the card?
Is your computer optimized, including maintenance of pile ups of preview files, conformed audio files, and conformed video files?
Do you have the latest version of QuickTime installed on your computer with Premiere Elements 9.0/9.0.1?
What are your project settings and what are the properties of your source media? When you say that "used to be able to export...." is that on the same computer, same brand/model/settings for the camera recording the video now in use, same Premiere Elements 9.0/9.0.1?
Where player are you using for the playback of these exports?
Please give us more details on the size of the projects (then and now) as well as details of the customized export settings in your Share/Computer/ route. Premiere Elements 9.0/9.0.1 is only a 32 bit application running in 32 bit or 64 bit system. Not sure if computer resources might be taxed more so now than before.
More later.
ATR

Uneven brightness + washed out colours

I got a new iBook G4 12in a week ago. Love everything about it apart from the screen. As soon as I booted it for the first time I noticed the screen wasn't particularly bright and that the colours were washed out. It's usable but not of a level I'd expect from Apple. It's bad even under standard office fluorescent lighting.
A colleague with an identical iBook noticed my screen was a bit dim and said he usually runs his iBook at a low brightness level (two notches off bottom). If I did that on mine, I'd struggle to see anything! It has to be run at full or just below full brightness to be usable.
I've also noticed that the bottom of the screen is brighter than the top. This took me a week to notice so isn't a huge problem. At the bottom corners there are very light streaks - it's a bit like the screen is being run from two halogen spotlights placed underneath the plastic surround!
Should I phone Apple's support and get this fixed, or is it to be expected? Research online shows half the people have a similar problem with washed out colours, while half claim their screens are bright and vibrant.

I called AppleCare last night. First, the guy asked me to do a couple of adjustments. He suspected that the display was damp. So he asked me to turn off the system, take out the battery, and then discharge the whole machine completely by pressing Shift, Ctrl, Alt, and the power button at the same time. But this trick didn't solve the problem. Second, he asked me to put the installer cd in and adjust something. It didn't work either. After this, he got me a system engineer on the phone, and he said there were two options: I could either send it in for repair, which would be quicker, or exchange it for a new unit, which would be slower, about 10-12 days. So I decided to exchange it for a new one. They are sending me the packing labels. Then I will send this one back. They will send a new one to me.
I suspect that displays with such problems are recycled ones. I mean they are taken from junk ones with an okay display. I hope this is not true. The display on my three-year-old Compaq still looks better than this one.
Apart from this small defect, my new computer works really well, and I love it. I am just a little disappointed with the product quality of Apple computers. It seems that they have put a lot of effort in the design of the appearance of their computers. But there is some degree of negligience on other aspects of their computers. That's why this forum is full of complaints.
Personally I think it is better to buy a computer directly in a store. It is easier to return or get a new one.

If a buddy's screename is faded (in the offline section), but a video icon is still next to the screename, and if you right click on the name "video chat" is an option, what does this mean? it is the only one on my whole list that has this.

if a buddy's screename is faded (in the offline section), but a video icon is still next to the screename, and if you right click on the name "video chat" is an option, what does this mean? it is the only one on my whole list that has this.

Hi,
It could be some sort of "flagging" issue where either the AIM Servers have gone out of sync and you are getting two lots of info (There are about three or four servers involved with getting data to your Buddy list)
I can also see the possibility where you have a Contact in your Address Book who has two Screen Names.
You have one in one group and in another they appear to be Off Line. However iChat will still Link them and Show their Capabilities when you Right Click.
One way of checking this is to double click them to open a Text Chat Window.
At the top is the Recipients Bar (See View Menu when Text Chat is Open).
This gives you the option to chose a different Buddy Name if the contact has two (It offers To and From options if you both have Multiple Accounts).
Pic of an Old Chat to someone with Multiple "Names"
They have an @Mac.com name and Jabber ID (As it is an Old Chat the Jabber one is Off Line and their @mac.com name is currently "Away"
You can see I have a Google and three AIM Logins I could use to Speak to them.
9:48 PM Sunday; December 4, 2011
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"
 iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

Traded in my iPhone for a different brand of phone. I had no idea that I had to sign out of iMessage before doing this. Now, my old phone is gone and my new phone cannot receive texts from people who have iphones and had me as a contact before. They try t

Traded in my iPhone for a different brand of phone. I had no idea that I had to sign out of iMessage before doing this. Now, my old phone is gone and my new phone cannot receive texts from people who have iphones and had me as a contact before. They try to send an iMessage and I have no way to receive an iMessgae now. On some server somwhere my AppleID still tells people they should send me iMessages. What is the solution to this issue? Deleting my AppleID would work to solve this issue, but I cannot ever delete the ID? What can Apple do for this?

If you did not erase your apps and data before getting rid of your old phone, try using Find My Phone and erasing everything remotely. See if this works.

H.264 gamma shift/washed out colours on export

I know this has been discussed before but I've been researching this topic for the past two hours and still can't find a solution.
I have .mov source files from a Canon 7D. Exporting them from PP CS5.5 (Mac OS X - Lion, 10.7.4) in h.264 or by 'matching sequence settings' results in a gamma shift/desaturated colours. Playing the resulting h.264 file in QuickTime Player, VLC, Elmedia all result in the same colour shift so this is not an issue with QT simply interpreting the gamma incorrectly.
Uploading to Vimeo and Youtube results in the same gamma shift. The monitor I'm using is not calibrated but when puling up a VLC window of the exported file next to the Program Monitor (on the same monitor) shows that there is a definite difference. Below is a screenshot.
Is there any way to produce an exported file for Vimeo use that reproduces the gamma as I see it in the Program Monitor?
Any help would be massively appreciated.
Thanks.

Did you use Quicktime's H.264 export option? Or just standard h.264 using the .mp4 container? If you used the Quicktime h.264 the option itself is flawed. Here are some links regarding the issue.
http://provideocoalition.com/index.php/cmg_blogs/story/brightness_issues_with_h264_quickti me_movies/
http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/2008/06/fix-quicktime-gamma-shift/
http://imnotbruce.blogspot.com/2011/07/fixing-quicktimes-gamma-export-problem.html
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1358418?start=0&tstart=0
http://byteful.com/blog/2010/07/how-to-fix-the-h264-gamma-brightness-bug-in-quicktime/
https://discussions.apple.com/message/8551140?messageID=8551140#8551140?messageID=8551140
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2292530?start=0&tstart=0
If you read around the net a lot of people have had this issue with h264. A couple of the articles I posted are supposed to "fix" the problem although I haven't ever tried any of them myself. I've never experinced a gamma shift when using the standard h.264 format option in Premiere, however if you have already used that option and you're still having issues then I have no clue what is going on. However when I import ProRes files into Premiere they don't appear washed out, but when I play them in Quicktime or VLC they do appear washed out. I've always just assumed Premiere was somehow correcting it, because when I export my video to mpeg-2 for playback on our server it looks like it looked in Premiere.
From what I have read though the reason the Quicktime format does this when using the h.264 codec looks and looks washed out is because of a incorrect gamma tag. But Premiere isn't affected/fooled by this like most media players are. According from how they made it sound on provideo and the one other site I read it on anyways.

Has anyone solved the "washed out colors" / gamma correction problem?

I'm trying to create a high-quality slide show from pictures. I've tried iPhoto, iMovie, and FotoMagico. What they have in common in the Quicktime engine for compression. There seems to be a problem with washed-out colors - across all programs - when trying to export the slideshow. I've tried many different codecs (H.264, x264, Photo-JPEG, PNG, JPEG-2000), as well as a variety of settings and filter corrections. Nothing has been effective. Last year, I was able to use FotoMagico with the Photo-JPEG codec, and the photos looked great. This year, things are not working (see photo below). The folks at FotoMagico attribute problems to Quicktime. And since I've tried creating the slideshow on a variety of platforms, I have to agree.
And yes, I know this is a common problem - I've read many google links - but I wanted to see if there was any current workarounds / solutions.
Any other options?
Thanks.
http://www.smugmug.com/photos/1140668576_UHnXX-L.png

Seriously Apple... this has been an issue for many years now!
Why can't this be fixed once and for all?
The ridiculous thing is that VLC play H.264 videos with much better colors than QT.
This question has been asked many many times over the years and i have yet seen a single reasonable explanation from Apple.
Here's a quick test of a color image screen recorded to a mov and viewed on screen together with the TIFF image (screen shot of everything in OS X 10.6.6)
The washed out look doesn't show as much in this simple color test but is very obvious in normal videos.
http://screencast.com/t/qQFCKZ0lgg5
1. TIFF image
2. Screen recording of above image with Intermediate Codec, viewed in QT 10 (colors not 100% but ok)
3. Same screen recording exported from Intermediate to H.264, viewed in QT 10 (colors washed out, red very wrong)
4. Same H.264 video (viewed in VLC 1.1.5)
Will this problem ever be fixed, or just ignored until no one use H.264 anymore?
Cheers

Washed out colours in DVD SP, but not in iDVD?

I was using iDVD to burn my projects and decided to go pro and use DVD SP 4 at work. I had some help putting the project together and burnt off a DVD. All works fine, but the colours are definately more washed than when I burnt the same quicktime through iDVD 6.
The footage was captured from PAL DIGI Beta, using the blackmagic capture card and codec and used uncompressed in both projects.
Even the title screen of the DVD SP project is washed out compared to the iDVD one. I've viewed both DVDs on an LCD imac and a CRT sony trinitron.
Any ideas?
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

I am not sure if the two applications encode the same - iDVD may use different settings to encode the video when compared to the settings in DVD SP or using Compressor which can change the output/how it looks - that may be what is happening.
You can take the exact same movie and place it in different encoders, or the same encoders with different settings, and the end result will look different.
Compressor overview
http://dvdstepbystep.com/qc.php
http://dvdstepbystep.com/fasttrackover.php

Exporting from Premiere makes my video washed out. Thoughts?

Hey Forum!
Question of about exporting from Premiere CS6.
When I export a video, and open it in Quicktime, the image has lost contrast and color saturation.
Does anyone have a solution to this?
I've heard about x264 but haven't tried it. Has anyone had success? A simple workflow they can walk me through?
I also heard that you could send your sequence to After Effects, change the color space to 709. Has anyone had success
with this workflow?
The only time the video looks nice is playing it in FLV. But in the real world, who actually uses VLC?
The strange part is if I look at the raw video it looks great. Bring that clip into Adobe and export it (no color correcting, or anything done to it) and it comes out desaturated with less contrast. I would think if you did absolutely nothing, it should come out the same right?
Last note, I am not using an external monitor. (Because I know many in the forum willl suggest this) I would like to just get the video out looking the same as it does in the editing system to play back on my desktop. I'm not interested in worrying about other TVs, computers, etc.
Any help would be hugely appreciated:)!!!!

That's my point. Not worrying about other displays.
Why does the raw look one way, on my desktop, then I bring into premiere, export the same clip, and it looks washed out and less contrast on the same desktop, same computer as the initial evaluation of the Raw.
Evaluating with or without the signal conversation, why is there a change when I have done nothing?
Hopefully this makes sense.
Is the 709 conversation relevant?
Is the Gamma conversation relevant?
I de-selected the Gamma (auto default) using the 422 HQ codec, and that did nothing to the color.
I'm wondering if there are other boxes to click/un-click.
Thoughts?! Thanks you!

QT video washed out when uncomposited on MB Air (over-contrasty when not?)

Sorry about the funny title, but this is quite odd. I've noticed it with a couple of videos in QT player now -- both from Apple, one a HD trailer and one the video of the iPhone SDK event.
It happens on my MacBook Air, but not my 1.5Ghz PowerBook G4.
When I watch the video and nothing is over it (so it's full screen or in a frontmost window), it's washed out. The contrast is poor and the blacks are grey. But when anything overlaps it -- I move another window partially over the QT player one, or a drop-down menu overlaps it, or the dock overlaps the full-screen view -- the image gets a lot darker (it looks better to me but maybe you see less detail -- maybe the washy greys are right this is too much contrast?)
Anyway, it's odd. Can anyone explain? Thanks

what color is the render bar above these problem clips?
it may be that with these graphic overlays applied then you are seeing only a proxy or preview of the final effect and not a full render
if so, check your Sequence > Render settings and make sure to check the Preview and/or Proxy options
cheers
Andy

Lightroom's interpretation of camera raw data washes out colours

After I import images from my Canon 5D, they look different when I go into the develop module. I read the FAQ and I understand that this is caused by the difference between the stored thumbnail on the camera and the way lightroom interprets the raw image data.
The problem is, the tone and colour are always far superior in the camera thumbnail interpretation, and I spend considerable time on Lightroom to try and get the image back to how it originally looked on the camera thumbnail, usually unsucsessfully.
Is there a way I can get lightroom to match exactly the look of the previews stored with the raw file on the camera?
It is a big problem, because after lightroom interprets the data, skin tones look washed out and the colours are not as rich or natural looking.
I don't have this problem on other raw converters, and it is making me look for another software solution if I can't resolve the problem.
Help!

Well, my eyes must be doing some wonky things then... because in my experience its LR that is cheating me on the colors.
Yes... Canon many times oversaturates the colors... but I'm pretty sure that those red cherries I took a picture of were not pumpkin orange as LR shows them. ACR has some serious hue shift problems, yet not for everyone... it varies from camera model to camera model, and even within camera model from camera to camera.
The best we can do, since ACR isn't intelligent enough, is to fiddle with the calibration settings, and save that as the new default for the camera. (There are scripts that help do this if you have a Color-checker and CS2/CS3... but are of no help if you use only LR or Elements.)
Never expect the default settings in RAW (for ANY converter... Canon's included (with execption, perhaps of Zoombrowser)) to match the preview you see on the camera, or the out-of-camera jpeg. Adjustments will need to be made. Unfortunately in ACR, this means hours of messing the calibration sliders, much trial and error, and perhaps multiple presets to help with different lighting conditions.
That said... I too would like to see ACR improve in this area... but for the mean-time this is the best we can do.
edit: (I'm (slightly) exagerrating the extent of the shift above... but its VERY noticable... and can be very frustrating.
This site: http://www.photoactivity.com/Pagine/Articoli/023%20Calibratori%20al%20sole/Calibratori%20 al%20sole_en.asp explains in more detail than I understand some of the calibration scripts... and even has some screenshots of a color-checker comparing ACR defaults and various scripts to the color-checker. I'd guess the shifts I see are comparable to some of those shifts seen on that page.)

IMac 24" with washed out colours - Help!

My iMac 24" Aluminium (June 2008) running 10.5.8 has behaved impeccably for almost two years. I use it for graphics and photographic work, so colour fidelity is very important.
A few days ago, in the morning, the machine was still "perfect". By lunchtime I realised something was not right. The Photoshop file I had been working on looked different. I could not see details in highlights, transparency in layers that was clearly there in the morning had suddenly vanished. Looking closer at the whole screen I realised the whole environment was washed out - not just in Photoshop files.
I tried:
Calibrating the monitor - no difference.
ColorSync Utility: Verify/repair - reported loads of errors but fixed nothing.
Took the mac to authorised Apple repair shop in Hove (UK). Spent time with the engineers trying to sort it out. They had not experienced this before.
We connected 2nd monitor. Strangest thing: The same moment the 2nd monitor was connected, the native screen instantly looked fine. Both monitors fine.
Disconnecting 2nd monitor, and the native screen went bad again.
Booted up the iMac with their external drive and system (sorry, not sure which system but probably the same 10.5.8). The screen looked fine, even without a 2nd monitor. Rebooting with native OS and the screen went bad again.
Conclusion: Corrupt file in the system somewhere. Advice: Reinstall system (archive/install).
I did this today. Screen is the same bad screen, so reinstalling 10.5.2 and upgrading to 10.5.8 did NOT solve the problem. Erase and install is my VERY LAST resort. I really don't want to start from scratch with new system, new installation of applications, updates, settings etc.
I would rather buy a small 2nd monitor, watch the screen look good again, having another screen to use and PRETEND I DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM!
I also ran an extended hardware test (from OSX 10.5.2 install DVD) without reporting any problems.
Questions:
Has anyone any idea what this can be?
Is it possible that upgrading to Snow Leopard can solve the problem (but that is also just an upgrade and not a clean start?)
One way of describing it is that a finder window has no contrast in highlights (blue and white horizontal stripes are only visible when another window's drop shadow multiplies with the background. Everything is too bright, banding appears in visible highlights.
Someone suggested moving the file /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist to trash, without deleting yet. Then reboot.
It didn't work.
Thanks for any help!

My problem was purely about screen contrast, not the colours. It was in fact me accidentally keying the shortcut (key command was unknown to me then) for contrast settings that are found in System Preferences -> Universal Access > Seeing, Display: Enhance Contrast. The key command is also shown there.
I now realize that I did this key command when working in Quark XPress which has a very similar command: "Shift-Option-Command" and then "," or "." I accidentally keyed "Control-Option-Command" and then "." Worth being aware of if you're working with Quark.
Glad your problem was solved by calibrating your monitor.

Color corrected video washed out by font / graphics

Hi everyone-
I'm running FCP 4.1.1 on a Mac dual G4. I have some DV clips on the timeline which I adjusted using the brightness / contrast function of the Color Correction tool. When I lay font or graphics over it, the clips get all washed out, and look more like the original clips. After rendering, the Viewer tells me that the video clips are still brightness / contrast adjusted, even though they're not. When I remove the font / graphics, they look as I intended (adjusted).
I used these same graphics on other video clips and they worked fine. It seems to be an issue with the adjusted clips.
Can anyone help? Thanks.
Mac dual G4 Mac OS X (10.2.x)

what color is the render bar above these problem clips?
it may be that with these graphic overlays applied then you are seeing only a proxy or preview of the final effect and not a full render
if so, check your Sequence > Render settings and make sure to check the Preview and/or Proxy options
cheers
Andy

H.264 videos washed out colours/gamma bug. Does this really fix it?

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