H264 Gamma Issues on PC

As a relative newbie on a very steep learning curve, I have just come across the Gamma issues when creating H264 videos on the Mac and then having them viewed on PC.
I've spent all day reading the thousands of comments on various websites regarding this issue and think I now have a basic understanding of the cause. However I am still quite confused as to the solution.
In Ken Stone's brilliant tutorial 'Compressor H.264 movies from FCP for the web' he states that H264 handles Gamma correction by burying 'Colour Sync' profiles into the QT movies so that at playback, the H264 QT movie will check the platform of the viewer and adjust Gamma correctly. So I thought all of the stuff I was reading must have been prior to Ken's comments.
After compressor had made an amazing job of my video, I sent it over to the PC ready for a first test and yes, it looked bad and clearly the Gamma was wrong.
I then found a workaround that literally hundreds of people had used: where by the finished QT file was adjusted as follows:-
"After rendering into a QuickTime/h.264 file, open it up in QuickTime and select “Show Movie Properties.” Highlight the video track then click on the “Visual Settings” tab. Towards the bottom left you should see “Transparency” with a drop-down box next to it. Select “Blend” from the menu then move the “Transparency Level” slider to 100%. Choose “Straight Alpha” from the same drop-down and close the properties window and finally “Save.”" More details of that here - http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/2008/06/fix-quicktime-gamma-shift/
I have now made different versions of the video, with and without the changes outlined above. When they are viewed either 'standalone' on my PCs and laptops or downloaded from my website, compared to how they looked on the Mac, just look completely dull and flat.
I’m trying to work my way through this problem but in the meantime if anybody can help, I would be eternally grateful..?
Thanks

Similar Messages

H264(Youtube/Vimeo Preset) export looks flat and desaturated- H264 Gamma?

All my h264 output both quickitme and mp4 looks flat and desaturated after export compared to to the program window.This happends with both cs5.5 and cs6.
I know there is some h264 bug with Quicktime but its flat on Youtube also( in Safari) I thought this gamma issue has been sorted out?
How can I output my files to youtube so it looks the same as my Program monitor on youtube? I know all screens are different and you need a color calibrated montior( I have that) but why the shift?
It just does not seem that anyone has an answer. x264 does not work... anything else? QUickitme x does not have the ability to do the "opacity fix"
How will i get that my output on my client screen will not be so flat. ( I know it wont be exactly the same (as TVs in a showroom) but the difference between the video inside premier and outside is VAST!
I dont want to "fix" it by addinga contrast and saturation layer and them on a Windows machine maybe its then overly contrasty?
I'm on 17" MAcbook PRo Using anexternal calibrated NEC Monitor.
Did I miss a major answer on the web somewhere?

So what do you guys do? Just add an extra layer of process ( I have added a fast color correction Adjustment layer and clipping the black at 10 and the highlights at 245 and putting the saturation at 120. Its a thumbsuck though...
How on earth do people who colour grade on Davinc or Lustre etc output there stuff to Vimeo.(Yes I know it goes to film or TV , but what about thier showreel?) It also uses H264? Is there ANY codec I can use to upload to Youtube that will look like my program monitor?
It is facinating how these companies provide all these wonderful tools and in the final polished output you cannot get it too look llike it looked inside the product! Baffling!
If I had a Windows machine would I have this problem?

QT Motion Jpeg gamma issue

I jumped from using CS3 to CS5 so this may have popped up in CS4 and everyone else figured it out already.
I used to deliver files in QT Motion JPEG codec. However in CS5 when I output in that format everything looks washed out as though there is a gamma issue when playing back in QuickTime, or other editing software. If I open that QT file back up in After Effects it looks fine.
I'm not using color management, just an out-of-the-box installation at the moment.
I switched to delivering in QT Animation codec which solved the problem but the filesize was overkill for this particular project.
Any help is appreciated!

This did fix the problem asuming I want to bring the footage back into after effects. When I do that everything matches.
But...
If I open the original source footage up with QuickTime, or in a 3rd party editing application and compare it to the AE render made with "Match Legacy After Effects QuickTime Gamma Adjustments" and also compare to a render made without that setting turned on I get very different results
The original source looks good, but both renders look equally incorrect (washed out like a gamma problem)
Is After Effects adding a pripriatary tag to the output file that only AE is resepecting when it's loaded back in?
Thanks!

More Gamma Issues

Today, I wanted to focus on the current state of RAM Preview.
Last week, I went through exhaustive testing of color accuracy through an After Effects workflow, with source material generated out of Final Cut Studio 2 & 3, all 1920x1080 29.97i. I performed tests through After Effects CS3, CS4, and CS5. In all cases, we used both Tektronix 601A and The results were eye-popping.
After going through your notes about the recent gamma issues, I made your recommended changes to the Interpretation Rules, as well as the MediacoreQTGammaRulesCSx, along with the proper color management settings (Rec 709).
Setup:
MacPro 3GHz 8-core (MacPro2,1)
16GB of RAM
AJA Kona 3 v.7.5.1 or v.8 drivers
OS 10.5.8
QT 7.6.4
In the case of CS3, gamma accuracy simply can not be had either via RAM Preview nor via rendered files. In CS4, one can clearly see that Adobe did a very good clean up job on gamma accuracy but those fixes are limited to rendered files. RAM Preview using the QuickTime Output Component through an AJA Kona xx card aren’t even close when looking at Gamma. As a result, black levels are several IRE too low. If we use the AJA Adobe Plug-ins for 7.5.1, I can get accurate Gamma BUT I can’t get real-time frame rates if I use a Project bit depth > 8bit.
So I have a choice, inaccurate Gamma or bit limited RAM Preview. So why is running a project in 8-bit mode bad? Banding and color skew. Most camcorder acquisition formats are 8bit YUV. Doing conversions from 8bit YUV to 8bit RGB are simply bad. You are converting from a scaled color space in which your usable levels are 16-235 (YUV) over to 0-255 (RGB). As a results, you are going to have plenty of errors. By converting to a 16-bit RGB space, those errors are virtually eliminated.
Now we both know that RAM Preview desperately needs a “do-over” and has for years. But, it is what we have today and our clients desperately need a solution that offers both gamma accuracy and real-time frame rates in 16 & 32bit modes.
Thank you for listening

I tried the three solutions noted on the page, but none of them actually "address" what my problem is. I could not find the directory in the registry, nor could I create one. Is there any last-ditch attempt or solution? I was told I could turn the "time" back on my computer, though I don't want to lose my information or run the risk of nothing happening. For now, thanks for your help.
ADVICE WELCOME!

The gamma issue

I know the 1.8 vs 2.2 gamma issue has been talked to death, but I don't know the answer to this specific question, hence this post.
Does the 1.8 vs 2.2 gamma issue occur when simply watching DVDs? I've made many DVDs which I can watch on my PC or TV or Mac and it looks good on all three. I also don't have any problems watching professionally made DVDs on my PC, Mac, or TV. But the latest DVD I made, while it looks great on a PC and a TV, it looks horrible on a Mac. And everyone I've talked to has said it is due to the gamma issue.
The only difference I can think of between this DVD and the other DVDs I've made is this the images in this one are darker. Also, its the first time I've ever crushed the blacks in color correction, which made the images even darker than they were to begin with.
But I've watched many professional DVDs with very dark images on my Mac and they look fine, so I don't know why my DVD does not.
Some information that might be useful:
Footage: DV anamorphic
Raw footage codec: DV/DVCPRO - NTSC, Integer (Little Endian)
Color corrected footage codec: DV/DVCPRO - NTSC
DVD image format: MPEG-2
Please note that this issue only involves watching the finished product. The footage has already been color corrected on a properly calibrated TV. I just would like to watch my DVD on my Mac!

its the first time I've ever crushed the blacks in color correction, which made the images even darker than they were to begin with.
whats the reason for doing that, why are you not setting the black level at black point?
properly calibrated TV
not really the best piece of equipment to be trusted for colour correcting, even going to the expence of getting the TV calibrated (presumably by an engineer) the TV cant be compared to a professional programme monitor, the only real way to colour correct.

FCP 6 & SL Gamma issues

I seem to have a problem with gamma in FCP6 on snow leopard. Rushes in QT are fine, but appear very dark in FCP. I have read on Creative Cow forums that the fix is to upgrade to FCP 7 (!!) but I was rather hoping I could avoid this extra expense just now.
Any other suggestions? I don;t understand why FCP6 would not display colours correctly.
Is there a user setting I need to adjust in FCP? I can see a difference between setting the play back gamma to "accurate" and "approximate". Does this mean that QT is not displaying gamma correctly? Would be nice to get both to match.
Thanks

ajophoto wrote:
Any other suggestions? I don;t understand why FCP6 would not display colours correctly.
The COW thread you linked to explains that FCP adjusts the gamma to approximate what it would look like on a broadcast monitor which causes problems with Snow Leopard as it changes the default gamma profile of the OS. I cannot confirm whether or not this is fixed in FCP 7.
I seem to have a problem with gamma in FCP6 on snow leopard. Rushes in QT are fine, but appear very dark in FCP. I have read on Creative Cow forums that the fix is to upgrade to FCP 7 (!!) but I was rather hoping I could avoid this extra expense just now.
Why does it matter if you are offlining? Even if you had FCP 7 and it fixed the gamma issue, I would still not recommend relying on it for accurate image reproduction.
Is there a user setting I need to adjust in FCP? I can see a difference between setting the play back gamma to "accurate" and "approximate". Does this mean that QT is not displaying gamma correctly? Would be nice to get both to match.
There is no setting in FCP, only "Final Cut Studio color compatibility" in QuickTime 7. But there is still some discrepancy between the two, even on Leopard. I never rely on this.

Gamma issues !

Hi there Adobe folks
This is just a follow up post to see if any movement has been made on the gamma issue front.
Basically importing footage into AE and then exporting results in unpredictable shifts in brightness, appearing either darker or lighten than they appear in the composition window or even when played in the Quicktime player - as well as suffering a colour cast change.
So at the moment I am on a iMac i7 with CS4 AE and OS X 10.6.4 - and AE is almost unusual for me as I may spend hours carefully colour correcting a pieces of footage only to have my output look completely different, I have used AE professionally for over 10 years now and have never had these issues, when I used to render my final piece (usually as uncompressed or as Animation set at 100% Q) the resultant file is identical to what you see in the composition window - everytime, without failure.
Now trying to get the output look anything like the composition window seems next to impossible, I am not the only one suffering this problem, I was working in London last week at a fairly well known studio and their compositors have all but given up on AE for this very problem, we even - at one stage - ended up working in Photoshop (!!) to get around this problem.
So, any news on possible solutions out there yet ?
Cheers for any input.

Musings on a disaster . . .
Worked my way through all the literature - some of it comes reasonably close to addressing the gamma / colour shift problems (after a lot of reading and testing and failing and frustration), nothing seems to correct it absolutely . . . . which ultimately renders After Effects unusable as a professional tool (up to CS4 at least - I have not upgraded to AE5 as the upgrade appears to be prohibitively expensive).
I understand that the real villain in all this is Apple/Quicktime, but it shocks me that Adobe (with AE) have not taken a much more robust approach to resolving this problem.
Most of the tools I used to depend on and trust on for my day to day work are very simply useless now, what point is there in sitting with a client for 6 hours grading a piece of footage only to find yourself unable to deliver what the day's work achieved, why bother using Colour Finesse when leaving the 'full interface' mode to view your work in the composition window you see a differing version - and so on.
What is more frustrating is that this problem simply did not exist a version or two ago, I happily spent well over a decade (professionally) being able to concentrate on making things appear as I wanted them to and then being able to deliver just that - this has seemingly gone.
Literally put, After Effects is broken.
I really appreciate all the help I have got from this forum in trying to resolve this, but nothing has come close enough that it could be considered a solution, it's simply no good telling a client: "It's a bit washed out and the colour is a little bit more red than we wanted, but it's pretty close".
So . . . . solutions (more correctly compromised work arounds) - I hope these might be of some help to others stranded on Adobe/Apple island.
Basically I suspect my requirements at output are much the same as others who do this for a job, firstly a master output for delivery/broadcast/tape - and a compressed output for client proofing.
For the compressed non-master - I used the latest x264 codec - simply download it (Google is your friend) - install it and ignore all those other codecs that you have used over the years - this actually works pretty well, your AE render looks identical to your AE composition (100% identical) when played back in QT7 - and only a little washed out when played back in QT10 (much less washed out than other codecs).
For the master output - forget the days of being able to render to 'uncompressed' and know all is well - those days are seemingly gone. But you can still come fairly close to rendering something to a lossless format that looks reasonably close to your composition if you stick to 'Animation' or 'ProRes' - the reason I am not more specific here is that your success would seem to depend on the particular project - sometimes ProRes get's 90% of the way, other times it looks overly saturated and Animation get's you closer - so experiment, but these two high-quaility codecs can often get fairly close.
(*ProRes is not, of course, 'lossless' - but in the circumstances if it renders closer to the look of your composition than Animation it is not a terrible compromise).
On a final note: I used to work at a post/facilities house in London (UK) who have used AE since at least 1998 (when I first worked for them) - I was freelancing there last week and they seem resigned to After Effect's death as a professional tool and are now looking at other compositing environments.
Additionally I managed a small coup recently in being able to steal a small piece of work (a single scene from an upcoming Christmas TV ad for UK TV**) from another major - perhaps the biggest, most respected - London post house - they floundered in being able to convincingly replace an actors face with a (much happier) replacement (using Inferno) - the Director handed me the scene - I got it to work really well, he much preferred my result, I was pretty happy with taking on a major facilities house and beating them - but the process of delivery was simply embarrassing, they used my (After Effect's) erratic output to - I suspect - win back some face at not being able to do the scene as well - after much battling with After Effects the decision was to use my render as a guide only for the Inferno operator - such was the inability of several professionals to output an identical file.
After 15 years in this game that was f*&king disappointing and not a little bit embarrassing as I am sure you might imagine.

CS3 H264 Export Issues

I have got an Issue with exported videos through Premiere Pro CS3. I know I am using an old version but I felt no need to upgrade.
I am facing an issue I haven't faced before. I am exporting a video (no footage, just one music track with still images with fades and effects); when I play the video back in all media players, I get strange play back issues. The preview before export plays fine, so it is definitely after the export. The first time I exported the video, it would play find up until a certain point, the video would seem to freeze but the audio contiunes. When I skip through the video, the sync issues become worse. I though if I just played through the who video with no skipping, maybe it would be fine. But it would always freeze at a certain point. I thn exported the video again, this time it was 1080p. I had the same issue but not it was even worse. The video would freeze much earlier in the video. I though possibly I was having issues with playback on my computer, if I uploaded the video to youtube, it would playback properly. There are still issues with playback on youtube, the first 3 minutes seem to be cut off, and at the end of the video, the video would finish, but there would be another 3 or 4 minutes left to allow the music track to end. I am getting audio sync problems but not in the tradition sense, where maybe they are playing at different speeds. The problems seem to be much more complex and the video just freezes at certain point. It;s all very confusing and hard to explain, and I have found no help. I am thinking maybe it's codec problems, but this is the first I have encountered it.
Premiere Export Settings:
Both video's are MP4 exported with H264 codec
First Try export settings:
1280x720
Data Rate:1778 kbps
Total bit rate: 2095 kbps
bit rate: 317 kbps
audio sample rate: 48khz
Second try
1920x1080
Data rate: 4452 kbps
Total bitrate: 4642 kbps
bit rate: 189 kbps
Audio sample rate: 48khz
System:
Windows 8.1 64 bit
6gig ram
The timeline wasn't pre rendered, but I have never done that and never faced problems before.
Here's the uploaded youtube video of the first export:
Leeds Reunion 2015 Mix - YouTube
As you can see, the tracks do not match up with the songs, if you skip to 41:06, the video starts it's outtro, but there is about 4 minutes left to allow the audio track to finish.

For the jerkiness go to your preferences and change the live draw to delayed, or if that doesn't help, maybe never. The place to go is Edit > Preferences > General.
When you try to past from CS3 to CS5 do you have both open in CS5? Might sound a dumb question but if you have one open in CS3 and one in CS5 it isn't going to work, so even if you have a document you want to keep in CS3 for the purposes of copying just open it in CS5, it wil convert to a CS5 document and you will be able to copy and paste between them.
One last tip, when converting docs to CS5 from CS3, particularly larger ones, there have been quite a few reports of instability, sometimes leading to corruption, but mind you we only see the problems on this forum. To prevent this happening the best route is to export from CS3 to inx format and open that in CS5. YOu can do that automatically with whole folders (and sub-folders) of files with the batch convertor script that is my latest favourite, it is made by Peter Kahrel and is free, you'll find it here. With that you can use it in CS3 to convert a whole batch to inx, then use it in CS5 to convert those inx files to CS5 indd. Super handy, really fast, and great for mass exports too.

Interface/Gamma issue - Display profiling

If you profile/calibrate your display (with professional software) to Gamma L* - darkish, grey boxes appear in some application-windows. Never happend in Tiger so I figure it's a Leopard issue.*
If you use Gamma 1.8, the Apple default, Photoshops windows (in my case) look perfekt. With Gamma 2.2 they're barely noticable (pretty much only if you know the boxes are there).
All the other settings you can choose while profiling - like temperature, luminance, chromatic adaption, profile-type etc. don't influence windows in this way - but as soon as you change the gamma those boxes appear.
I would very much like to know how you guys deal with it - do you profile your display to 1.8/2.2 (like a CRT) OR do you use L* and live with the boxes OR have you profiled your display properly/with L* but you don't have this nuisance? (!?)
Any help/info would be greatly appreciated.

*So here's what I think happens (+ my idea to solve the grey-boxes issue):*
Some applications use the monitor-profile to draw their interface. Like Photoshop and Graphic Converter. (The only 2 I've installed, I'm sure some video-editing-applications, even players are concerned that's maybe the reason some people think it's 'random'). I think these apps do so to immediately can reflect a change in the profile, without restart.
Now Mac OS X Leopard seems to not allow these applications to do so in certain parts of the interface. (Must be new, that's why there were no issues with Tiger) The window itself is drawn by the OS. That's the reason only elements like the text and buttons are affected.
And the problem is that the OS uses its 'Generic RGB Profile.icc' which contains Gamma 1.8. So if you calibrate your display with Gamma L* (which you really should do and most profiling-software does by default) those grey boxes appear in said applications.
The solution is easy. Replace the system-rgb-profile with one that supports L* - like the eciRGB profiles.
To do so you have to rename the .icc file in finder but also edit the information inside (which can be done with the ColorSync Utility). Then copy it to the System/Library/ColorSync/Profiles folder.
*After that the grey boxes dissapear and everything is back to normal.* There's some difference in the tabular data like the CMM and a chroma-entry, so you might want to re-write your display-profile just to make sure everything's alright.
I haven't seen anything yet but could imagine that the rendering of webpages in safari might be affected. Or rather some webbrowsers' without colour management. (Just a theory, hopefully not...)
*Problem 1:*
Some Adobe apps can see that the current system-profile is identical to your working-space-rgb and reset your rgb-choice to the Generic RGB profile after a restart. (Without changing the 'Colormanagement SYNC'd icon/setting.) This probably could cause trouble if you export or open files.
Solution:
Use a different profile for your system than your Adobe-RGB setting. I used the 'L-Star RGB v2' for the system and the 'eciRGB v2' for Adobe. They're technically identical but for some reason Photoshop and esp. Illustrator now respect my choices and don't reset anything. Works fine for me.
*Problem 2:*
Besides the aforementioned chroma-entry in the Apple default profile (which loss shouldn't cause any issues) there's also the localisation information. Because the profile is named differently in different languages of OS X. I haven't found anything causing trouble (probably because if the profile isn't found it resets back to the english version by default).
Solution:
This would be easy if someone knows about a .icc file editor. If we could add those localised names from the Apple profile no application would ever know. I've only found hexadecimal editors but won't put something like that on my machine, especially since everything works fine.
*I hope Apple comes up with a real solution soon, this seems like too much of a hack - considering the delicate nature of colour management.*
*If you read this and know what I'm talking about and disagree or know any reasons why one would not want to do this - please speak up! I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to know.*
This is pretty much mirrored on the Adobe forums btw.

H264 encoding issue with FlashPlayer 11

Hi,
When encoding live in h264 with the FP 11 then playing it live on another client (through FMS r) the video sometimes (1/3 of times) has major skips or jerks. It's almost as if the video goes back to some older keyframes and then returns to live. Same experience with non-h264 produces smooth video.
If the server (FMS ) records the video, the replay looks smooth, which is strange because I would have assumed the FP was not encoding well with H264.
Has anyone had this issue? please reply
Thank you.

Hi,
When encoding live in H264 with the FP 11 then playing it live on another client (through FMS r) the video sometimes (1/3 of times) has major skips or jerks. It's almost as if the video goes back to some older keyframes and then returns to live. Same experience with non-h264 produces smooth video.
If the server (FMS ) records the video, the replay looks smooth, which is strange because I would have assumed the FP was not encoding well with H264.
Has anyone had this issue? please reply
Thank you.

Premiere CS5 h264 sync issue

I'm having SERIOUS sync problems when exporting a film to a h264 format. (Before i used primarely Flash and Windows media and haven´t had any problems). The sync issue can be seen in Quick time player, on Macs and on some online video platforms that I use.
The sync issue occurs more in some films and less in some films that I'm producing. I have tried to isolate the problem, effects used , audio format etc etc. , but i haven't found any effects or anything that causes the problem. I'm out of sync by 6-12 frames.
This is a major problem as my clients prefer h264 and h264 has superior quality to other formats. (Quality as a function of file size).
To solve this with a temp. fix i do the following;
I export the finished film to a MPEG 2 format (about 300Meg for a 3 minute film). And convert the film to mp4 using a 3rd party converter. By doing this i lose som quality but the film i in-sync. This is a short term solution and i have to switch to another editing software unless this is fixed on the CS6. Adobe just refers to forums and can't/won't be at any help on this.
Anyone out there that has experienced the same problems?
I have premiere on 4 different pcs in different confíguration , with or without gtx470 graphicts, on laptop etc etc. , so, please don't ask me "What is you system configuration...etc" . This is NOT a system related issue.
rgds msx

The QuickTime player often has this issue. It is best not used at all. Instead, try the free and excellent VLC player.
Having said that, there are free encoders out there (MeGUI, Handbrake, Xvid4PSP, etc.) which use the x264 encoder, which many find superior to others like the MainConcept encoder Adobe uses. But your best bet here is to export out a lossless intermediate rather than a highly compressed MPEG. The UT codec is free, lossless, plays nice with Adobe software, and since version 11, is now both read and write capable on Macs.

H264 Gamma Problems, now F4V's are dead

Hi, Now Adobe have killed off F4V's - the only reliable way of making movies with decent colour that I found.
Does anyone know of another codec that will produce great colour in Windows?
Or does anyone know how to correct the old Windows Gamma problem in h264?
Thanks!

Hi, I really thought it was pretty well known? Hmm. Well, so far as I know, it's a Windows/Apple thing. If you use AFX to make h264 movies on a mac it works great, but on Windows it results in a grey washed out qt. If you then played that movie on a mac it would appear fine. Very annoying, it's been like that for years, apparently it's all down to Apple not giving a stuff. Unless it's been fixed in the last 6 months. So f4v's were my best option for showing clients stuff. But if you know anything I don't (very likely) I'm all ears...
Thanks
Oliver

Leopard - CS3 - Interface/Gamma issue

Hello there, switched to 10.5(.4) on a MacPro today and now check this out, it's only in Photoshop. Illy and Indesign and Bridge are fine. No other applications are affected.
If you profile/calibrate your display (with professional software) to Gamma L* - darkish, grey boxes appear in the Photoshop dialogue windows.
http://img297.imageshack.us/my.php?image=leopardphotoshop11zg0.png
If you use Gamma 1.8, the Apple default, Photoshop looks perfekt. With Gamma 2.2 they're barely noticable (pretty much only if you know they're there).
All the other settings you can choose like temperature, luminance, chromatic adaption, profile-type etc. don't influence Photoshop-windows in this way - but as soon as you change the gamma those boxes appear.
I would very much like to know how you guys deal with it - do you profile your display to 1.8/2.2 OR do you use L* and live with the boxes OR have you profiled your display properly but you don't have this nuisance? (!?)
Any help/info would be greatly appreciated.

b So here's what I think happens (+ my idea to solve the grey-boxes issue):
Some applications use the monitor-profile to draw their interface. Like Photoshop and Graphic Converter. (The only 2 I've installed, I'm sure some video-editing-applications, even players are concerned that's maybe the reason some people think it's 'random'). I think these apps do so to immediately can reflect a change in the profile, without restart.
Now Mac OS X Leopard seems to not allow these applications to do so in certain parts of the interface. (Must be a new feature!) The window itself is drawn by the OS. That's the reason only elements like the text and buttons are affected.
And the problem is that the OS uses its 'Generic RGB Profile.icc' which contains Gamma 1.8. So if you calibrate your display with Gamma L* (which you really should do and most profiling-software does by default) those grey boxes appear in said applications.
The solution is easy. Replace the system-rgb-profile with one that supports L* - like the eciRGB profiles.
To do so you have to rename the .icc file in finder but also edit the information inside (which can be done with the ColorSync Utility). Then copy it to the System/Library/ColorSync/Profiles folder.
After that the grey boxes dissapear and everything is back to normal. There's some difference in the tabular data like the CMM and a chroma-entry, so you might want to re-write your display-profile just to make sure everything's alright.
I haven't seen anything yet but could imagine that the rendering of webpages in safari might be affected. Or rather some webbrowsers' without colour management. (I'm just guessing.)
b Problem 1:
Some Adobe apps can see that the current system-profile is identical to your working-space-rgb and reset your rgb-choice to the Generic RGB profile after a restart. (Without changing the 'Colormanagement SYNC'd icon/setting.) This probably could cause trouble if you export or open files.
b Solution:
Use a different profile for your system than your Adobe-RGB setting. I used the 'L-Star RGB v2' for the system and the 'eciRGB v2' for Adobe. They're technically identical but for some reason Photoshop and esp. Illustrator now respect my choices and don't reset anything. Works fine for me. (!)
b Problem 2:
Besides the aforementioned chroma-entry in the Apple default profile (which loss shouldn't cause any issues) there's also the localisation information. Because the profile is named differently in different languages of OS X. I haven't found anything causing trouble (probably because if the profile isn't found it resets back to the english version by default).
b Solution:
This would be easy if someone knows about a .icc file editor. If we could add those localised names from the Apple profile no application would ever know. I've only found hexadecimal editors but won't put something like that on my machine, especially since everything works fine.
I hope Apple comes up with a real solution soon, this seems like too much of a hack - considered the delicate nature of colour management.
If you read this and know what I'm talking about and disagree or know any reasons why one would not want to do this - please speak up! I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to know.

Gamma issue... beating a dead horse

so so confused, about this gamma shift from After Effects to Final Cut. I rendered the same clip out 4 different times and each time it has different gamma. Here are my render settings:
1. v210 Codec
2. Quicktime Animation
3. Apple FCP Uncompressed 8bit
4. ProRez 422 HQ
The first 3 I thought were uncompressed or "slightly" compressed. The v210 codec looked like crap. The best was Animation & FCP Uncompressed... but again they look different. This is complete madness. And it did not matter if I selected use Legacy. Out of all our gear only Final Cut is gamma crazy... Can someone explain to me why such a difference in these clips. I know I'm beating a dead horse here. Thanks for any helpful tips or pointers

Mine is fluctuating. Mine worked without having the Match Legacy Gamma Adjustment on and then off then on. I did something which seemed to overwrite a setting and reset something. Not sure.
Try this.
In project settings, Turn on the Blend Colors Using 1.0 Gamma.
Render something in the render que. My video suddenly got darker and the results were darker than normal.
I went back, checked it off, re-rendered it, and it worked out perfectly.

Adobe Media Encoder - QT H264 bitrate issues

I'm batch exporting HD flipvideo through AME. I'm able to convert the files to desired H264 format if I leave the bitrate unchecked. If I check the bitrate and enter the desired target, the resulting QT file is converted with terrible, and I mean terrible quality - much lower than I would get exporting from QT Pro standalone.
Thing is, I have 100's of these files to export and I want to use the batch capability of AME. Anyone else have this problem and find a workaround? I'm on a PC with AME CS4.
Thanks

you probably need to use gspot and or mediainfo ( tree view ) to see what exactly your assets are from the screen captures...and then decide how best to edit that ( your project settings ) and then export....to get the best out of it all...
maybe do a test and make a custom desktop project with the exact dimensions of your screen capture and also a custom export of the same dimensions...
you might be running into a lot of time with the conversion of dimensions ...
at any rate I'm afraid you may end up having to supply more info than you have ( post screenshots of gspot and mediainfo results ), your computer setup ( number of hard drives and all that stuff )...
theres a pretty good section about how to report stuff about what youre working with on the main page of the forum I think....
good luck

H264 Gamma Issues on PC

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