HD source encoding into SD DVD MPEG-2 format desaturates film

I am encoding a 720P HD source from FCP, the source is the Prores (HQ) format. I encode to MPEG-2 in Compressor. When I view the Standard def DVD the colors are really desaturated. There is no way to increase saturation in Compressor from what I can see. Any suggestions?
Message was edited by: Miklos

This is almost certainly a gamma issue. This isn't specific to your HD source.
Very commonly this is an issue with monitor calibration and Final Cut Pro's "special" handling of gamma. Here is a really, really brief summary of what's going on.
So you have all of this video that was recorded with a Gamma of 2.2. Final Cut Pro opens this video, silently converts it to Gamma 1.8 for display purposes, and shows it to you. Why? Because Macintosh has had a default display Gamma of 1.8 since the Reagan administration or so. The original data doesn't change, but Final Cut magically adjusts the video it actually displays to Gamma 1.8, so it looks about right on your default-setting, default-brightness, default-everything Mac monitor.
But wait! You've got a monitor that is calibrated at a Gamma setting other than 1.8. You've either calibrated it yourself, or you've loaded a color profile (in System Preferences->Display) that isn't a Gamma 1.8 profile. Final Cut Pro is spitting out Gamma 1.8 video, but you're not seeing it. You're seeing something completely different.
But this is a Mac! We've got ColorSync! This shouldn't happen! Bzzt. Final Cut bypasses ColorSync when making this decision. See this url:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93794-fr
Note this very, very, very important quote:
Tip: While it is possible to recalibrate Apple displays via the Display Calibrator Assistant in Displays preferences, users should leave the gamma of their monitors to the 1.8 Standard Gamma setting when working in Final Cut Pro. ColorSync settings are not used by either Shake or Final Cut Pro for automatic color calibration or compensation of any kind.
I have an entire rant about this that we will save for another time.
So you're looking at what is for all intents and purposes, the "wrong" color. you go on and color correct your footage, or otherwise alter it, all the while making it look good on your monitor. Unfortunately, all of the changes you're making are being done so that the video you are SEEING looks good, but you're not seeing the ACTUAL video, you're seeing an "incorrectly" gamma-adjusted video. The minute that video leaves the Final Cut world on your system, and is displayed on a monitor with a "correct" Gamma of 2.2, you're going to see the "correct" video, which is going to look either too light or too dark, depending on your current display profile when you modified the video.
But you have no way of knowing this. So you use Compressor to make an MPEG-2 file, and Compressor dutifully takes the actual video data (the data that you're not seeing) and makes the MPEG file. You burn the DVD.
You put the DVD into your DVD player, and everything is either washed out or too dark.
So how do you resolve the issue?
1. You must have a trusted video path out to trusted scopes out to a trusted, calibrated display device. Most obviously, this means SDI or HD-SDI out to a calibrated monitor. There are plenty of other options, but this is the standard.
2. Trust the broadcast monitor, trust the scopes, and completely forget what you see in Final Cut Pro. It doesn't exist. It's imaginary. If Final Cut shows you a totally black image but you can see rainbows in the broadcast monitor, you're going to get rainbows when you go out to DVD.
3. If you can't afford or don't have access to a monitor intended for grading, and you just need to do -something-, use a Spyder3 or other device to calibrate your computer's monitor with a target Gamma of 1.8. Your color space is still not going to match Rec 709 or 601 or so on, but you'll be in a ballpark that you can probably get away with for web video, personal/family stuff, etc. Never, ever do this for anything going out to broadcast television or any actual critical evaluation situation, but this will suffice for producing simple web content.
If you're making DVDs that are actually going to be on the market or outside of your friends and family, you -really- need to have a calibrated monitor that is capable of displaying the native color space of the output you desire.
On a more technical level, there is also a standing concern that there is a color space/matrix issue occuring when ProRes is decoded during the act of Compressor reading in the video data from Quicktime. We've seen evidence of this here, but we're still investigating.
In any event, it's late, and that's the very, very short and condensed version of my "What's broken about Gamma handling in Final Cut Studio" rant.
-Matt

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