Final Cut Pro - QuickTime Gamma Issues

Question

Final Cut Pro - QuickTime Gamma Issues

I'm having a very hard time finding any answers to this question in the forums, so I'm just going to ask it...

In QuickTime Player Preferences, there is check box labeled "Enable Final Cut Studio color compatibility". When this box is checked, the video clip appears correct (and the gamma matches the original source footage captured in Final Cut Pro), but why does QuickTime player display the video using a different color space in the first place?

My primary concern is how to export QuickTime (*.mov) files from Final Cut Pro while maintaining the correct color space for those who DO NOT have Final Cut Pro installed on their system and therefore do not have the "Enable Final Cut Studio color compatibility" option available. I need to be able to distribute video clips for review across multiple operating systems and I want the correct gamma to be displayed on these other computers.

Are there any tips, tricks, or workarounds that anyone may know of that would help me to prepare my FCP sequences in QT? I suppose I could use the gamma correction filter from within compressor to compensate, although doing so, still does not quite look as natural as the enabling the FCP color compatibility option. This really concerns me since none of the other computers reviewing these clips have FCP installed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
~Greg

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.4.11), Quad 3GHz - 8GB RAM - NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500

Posted on May 19, 2009 10:26 AM

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Answer 1

APPLE27

Level 2

370 points

May 19, 2009 12:14 PM in response to Greg Linhares

You have no way of insuring that your video will be viewed with "correct" gamma settings everywhere. Is it playing on a Mac, a PC with a Dell monitor, a PC with a Samsung monitor, a tube TV, a cheap HDTV, a 60" plasa TV?

The best you can do is make it a decent setting. Computer monitors all have different default gamma settings, as do TVs, so...

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Answer 2

May 19, 2009 1:52 PM in response to APPLE27

Thanks for the response, however, upon further investigation, QuickTime player does in fact alter the way it displays H.264 video. It plays 2.2 gamma content at 1.8.

I am fully aware that most people do not calibrate their monitors, and that the color accuracy varies widely from computer to computer, but that's not really the issue here. The issue here is related strictly to gamma, and most monitors are already setup by default to run at gamma 2.2. It's only because QuickTime player alters the way it displays 2.2 content that is a real problem...

Here's a little something that may be helpful (or at least interesting) to others struggling with this same issue:

Adjusting the gamma correction filter within Compressor to 1.22, darkens the video output to something that matches very closely in gamma level (but not quite as well in color saturation) as the original source footage when viewed through QuickTime Player on systems that do NOT have the "Enable Final Cut Studio color correction option". However, the "Enable Final Cut Studio color correction option" when selected on a clip that was exported WITHOUT using the 1.22 gamma correction matches the original source footage precisely!

In addition, (and this is the really interesting part), an H.264 QuickTime (*.mov) file that is exported directly from FCP through Compressor without any gamma correction (i.e. a clip that appears extremely washed out when viewed through QuickTime player on any system that does not have the FCP color correction option available), will display a perfect gamma 2.2 video when converted to an (*.flv) file using the Flash Video Encoder! This means that the gamma 2.2 data is still present within the (*.mov) file and that QuickTime player is simply altering the way it displays.

Conversely, if the gamma corrected 1.22 (*.mov) clip is converted to Flash it will appear much darker than the original source.

Fortunately, most of the video content I produce for the Web starts with QuickTime and is converted into Flash. The only problem I have is when I send out QuickTime (*.mov) files for review, they must be gamma "hacked" in order to display properly in QuickTime player and that's just really inconvenient. It's too bad that QuickTime player can't just leave it all alone...

~Greg

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Answer 3

Wherrito

Level 2

185 points

May 19, 2009 4:11 PM in response to Greg Linhares

In a mac, Quicktime embeds a tag in the file resource fork to compensate for gamma settings across differing platforms that really just causes more grief than good.

We use a pc based applet to strip our h.264 dailies, and have had no problems.

I posted a link to the free download in a previous post:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9197660#9197660

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Answer 4

May 19, 2009 4:57 PM in response to Wherrito

Hey thanks very much for the info... I'll give this a try 🙂

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Answer 5

May 19, 2009 5:30 PM in response to Greg Linhares

I've had the same frustrations Greg. Since I do a lot of web stuff, I do several test outputs, look at the H.264 QT file, make all the footage just slightly on the light side based on the H.264 test video (even though it's darker in FCP) and then I know that uploaded videos will turn out okay once converted to Flash on YouTube and other Flash sites. When I use ON2.com's Flash encoder with the files, I increase the brightness by a factor of 20 or 25 to compensate. It is quite annoying.

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