Color/saturation shift in FCPX 10.1

I am noticing a similar issue with fcp 10.1.1 with color correction and a strange inconsistency on my film as well. I have no solutions for you but I can confirm what u are talking about. Fcp 10.1.1 does something bizarre to footage that shifts the color and saturation. Very troublesome if you are delivering a professional grade.

This is an old discussion that goes back to when all Computers used CRT displays VS LCD/LED. Yes there is an adjustment for it in Final Cut Pro 7:

https://documentation.apple.com/en/finalcutpro/usermanual/index.html#chapter=85% 26section=8%26tasks=true

http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/1027614

This is partly why some spend big $$ for broadcast monitors. One can go into apple Menu/system Prefs/Display/calibrate and adjust the Gamma from 2.2 or 1.8 - I only adjust Gamma when I choose to for a look I may be going for. Today with modern non=crt monitors I defy someone to look at video editied on Adobe on a PC and video edited on a Mac and be able to tell which is which. Some mess with it as a way to "fix" under exposed video.

There is just so much I can clutter my noodle with.

This is what I am dealing wtih as well. It is not a monitor issue. If you take the same 1080p Pro Res file and open it in 7 and then close 7 and open it in 10.1.1 there is a noticeable difference. I think it has somethign to do what whatever 10.1 is doing under the hood because even when you de select the color tab and take off all corrections - fcp X is doing something to the video that gives you a slight color shift.

Still, the question remains - if one adjusts for it in the display calibration (uncheck the box in color)

THEN one's rods & cones just get bleached out. Snowblind. Yes?

Here are 2 solutions. In my opinion, Larry is best (do it at export in compressor)... Apple's H.264 is an issue, I do use the x264 encoder.

http://www.larryjordan.biz/compressor-x264-improve-video/

I like this guy's idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z36p3s3mEwA

--And here is the "Ready Made" "plug ins":

http://bananamanafilms.com/gamma-and-yuv-plugin-for-fcpx

Alex4d on his "Old Site" has both Gamma & YUV plug-ins as well. He is most generous.

I do miss having the "super white" setting from FCP 7 - however - one really always has to

"finish" the look after exporting to file - or at least I do. In fact i usually need another pair of eyes

for really subtle stuff. Prefeably youngsters that aren't part red/green color blind like me.

The real issue here is - if people are basing image decisions upon whatever their screens show without looking at some reference monitor, it's all a crap shoot. Just because you see the same thing in Adobe, Apple or AVID doesn't mean anything with regard to the reality of the material.

There is a reason that serious colorists use monitors designed for this purpose.

x

Wisely said. Here, here. I agree - and I am not nor could I ever be a "real" colorist.

I'm no maestro editor either, But I can work mise en scene contrasting/matching "looks".

Beethoven was deaf when he composed and conducted a

couple of his most well known little "pieces".

👿

Yes, but Beethoven had absolute pitch embeded in his head.

He was not composing the 9th by listening through a junky pair of ipod headphones.

x

Look, I read your other posts - OK, FCP X is not perfect - but it is a great enabler for anyone with that vision of a "movie" in their head. These days, it is about looks - not reality - like "The Matrix Look" they asked me, "can you do The Matric Look"? or 3D - I've been asked "can you give me the Avatar Look", years ago it was The Missouri Breaks Look, or the Ordinary People Look. These days, audiences have to wear 47 cent plastic glasses to see 3d and are used to the "Haute Artificial". Looks. Not "reality". Looks right out of "Graphic Novels" or Comic Books.

Final Cut Pro X is an excellent tool to help anyone - at a very creative stage of the process of realization, not reality and it is every bit as good at that as any NLE.

IMNSHO😀

Now you take the last comment here, because this has gotten way off topic.

Look the bottom line is that you have to have a broadcast monitor to color correct for anything but the web. If your movie is going on the web - your monitor is probably fine. However - if you are delivering a film to broadcast you absolutely have to have a monitor that displays colors and effects correctly - with video scopes. Scopes help - but your eyes are the best judge with scopes as a guide to keep things in spec. I can tell you that 100% of the time the "look" you think is awesome on your computer screen from Magic Bullet or whatever plug in of the day you are using is not at all what you will see when you export that movie and burn a blu ray or likewise. Not even close. Whites will be blown out - blues and reds all over the place - a gray white milky sheen will be cast all over your scenes like a blanket and the color red will almost never look correct.

None of this however is the issue I was talking about. File it under no kidding. FCP 10.1 is shifting my footage for some reason. Same BROADCAST MONITOR. Same HARD DRIVE - same EVERYTHING. I know this because I started this project in 7 and finished it in 10.1 when I got my new MacPro. It is some weird thing that I can see and have to correct for manually.

What file format are your originals? If you skip the transcoding to ProRes in Resolve do you get the same issue? What about is you transcode before you import into Resolve?

I've found when transcoding from h.264 to ProRes 422 (using MPEG Streamclip) that there is a colour and gamma shift. In fact I have a preset built into MPEG Streamclip to compensate for it. From memory the ProRes file is more contrasty? I've spoken to a professional colour grader about this and he's found the same issue. There's a bit of chat on various sites about it too.

Just had a look and the compensation in MPEG Streamclip is a -15% contrast adjustment.