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Terrible Preview Window compared to original footage
Hi,
I appreciate this question has likely been done to death, and also possibly that a cross-section of Sony Vegas Pro users will interact in this forum, so apologies for any potential cross post. Also while self deprecation isn’t a particularly endearing quality, I do fully admit that I’m new to HD having spent most of my video editing using a Sony PD 170 and having none of these challenges
I’ve recently purchased a Sony NEX-VG30E (Non US Version) and recorded some footage 1920x1080x128, 25 fps.
I played it back on my TV and it’s reflective of the location, light, etc.
I pulled it up to the computer and even using Windows Media Player it’s representative on my 1080p HD monitor, as shown in the file but when it comes to displaying it in the preview monitor the display is also far from the original, it’s a struggle to work with.
I have had two replies on the Sony Vegas Forums, one suggested applying the Studio RGB to Computer RGB Video FX to improve preview, and both suggested external monitors to get a better sense of what one had. A Black Magic card in the PC to drive the ext. monitor was suggested. I’m keen to know about this.
I’ve also tried to render it, copying it to a USB stick and playing it on the telly. The outcome is similar, namely worse than Windows Media Player, but better than the Vegas Pro preview window.
I’ve attached a couple of files
Preview window –
Media Player –
7250_originalmediawindowsmediaplayer.jpg.zip
It really shouldn’t be this bad should it?
I would be very grateful for any help and am happy to do more homework if necessary, so any pearls of wisdom are most welcome.
Many thanks Colin
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5 Replies
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You probably do have a levels problem.
8-bits is a numeric range of 0-255.
Computer displays use this full range. 0 being the blackest black.Digital video is all over the map, but studio swing is common. This attempts to mimic the way classic analog video operated. Meaning that the blackest black does not use the minimum video transmission signal. Studio swing uses a range of 16-235. The values outside that range are not strictly illegal but what happens to them is not actually defined. Typically the are clamped. i.e. 1-16 display the same as 16.
The Vegas preview window is a computer display and expects 0-255. If your camera video is in the range of 16-235 then it will look flat in the vegas preview window. This is why some said to you to apply a studio to computer effect to adjust this during playback. Just remember to turn that off for rendering.
It (16-235 video) should look fine in a PC video player since the video player will likely expand the 16-235 to 0-255 for the computer display. Output from your camera to a video device should look fine because they are all use the “standard” video levels.
Note than many cameras record information outside the “video” range of 16-235. You can use the waveform video scope to analyze this. In this be sure to turn the studio RGB video scope option to see a true video of the source material.
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[Colin Basterfield] “I would be very grateful for any help and am happy to do more homework if necessary, so any pearls of wisdom are most welcome.”
Why do you have your projects Pixel Format set to 32-bit floating point (full range) and your View Transformation set to ACES RRT (sRGB)? Does your camera use S-Log encoding? This is what’s causing the problem.
Also, please upload screen shots using the Image Upload button instead of zip files so that we don’t have to download and unzip them. This will allow them to show up as party of your post like this:
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Hi John,
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The truth is as a writer of fiction that sometimes ends up as short movie, i) I don’t use Vegas Pro very often, and ii) when I had my Sony PD170 I don’t recall having to change these, perhaps because when I imported the footage it just made these changes for me, although my memory may differ from the reality.
Yesterday morning, I changed my View Transforms to Off and that improved things no end, but hadn’t I changed the Pixel Format, the other options being 8 bit or 32 bit floating point (video levels), so I’m assuming the latter, but will have a play around with it.
In short thank you so much for pointing this basic stuff out, and in addition thanks for your guidance re posting images, I hadn’t noticed that option, so will know in future.
It’s interesting as I get older how impatient I find myself getting when I have a deadline and stuff that I perceive should just work doesn’t.
It’s so good that there are more patient folk out there, to not only go and figure out the small details that make a big difference, but also to be sufficiently humble and happy to share it without exacerbating the enquirer’s perception that they are asking a dumb question, so thank you for that.
OK, once again many thanks to you for your time.
Best
Colin -
Hi,
I don’t think this is my problem, see other reply to John, but this is a very interesting response that will no doubt open new doors for me.
Many thanks for your time
Colin -
[Colin Basterfield] “It’s so good that there are more patient folk out there, to not only go and figure out the small details that make a big difference, but also to be sufficiently humble and happy to share it without exacerbating the enquirer’s perception that they are asking a dumb question, so thank you for that.”
You’re welcome Colin and thanks for the kind words. Keep your Pixel Format at 8-bit (which is the default) and everything should be OK. Glad I could help.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com
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