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Why does video in my Avid look drab and depressing but great on export?
Hey all,
Just a quick question from primarily a FCP editor (learned editing on Avid, the world pushed me to FCP the last few years) – perhaps there’s a setting I can change somewhere but I can’t seem to figure out where. I’m cutting a TLC show that’s shot by a professional crew – there’s the location broll and staged interview sections that were lit very well – all shot on HDV or XDCAM, either way it’s long GOP – when I’m working in Avid (MC 3.5.4 on a mac), my video looks very washed out and not nice at all. The sharpness is there but it’s quite desaturated. When I export to a file on my desktop, the video looks pristine, saturated with all the colors popping. Is there a color space setting or something that I’m missing to make my timeline look this nice as well so I don’t get so depressed while editing 🙂 ? I know that in FCP, what you see while you’re editing is almost exactly what you get on export. What option have I overlooked?
Thanks!
FCP / AVID EDITOR
Features : Television
http://www.DefiningFilms.com -
6 Replies
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If you are on a PC, I’d check the overlay settings in the NVidia control panel. Not sure about a Mac, though. I would imagine there is some way to access the settings. The help section should have the settings for the card, I believe.
Jon
Be curious, not judgmental.
Walt Whitman -
Hmmm… I know how to change my display settings under system preferences but I’ve already calibrated that so that FCP and CC still pictures is fairly accurate. I also have my gamme set to a PC gamma which should have helped out as well. I wasn’t sure if there was a setting in Avid that I needed to change or could tweak. I also noticed this on my early avid shows for TLC back in 05 but I was editing off of the production company’s iMac so again, I was on a mac. Maybe it’s a Mac Avid VS PC Avid thing…
FCP / AVID EDITOR
Features : Television
http://www.DefiningFilms.com -
My weekend gig is on a Macbook Pro – I’ll poke around if I have time and see if there are any OS settings… I never really noticed a difference, though. Is your OS and QT compatible with the MC version you are running? I’ve seen really odd things happen when the QT version isn’t right. The producer I work with has upgraded his QT to far, and it crashes the audiosuite when I try to use it.
Jon
Be curious, not judgmental.
Walt Whitman -
Bryan –
I didn’t see anything in the Mac OS that would adjust the overlay – and the footage I worked with seemed fine – colors popped, etc…
Do you have full resolution selected? It’s a little green button at the bottom of the timeline window. It should be full green, but could be yellow or half yellow half green. Just click it until it turns green…
Jon
Be curious, not judgmental.
Walt Whitman -
Hmmm, well mine was on a half green circle so I tried full green and it did get sharper though my playback of un-rendered effects was definitely hit. Maybe it’s just my eyes playing tricks on me or maybe FCP does some weird gamma curve in the program to make images pop more…
FCP / AVID EDITOR
Features : Television
http://www.DefiningFilms.com -
This might be too easy, but maybe you’re looking at draft quality in the record monitor? You can adjust that by clicking the green/Yellow icon below the timeline…
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