• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  H264 and quicktime gamma question

  Posted by Alan Lacey on April 15, 2008 at 7:37 pm

  I’m trying to export a decent h264 compression from a nice looking FCP timeline. (Prores HQ 1920×1080)

  After export, when run in QT player it displays with the wrong gamma (too bright and flat). In fact it’s not just the h264 exports that look this way)

  I go to QT prefs and enable ‘Final Cut Pro’ compatibility and it now looks perfect. Ie not being displayed with colorsynch. (something to do with gamma 1.8 v 2.2)

  I’m very confused about this and wonder what settings should I use to get this clip looking good on most computers for download?

  Thank you for any advice.

  Alan

  Ernest House replied 17 years, 11 months ago 5 Members · 8 Replies
• 8 Replies

• 

  David Roth weiss

  April 15, 2008 at 9:00 pm

  I agree, h.264 often looks like its got a gamma shift toward the brighter. I just drop the brightness filter 1 click down in the exporter and sometimes up the chroma too. In other words, don’t color correct again in FCP to make these changes, cuz it is an h.264 thing.

  David Roth Weiss
  Director/Editor
  David Weiss Productions, Inc.
  Los Angeles

  POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

  A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
• 

  Alan Lacey

  April 16, 2008 at 8:46 am

  Thanks for the advice David, that’s a correction I make in the export ‘using quicktime conversion’ option is it? I’ll give it a go.

  Kindest regards

  Alan
• 

  Alan Lacey

  April 16, 2008 at 8:51 am

  David,

  I can’t find any of the filters (brightness/chroma) you mention when I try to export via QT conversion from fcp.

  Are you going via compressor?

  Thanks Alan
• 

  Tom Wolsky

  April 16, 2008 at 11:44 am

  It’s there for QuickTime formats. Click Options button and there are separate buttons for Video Settings, Filters and Size. This is not available in other formats.

  All the best,

  Tom

  Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP6,” “Basic Training for FCS2” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
  Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 3.5 HD Editing Workshop”
• 

  Alan Lacey

  April 16, 2008 at 12:14 pm

  Thanks Tom,

  I was exporting using the mp4 option.

  Alan
• 

  Anthony Dalesandro

  April 16, 2008 at 3:57 pm

  To correct for the H.264 compression ‘error’ I use the Filters:Video:Gamma filter and set it to 1.2 to get the blacks back. But it still lacks saturation so I go to the Filters:Color tab and select Preserve Source. This keeps the saturation matching my pre-H.264 edit.

  —
  Anthony Dalesandro
  anthony@anthonydalesandro.com
  https://www.anthonydalesandro.com
• 

  Alan Lacey

  April 16, 2008 at 7:04 pm

  thanks to all of you.

  It all seems a bit arbitary as when I preview the video stream, they look very different on PC v Mac anyway.

  Cheers

  Alan
• 

  Ernest House

  May 30, 2008 at 11:16 am

  I can’t find the “Final Cut Pro” compatibility setting to which you refer in the QT prefs. Can you describe where it is?

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