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Cinema Desktop Preview image problem
I’m currently using my 42″ Panasonic LCD HDTV for Cinema Desktop Preview by outputting from my Macbook Pro’s DVI output via DVI to HDMI cable to HDMI input on the TV.
I know I can’t trust it for properly monitoring colors this way, it’s just so I can see the picture in full rez while editing. The trouble I’m having is that when the picture is below a certain level of brightness the image on the TV semi-solarizes: black levels rise, white levels drop on their own. When I output to bluray and play the same video back on a bluray player with the same TV, same brightness/contrast/color settings I don’t have this image issue. I have all the auto black level/color changing/motion options turned off on the TV and it still happens.
Has anyone run into this before? It’s not a black level legalization issue as far as I can tell, cause it’ll happen with blacks above 5% on a waveform, its almost like if the overall brightness across the screen drops below a threshold that it freaks out. -
7 Replies
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[Andy Schroeder] “I know I can’t trust it for properly monitoring colors this way”
You answered your own question. You need an I/O device to properly see the correct image. If you have a trained eye, you can calibrate your 42″ monitor to see a more accurate picture of your output. Keep in mind, Computer output from a graphics card and a Video output from an I/O device are different.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Creative Pro Users Group -
You answered your own question. You need an I/O device to properly see the correct image. If you have a trained eye, you can calibrate your 42″ monitor to see a more accurate picture of your output. Keep in mind, Computer output from a graphics card and a Video output from an I/O device are different.
No, I didn’t answer my own question. You didn’t either, but perhaps I wasn’t clear enough in asking it: Has anybody else experienced their TV freaking out and giving a solarized-like look when using digital cinema desktop preview?
I’m not asking for people to tell me to buy a video monitor, I’m not expecting to get video monitor accurate colors, I just wanted to see the image in 1080p while I edited it and not shrunk down in a tiny corner of my laptop screen.
It seems like outputting video from FCP over the DVI output to my TV’s HDMI input is causing my TV to have display problems if the overall percentage of light isn’t high enough. I made sure to turn off all automatic adjustments TV’s are prone to coming with these days and it still happens.
If I take the same clip with no changes made, make a bluray disc out of it, plug the bluray into the same TV input with no changes, I don’t have this issue. If I use the TV as a second computer monitor and play the clip as a full screen quicktime file on it, I don’t have this issue. Just in FCP.
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What are your sequence settings? A timeline set for 10 bit resolution will look better on darker areas than an 8-bit setting. Maybe your computer’s DVI output is sending 8-bit information to your monitor while the Blu-Ray player is outputting 10-bit? A 10-bit signal will have a much better gray scale resolution and will have many more bits to “describe” your video. When that video gets darker, 8-bit will have less information to describe your video than 10-bit. You can also see the same problem in a shaded dark blue sky. The 10-bit video will look smooth while the 8-bit version will show bands in the shading.
Just a thought…
E=MC2+/-2db
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Thanks for replying
I’m in a 10 bit sequence, ProRes422HQ files. What I’m seeing isn’t banding. It’s not exactly solarization either, but Im not sure how else to really describe it. Its as if when the overall light level in the video drops below a certain point, the shadows/shadow saturation gets pumped up very high, and the midtones and highlights drop down to the low-mid range. It’s not a negative image, its not solarization… maybe similar to a bad embossing effect in photoshop.
It doesn’t happen in quicktime full screen, but I’m wondering if thats due to quicktime’s gamma shift, because a very small adjustment to the light level in 3 way color corrector fixes it, but I don’t want to do any light/color changes since it’s just a computer output and not a proper monitor.
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Hi Andy,
I’m experiencing a very similar issue, if not exactly the same :
My cinema desktop preview monitor goes off in about 5 sec, when it has to display images below 10% brightness. I’m using ProRes422HQ. I don’t have the issue when clips are displayed out of FCP7 it seems.
Did you eventually find an explanation / solution to your issue ?
Best,
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I never found a fix to this outside of raising the black level a couple percent when editing and removing that before export. I didn’t really want to do that, but at the end of the day “remove all attributes” command is easier than dropping lots of cash on a monitor when I just wanted a larger screen to view
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Thanks a lot for your quick feedback and sharing how you dealt with the issue.
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