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color levels on TV
This may not be a question for here but, I’ve noticed that when a commercial I produce and edit on V6 runs on the network, the colors seem washed out.
I use a 13 inch JVC TV as my external monitor and check the final production on that to see what it’ll look like. However, what I see on my little TV is far better to what I see once the ad is broadcast. As I’ve said, the colors seemed to be faded on air.
Is there anything I can do to alter the colors so they’ll look good once they are aired? And in that regard, is there anything I can do to have an honest representation of what it’ll look like before I send it to the TV stations/
Thanks in advance.
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7 Replies
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There are so many variables possible in this scenerio, there is no pat simple answer. Let me give you a sample:
Your 13″ JVC may not be setup correctly.
The TV Master Control person doing the transfer into their playback system may not be watching levels correctly. (Did you check your levels on a scope, did you have color bars for reference for their setup?)
Your TV that you are watching at home my not be setup properly.
This is just three of many possible reasons.
Charlie
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Thanks Charlie.
I had a look at the color parade scope, but in all honesty am not sure how to use it. I don’t know if all three colors should be level, right up to 255 etc.As for the TVs, you’re right, they might not be set up properly, but I guess I compare what I play on them (my work) to what I see on TV via the networks. I realize of course that they could be shooting with much more sophisticated equipment, but it just seems like everything is fine except for the fact the picture lacks any real ‘punch’. Everything just seems to be faded a bit, like being left out a bit too long in the sun. How’s that for being technical. Now you know why I can’t follow the color bars.
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If you are producing work for broadcast, you MUST use a calibrated monitor. What you are doing is like producing a music CD and listening to your mix on a transister radio.
Gary
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At the very least you should play a well produced commercial (store bought) DVD on the TV you are monitoring on and see how the colors look. Sounds to me like your TV is set up with too much color level. Are you using color correction to make the footage look good on the TV? The reason I ask is because I ran into this same problem a while back. I use a 21″ panasonic flat screen (not flat panel) TV as my monitor. I set the color level on the TV while looking through a Rosco #80 blue filter as described in some of the setup proceedures I’ve read. This proceedure is used if you do not have a commercial video monitor that has a blue switch. Problem is…when I got the color set using the blue filter with the SMPTE bars in VEGAS I had the color level WAY up. And I DID follow the directions from start to finish…brightness, contrast, etc. for the whole set up. But this setting made my footage look really blown out so I in turn lowered the saturation level in Vegas. Thus making my final product look washed out on other sets. Once I set it up by just eyeballing it my videos are fine. But…for commercial work you REALLY do need a professional monitor for anything that is going to be broadcast.
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Check this out and see if it helps.
https://www.videouniversity.com/tvbars2.htmA good example of what is being said about having a good monitor for checking video. A local production company owner (Not a very technical guy) had just purchased a $15,000 Ikegami monitor and asked my engineer to come over and set it up for him. He commented to the engineer that his cheap little 13 inch Sony’s which he had paid about $600 for looked better than the $15,000 Ike monitor. My engineer didn’t have the heart to tell him that what he saw on the $15,000 Ike was what his (badly needing setup) cameras actually looked like. I’m not saying you need to spend $15,000 for a monitor, most people can’t afford that. Just try to make sure your monitor is as close to correct as you can make it. Best not to use parade for overall setup with scope use the vector scope to make sure the colors are not outside the circle, and use the waveform to check pedestal and white levels. That is as simple as I can get with it.
Charlie
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you need to adjust your monitor to a standard = SMPTE color bars.
also note that if you give your local station a DV25 tape and they make a dub to betaSP = well they may not be setting up the dub correctly ( which happens alot) and you end up with the black level at 14ire instead of 7.5 .which means everything goes up ( gets lighter) = looks faded
Vegas dv codec follows 601 specs.. set your video scopes to studio RGB 16-235 … look at the waveform .. 16rgb will be 0 ire ..and 235rgb will be 100 ire.
which means 255 will be 108 ire = out of range = clipping.depending on the scene a caucasion face would fall in the 60 -75ire area .. darker scenes would fall below those #’s … kickers/very bright highlights would run a little higher for those small area’s on face ..
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Thanks very much. I’ll work on it.
Erik
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