Apple Compressor Issue

[Alan Cook]

I too suddenly have this issue. Everything’s always been perfect until now. All I’ve done recently is install the Coremelt update (for FCPX 10.0.7) and the latest FXFactory (402_3708).

Compressor 4.0.6 FCPX 10.0.7

Any footage of any codec (Uncompressed 8bit, ProRes 422) goes very dark. Whereas anything in FCP X or playing QuickTime player remains as you would expect.

Problem is do I take any action to compensate or not? Is it a “visual thing” only? I’m now having to waste my time on tests and experiments because my work is being shared in Windows environments and I’ve got to make .wmv files. Do I compensate in the encode or not?

In fact I am embarrassed to ask an Agency guy what my footage that I gave him Uncompressed on a hard drive looked like (sounds too unprofessional to ask) – he wanted to do his own .wmv compression on their windows machine, out of choice. I’m wondering what sort of compensation he made, if it was as accurate as I would have wanted it to be, and what he thought of my work if it was so dark! It’s my first time working with this Agency.

Got to sort this out, it’s embarrassing. Always been OK using DV, Prores etc with reference/confidence monitoring SD through DVCam decks and SD monitors (also Decklink and BetaSP machines). Now with HD (by-passing above) going direct to files (H264, wmv…) confidence is knocked.

Been using FCP since v1.25 starting on Targa 2000Pro hardware, blah, blah, blah – always certain of output.

[Eric Parker andersen]

Sorry for late reply. Hope you’ve managed to sort it out. In my case I only saw the problem within compressor (any codec, etc), however, my immediate workaround was to export directly from FCPX using my compressor settings. After the last compressor update the problem disappeared for me. I have generally had good luck delivering digitally, and I’m confident that if it looked old on the production monitor and checked out on the scopes, the output file will be solid. I hope everything worked out for you with the new client.

-Eric

E. Parker Andersen – Seventhree Productions
Shooter, Cutter, 2D/3D Graphics and FX
http://www.73pro.com