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PC > Mac Gamma (don’t get upset…)
I know how people feel about answering the same questions over and over, and I’m sure you’ve all seen this one before, but I literally spent the last 2 hours looking through Cow Archives to find answer for this and could not find anything satisfactory…SO…
1. Using screen capture software called “Fraps” on PC to capture movie encoded with “Fraps” codec. Looks great on the PC when originally captured.
2. Bring .AVI in Fraps codec to Mac, where I use QT Component by Perian.org to allow me to view file in AE, QT, etc.
3. The Fraps-encoded QT in AE on the Mac is considerably darker than it looks on the PC – confusing, because I thought the gamma difference was the opposite – that the file would look darker on the PC?
4. Did a simple crop of the QT in AE, re-rendered in 100% Animaton codec (lossless…) and brought back to PC, where the image is now permanently dark, ie, does not look lighter just because I am viewing on the PC.
Thoughts? A standard levels/gamma correction I can do on the Mac to “lighten it up” to resemble, at least, the .AVI on the PC?
Thanks in advance…sorry for yet another gamma question…
Tom
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1 Reply
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[tom] “The Fraps-encoded QT in AE on the Mac is considerably darker than it looks on the PC – confusing, because I thought the gamma difference was the opposite – that the file would look darker on the PC? “
This depends entirely on:
1) What the native gamma of the AVI is, which often defaults to the gamma of the display for screen capture devices.
2) What the native gamma of the PC display is.
3) What the gamma of the color profile for the PC display is.
4) What the native gamma of the Mac display is.
5) What the gamma of the color profile for the Mac display is.
6) How the associated display/render applications are interpreting the gamma.
If you’re using the same display for both your Mac and PC then that should eliminate factors 2 and 4, if you’re using the same ICC color profile in both your PC environment and your Mac environment then that should eliminate factors 3 and 5.
Assuming you’re using the same monitor on both computers, try setting the color profiles of both environments to sRGB IEC61966-2.1 and see if it looks correct in QT Player on both systems.
I hope I didn’t forget any factors…
Darby Edelen
Designer
Left Coast Digital
Santa Cruz, CA
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