Creative Communities of the World Forums

The peer to peer support community for media production professionals.

Activity Forums Avid Media Composer Quicktime reference RGB and 709 look the same

  • Quicktime reference RGB and 709 look the same

    Posted by Razvan Dimitriu on October 17, 2013 at 7:39 pm

    It should be straight forward, right? Avid works in legal range (16-235). When exporting for web, I choose “RGB” in the export settings, to remap the video levels to full range (0-255). But exporting with ‘RGB’ looks exactly the same as exporting with 709. I’ve done some tests with a gradient and looked on the scopes and it’s definitely the same thing.
    Does anyone know what I’m missing? The clips that I export for web look too flat…

    Clement Hobbs replied 12 years, 6 months ago 4 Members · 3 Replies
  • 3 Replies
  • Michael Mccune

    October 17, 2013 at 9:34 pm

    Razvan; This video tutorial, https://c2.avid.com/forums/p/86781/492177.aspx, by Douglas “drgaijin” might give a little useful information.

    He exported the same test footage many times in succession, varying the settings you mentioned, RGB and 709, and others, and produced an HD output that showed the differences.

    This Scottish fellow, Douglas, is a well-spring of endless–it seems–information about Media Composer and editing technique, offered with a very broad perspective of the process. He has dozens of tutorials but the one more on point for your question is the citation above.

    Mike

  • Job Ter burg

    October 18, 2013 at 9:41 pm

    What is the codec you are using? Does the same thing happen if you export Same As Source?

  • Clement Hobbs

    October 30, 2013 at 5:33 pm

    Job’s question is quite important.

    As an example, I’ve exported:

    DNxHD as 709 and the QTs read 16-235 in AE
    ProRes as 709 the QTs read 0-255 in AE (regardless of export gamma correction setting auto/none)

    If I bring both of those files back into the Avid as 709 sources, they match. All this to say the codec you choose on export can affect the results in ways you weren’t expecting.

    I never create any delivery files out of the Avid unless the required specs match the native format. Much better to use dedicated transcoders.

We use anonymous cookies to give you the best experience we can.
Our Privacy policy | GDPR Policy