Red Color Appears Fuzzy

[Christoph Vonrhein]

If you are using a DV codec then this effect is normal, as the color information is not encoded in the stream in each and every pixel. In simple terms: Colored pixels have a lower resolution than black and white pixels.

—
Christoph

[Jeff Carpenter]

Red is a particularly problematic color. Always has been for video.

Try the ‘RGB Balance’ filter and tap down the red saturation slightly. It might help a little without giving up too much red.

Perhaps not, but it’s worth a try.

[Redford Givens]

Re: Red Color Appears Fuzzy
by Christoph Vonrhein on Sep 3, 2008 at 9:28:58 am

If you are using a DV codec then this effect is normal, as the color information is not encoded in the stream in each and every pixel. In simple terms: Colored pixels have a lower resolution than black and white pixels.

—
Christoph

We capture straight from a Panasonic AG-DVX100B. 24P Advanced Pulldown.

Why doesn’t BLUE have fringing???

and

by Jeff Carpenter on Sep 3, 2008 at 10:29:07 am

Red is a particularly problematic color. Always has been for video.

Now you tell me. Seriously, I always run head on into the problem areas.

Try the ‘RGB Balance’ filter and tap down the red saturation slightly. It might help a little without giving up too much red.

Perhaps not, but it’s worth a try.

I’ll do that when I get a chance.

Thanks to both of you for the info.

Kill all robots

Redford Givens

[Christoph Vonrhein]

…and also: Why doesn’t have GREEN fringing.

The answer is quite complicated and actually even goes back to the way how color is encoded in a former black-and-white analog stream for TV sets in the 1960’s. So let’s make it as simple as possible to avoid a 147 page excursion:

Our eyes are way more sensitive to BW (black and white) than to colors. So back then in the 60’s when they invented the PAL and NTSC system, color was only encoded with less then half the bandwidth of the BW signal. When DV cameras were invented and everything was not analog anymore, this thought was still alive and color was continued to be encoded with a portion of the bandwidth of BW.

The reason why you see this effect with red the best is a human reason: Red is a very strong color and is recognized by our eyes very easily. Red traffic lights, red warning signs (“Poison! Don’t eat this.”), blood is red (also a warning). No other color stands out that much as red. A green traffic sign in a red forest would barely be recognized. A red traffic sign in a green forrest stands out.

Blue is not important to our eyes, as only 11% of the white spectrum is blue.

In the end, when you look very closely, all colors have fringing. It’s just red that stands out so much and suffers from the lower resolution and from the higher compression rate compared to the BW signal.

—
Christoph

[Bill Dewald]

Assuming this is DV – try applying the 4:1:1 Chroma Smoother – it fixed an extreme case for me.

[Todd Reid]

also (assuming dv) try to put your sequence in a different codec, like dv50 or uncompressed.
Do you also have “jaggies” or is the color just “fuzzy”?
If DV, I would assume you have what I would describe as jaggies (not smooth edges), and dv50 could minimize it.

Where is this video going to be shown?
Are you looking at an external broadcast monitor or your computer?