Sony “Levels” vs “Broadcast Colours”

[John Rofrano]

[Bruce Quayle] “I had never used Levels before and I was wondering if Broadcast Colours does a similar function – EG when converting to the “Studio RGB” setting.

Could someone who really understands the differences perhaps explain these to me. I have learned there is often more than one way to achieve a given result in Vegas.”

Hi bruce,

Great question and the answer is simple:

Broadcast Colors will CLIP your video to bring it within 16 – 235. That can look very unnatural if you have details in the areas that are being clipped. For example, you may have clouds that have details and once they are clipped they are a solid color (white) like a cartoon. Broadcaster hate this and will reject your tape when they see it.

Levels will Scale (Squeeze or Stretch) your luminance to be within the broadcast standard while maintaining all of the original details. You ALWAYS want to use Levels to bring your footage within 16 – 235 and then place Broadcast Colors on the Master Video Bus as an insurance policy just in case you missed anything.

Here is an example of an original shot, then with Broadcast Colors Studio RGB (16 to 235), and finally with a Levels adjustment. Notice that the tops of the waveform are just clipped off with Broadcast Colors (loosing information), but they are actually scaled down with Levels retaining all original information.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Graham Bernard]

Most excellent and clearest explanation ever jr!

Somebody at COW should make your response a “sticky”.

So, Broadcast are the Gatekeepers or Security Guard checking your luggage. You either get to go through or not. Where Levels ALLOW us to adjust and ensure we ARE within certain levels, legal or otherwise, and still RETAIN visual data.

Nice!

Grazie

[Bruce Quayle]

Thank you so much John and Graham for your replies. Great insight and advice.

I had been softening the clipping by using the “Smoothness” slider in Broadcast Colours…but I guess there must be more control in the Levels plugin. I’ll certainly use that from now on.

Would you suggest placing the plugin in the Video Output chain or after the Colour Correct plugin in the Video Track chain?…But then, I guess that should really be dictated by the project and the tracks and events therein? Your comments would still be appreciated on this though.

Thanks again.

Cheers,
Bruce

[John Rofrano]

[Graham Bernard] “So, Broadcast are the Gatekeepers or Security Guard checking your luggage. You either get to go through or not. Where Levels ALLOW us to adjust and ensure we ARE within certain levels, legal or otherwise, and still RETAIN visual data.”

Yes, that’s exactly how I use them.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[John Rofrano]

[Bruce Quayle] “Would you suggest placing the plugin in the Video Output chain or after the Colour Correct plugin in the Video Track chain?…But then, I guess that should really be dictated by the project and the tracks and events therein? Your comments would still be appreciated on this though.”

It does depend on how it was shot. If it was a long event like a play, or demo, I usually color correct at the track level with each track holding a different camera. The advantage to doing this is you can use keyframes to make minor adjustments if the lighting changes over time. If changes aren’t needed, you can color correct at the Media level. If there are a lot of different shots, then you may need to color correct at the event level giving each shot it’s own amount of correction.

The chain I use is:

[Levels] -> [Color Corrector] -> [Color Curves]

This allows me to bring the levels within spec first, then add any color correction, and then apply a slight “S” curve to give it some dynamics because levels may have squashed the luminance a bit and made it look flat.

Hope this helps,

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Bruce Quayle]

Thanks so much for your input John. I’ve been in this business longer than I care to remember (2″ quad head machines!!), but until recently, always as a producer or director. With the advent of programs like Vegas and speedy (and affordable) computers, and the remarkable cameras available today, it has become possible for me to begin producing documentaries myself. But this brings with it the need for the sort of expertise that I used to rely on others to provide.

This forum, with people like you providing the guiding light, is a boon to those like myself. I thank you, and all on this forum who contribute their hard earned experience, very sincerely.

Cheers,
Bruce

[John Rofrano]

You’re very welcome and I’m sure the others who contribute here feel the same way. Glad we could help.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com