[Jm Knowles]

Thanks for the well thought out answer. This is all so mysterious (like you said sometimes something works, sometimes it doesn’t).

I will admit that checking color bars is something that is not part of my workfow (and since my video work is for web and presentations it is probably less essential than broadcast.) I do need to start paying more attention to my colors though.

I had read about the Tiff fix – I will try that – it is hard to keep track of which to do where.

I would use x264 (and maybe MainConcept – this is the first I have heard about it) except for the fact that most of my clients won’t have those codecs and will freak about having to install something to watch a video (“Youtube plays – why doesn’t yours play?”)

It sounds like you have quite a workaround for your stations that require H264. Yikes. It really should be easier than that.

Again, thanks for the pointers. I am a web designer who is slowly learning more about video other than simple edits and the export to quicktime. I appreciate the hellp.

[Jm Knowles]

I didn’t know I could do that (and I guess I owe some other people some cows too when I get a few minutes to spare!)
Done. Thanks again.

[Jm Knowles]

I followed your advice and everything looks great. Thanks for being around today and sharing your advice Daniel. It was very much appreciated.

[Jm Knowles]

Thanks much Daniel I will give it a try!

[Jm Knowles]

Thank you Daniel. When I get into Compressor is there anything I should watch out for. Should I set keyframes to automatic, or to some other figure to get best quality. I am setting everything to best so far ..

[Jm Knowles]

The use of my frame size 720 by 480 square pixels was an aesthetic decision … as this was not for broadcast and presentation only I thought that I would have the flexibility to do this. At this stage of the game I am locked into that aspect ration (unless I recreate all of my graphics from scratch.) Is this going to be a problem?

[Jm Knowles]

I am exporting out to quicktime h.264 most likely for a presentation run off of a laptop. I have final cut Studio 2, Snow Leopard – not a clean install and there are many other applications on my computer (after this project I plan to convert to a dual boot system with secondary boot having clean install of OS and just dedicated to video)

I have 2 x 2.8 Quad Core Intel Xeon with 8 GB 800 MHz DDR2 FB-Dimm

Thanks for the quick reply

[Jm Knowles]

That is what I did … was just wondering if there was a way to not have to do that manually.

[Jm Knowles]

I am having a weird issue where when I playback on my system in quicktime 7 and 10 some codecs look awful. Strangely, when I play them back on the web through FireFox or in within FCP they look fine. It is really worrying me. The frames in question were created in Motion.

https://www.extravaganzacreative.com/Milk/colorspaceIssue.html

This video looks terrible when I play it on in quicktime from my system but looks fine on the web
https://www.extravaganzacreative.com/Milk/testBad.mov

I originally thought it was the so-called H.264 gamma shift but but it is appearing when I output and playback in Pro Res (sometimes). I know that there are a lot of settings I need to hit. I am wondering if I have the right bit depth, the right color profile or if there is some other thing. Could it be that I had to adjust my frame size? I am baffled.

For some reason though when I ouput to MPEG it looked ok when I played it back on my system.

I love working with video but this sort of stuff makes me feel like I am about to have a heart attack. I have been going through this for a week trying to find the elusive problem.

PS Thanks to all those who have responded so far Mark, Chris and John.

[Jm Knowles]

I am not sure what lap top they are using – that is out of my control. I am using 422 for pro res. I am thinking H.264 might be the best.