More with the Mac Gamma Shift and tagging video with the 2.4 gamma in DaVinci, following my post on color correction in Premiere Pro

So yesterday I had a post how Adobe’s new color correction feature in Premiere Pro 2022 didn’t do anything to fix the gamma shift issue on Mac on exports, and I posted a link to my post in a facebook group on Premiere Pro for Pro users.

Responses included finishing everything in DaVinci, which does nothing about Premiere’s handling of the issue, and people saying just work on a PC which will fix the issue, though it won’t if you have people viewing on Mac, because the gamma shift will happen then.

And then there were the responses about putting the Gamma 2.4 tag in DaVinci in fact tagging the clip wrongly to display correctly on Mac, and I decided to do a little test with Parallels to see how the clips show up in Windows. And I know that putting the Gamma 2.4 tag on your footage is ignored by YouTube, which ignores a 121 tag on footage and in fact forces 111 which will then have the gamma shift.

So to start this is short film I am working on, and the first part are the clip set with the DaVinci Gamma tag set to Gamma 2.4 on export.

This is the Gamma Tag I am talking about.

So I exported the show with this tag.

So the left is the 111 tag and the right side is the 121 tag on mac in quicktime. The 121 is much closer to what I am seeing on my external monitor
So this is the 111 on left and 121 tag on right, these look the same, and actually look better than the 121 tag in Quicktime,
So the left is the clip with 121 tag in quicktime and the same clip in VLC on the right, VLC looks like the correct look, so VLC is still the best solution.

Now I wanted to see about the tags and how they would look in Windows, so I have Windows 11 installed in Parallels, and I used both just Windows viewer and VLC in Windows, now I just used whatever size they opened at so I will scale down the other images to match framing. And the frame might be slightly different as I couldn’t figure out how to go frame by frame in Windows player. This is all on my iMac Pro, though screen shotting form mac, find it interesting that the 121 Gamma 2.4 tag matches on Windows to Mac, but VLC on Mac and WIndows doesn’t and VLC on Mac looks closest to what is on my external monitor.

So the 111 on the left and the 121 on the right tag look the same in windows.
So this is the 111 tag on the left and the 121 tag on the right in VLC in windows.
And this is the 111 tag on the left and the 121 tag on the right and to me the color correct looks the same.
On the left is the 111 tagged clip in Quicktime on Mac and on the left the 121 tag in VLC in windows to see the gamma shift.

And this one I don’t get at all, but here it is, VLC on the Mac vs VLC on windows, the mac version seems correct, and closest to what I am getting on my external monitor. If anyone can explain it, please contact me about what is going on here. Windows 11 is on the same display as the mac, though I am taking the screenshots from the Mac into the parallels Window.

On the left we have the 111 clip on Mac in VLC, and on the right the

I am very confused about this last one, I think the VLC on the mac looks most like what the image looks like on my external monitor, but on the mac at least the clips exported from DaVinci with the 121 Gamma 2.4 tag look closer to the image than ones exported with the 111 tag which completely show the weird gamma shift.

So for exporting from Premiere Pro, I guess if you can get people to use VLC is the best option, but if you can’t I would love if Premiere was able to add the 121 Gamma 2.4 tag to exported movies because it will look better on client machines.

I have also read the YouTube ignores the 121 tag and plays video at 111, so they will look blown out on YouTube. Does Vimeo do the same? I might have to do some tests and see what the results are when I have a chance.

If anyone has any thoughts please let me know.

EDIT:

So since there is such a difference in VLC, I decided to try another app that doesn’t do ColorSync on Mac and that is Firefox in Windows 11 and Mac.

The left is 111 on Firefox Mac and the right is 111 on Firefox Windows. The Windows one looks better to me, but the mac is better than quicktime

So strangely Firefox looks different on Mac and Windows. Better on Windows, but not as bad as Mac Quicktime for sure.

OK so I have posted about this at Adobe Uservoice to ask Adobe to add the ability to change the gamma of a clip on export. I know you don’t want to do this for final export, but for clients viewing copies, it would be nice to guarantee that those on Mac and those on Windows see something approximating what I see on my external monitor.

Adobe Premiere Pro 2020 Color Management for H.264 and HEVC does not solve Apple’s Gamma Shift Issue like I was hoping

So Adobe new update of Premiere Pro says it includes Color Management for H.264 and HEVC as a new features. The feature describes itself as the following:

With new color management for H.264 and HEVC formats, Premiere Pro interprets the correct color space when importing these formats, including 10-bit and HDR files. For exports, Premiere Pro includes the correct color space metadata with your output files, ensuring that your colors will display correctly on the destination platform. When creating new sequences, you can choose to Match Source or apply the color space you want to use, depending on your working media.

https://helpx.adobe.com/premiere-pro/using/whats-new/2022.html#color-management

I was hoping this would add the ability to add tags to exported H.254 videos so that they would display correctly anyplace, but especially on Macs. Macs of course have the weird gamma shift issue because of how they handle color, so Apple’s apps work correctly, but everything else has the wrong tags, so you have to watch your video in an un-color managed app to see what the clips will actually look like.

Now DaVinci Resolve has the ability to change the gamma tag in an exported H.264 clip.

Here is I change the Gamma tag to Gamma 2.4, which is what I am working in to get correct Rec.709 video

If I set the Gamma tag to Gamma 2.4, the exported H.264 video plays back correctly both in Quicktime as well as in VLC. I was hoping this is what Premiere was doing.

Unfortunately I immediately opened my current Premiere Pro 2021 project in Premiere Pro 2022 and did an H.264 export matching the export i did yesterday, and as far as I can tell it is exactly the same as the clip I exported yesterday with the gamma shift and all in Premiere Pro.

I checked out the video info in Quicktime on the clips, and the clip from 2021 and 2022 match exactly like this:

Interestingly a video exported from DaVinci with the Gamma 2.4 tag does show up with different info in Quicktime. It looks like this.

Unless I am completely missing something in Premiere Pro, I am not sure what they actually changed here.

I have posted about this at the Adobe Support community to see if anyone there knows what is going on, or if I have done something wrong, and if I get any responses I will update you.

Appleinser on M1 Pro and M1 Max theoretical GPU Performance VS. AMD and NVIDIA

Malcolm Own at Apple Insider has an article on M1 Pro and M1 Max GPU performance versus Nvidia and AMD.

Now it uses teraflops to compare it to what the equivalent processor is, meaning the top of the line is equivalent to a Radeon RX Vega 56 or GeForce RTX 2080.

Which also means my Radeon Pro Vega 64x, which can do a bout 13.5 teraflops (12.5 teraflows for the 64) is still better, but still slower than a RTX 3060 Ti or above processor.

Apple adds another free update to Final Cut Pro and Logic for the M1 Pro and M1 Max

Yesterday Apple updated both Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro to take advantage of the new MacBook Pro with M1 Pro and M1 Max.

Final Cut Pro has hit version 10.6.

It includes the ability to edit cinematic mode videos. And on the M1 Pro and Max it can not support 7 streams of 8K ProRES at full resolution (they do have a ProRES playback module!) and export ProRES up to 5x faster. And it now has a built in Object tracker

Motion can render 2x faster and cvan play 2 streams of 8K video at 5x the frame rate.

And on the MacBook Pro Compressor can transcode HEVC Video up to 2x faster and transcode ProRES up to 10x faster.

Logic Pro hits version 10.7

And this one focuses on Spacial Audio, with Dolby Atmos Music files.

Always love Apple giving new free upgrades to their software. Now I just hope Adobe gets support for Cinematic Mode soon in Premiere Pro.

The new M1 Pro and M1 Max are what is running the new MacBook Pro 14′ and 16′ as serious editing, color correction and Graphics machine

Apple has announced new M1 based MacBook Pro in 14″ and 16″ with the new M1 Pro and M1 Max chips.

And the rumors were right there is a damn divot for the camera just like the iPhone and iPad.

These are much more pro machines, with a much more pro price. And you had better pay for as much as you can as you will not be upgrading anything after you purchase the machine.

For $1999.00 you get an 14″ with 512 SSD 8 Core CPU, 14 Core CPU and 16GB of memory. It is an additional $400 to move to 32 GB of Memory, and $200 to move to a 10 core CPU, 14 core GPU, or $300 for 10 core cpu, 16 core gpU, $500 to movew to the mac with 10 core CPU and 24 core GPU, or $700 for Max with 10 Core CPU and 32 Core GPU.

Or for $2499 you get the 10 Core CPU, 16 Core GPU and 1 TB SSD with 16 GB of memory, which makes a $200 upgrade to M1 Mac with 24 core GPY or $400 for the Max 32 Core GPU, with the same $400 to go to 32 Gigs gigs of memory.

The 16″ starts at $2499 with 10 core CPU, 16 Core GPU, 16GB of memory and 512 ssd, then $2699 for the Same with 1TB hard drive or $3499 with MAX 10 Core CPU and 32 Core GPU with 32 GB memory and 1 TB SSD, this top model can hace 64 GB of memory for $400 additional, and SSD’s are $400 for 2tb, $1000 for 4tB and an eye watering $22000 for 8TB. So for a top of the line with 2TB SSD and 64 GB of RAM you are talking $4299.00.

Damn I would love to play with one of these and see how well this thing edits, it sounds like the first pro machine that could really handle some high end editing, graphics and color correct. And it gives me hope for the non-portable high end machines.

I do this means when the M2 Pro and Max chips come out, hopefully they will include a 128 RAM version, and have at least 64 cores for video, but maybe even 128. Sure it will be a 10,000 machine at least, but with that and probably 4 cores for ProRES Playback we are talking some serious editing machines!

Apple has introduced the M1 Pro and the M1 Max for the new 14′ and 16′ Macbook Pro

Apple has announced the new M1 Pro and M1 Max variation of the Apple Silicon M1 Chip for the new 14′ and 16′ MacBook Pro.

The CPU in M1 Pro and M1 Max delivers up to 70 percent faster CPU performance than M1, so tasks like compiling projects in Xcode are faster than ever. The GPU in M1 Pro is up to 2x faster than M1, while M1 Max is up to an astonishing 4x faster than M1, allowing pro users to fly through the most demanding graphics workflows

M1 Pro offers up to 200GB/s of memory bandwidth with support for up to 32GB of unified memory. M1 Max delivers up to 400GB/s of memory bandwidth — 2x that of M1 Pro and nearly 6x that of M1 — and support for up to 64GB of unified memory.

M1 Pro also includes dedicated acceleration for the ProRes professional video codec, allowing playback of multiple streams of high-quality 4K and 8K ProRes video while using very little power. M1 Max goes even further, delivering up to 2x faster video encoding than M1 Pro, and features two ProRes accelerators.

Wow, this is certainly more pro than the M1 was, though you do have to deal with the Mac Premium for the high end versions, especially the 64GB M1 Max, but I will talk about that in the next article on the new MacBooks. And if the stats they showed for DaVinci play out, not only will a non portable machine be very impressive (though likely expensive) the inclusion of ProRES accelerators is awesome (though also makes PCI slots seem less and less likely).

ProVideoCoalition has released a 2021 Video Workstation Buyers Guide

Damien Allen at PVC has released a 2021 Video Workstation Buyer’s Guide with both Mac and PC options.

As with all PVC Articles well worth a read if you are looking for a new machine this year.

The Mac world is really in so much flux with only consumer oriented Apple Silicon M1 chips released so far. Personally I am so looking forward to what pro Apple Silicon will do, but will certainly have to wait for that.

iPhone 13 Cinematic mode and 13 Pro ProRes coming soon

Apple’s new iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro both feature a new Cinematic Mode, which is basically iphone’s portrait mode for video. So the video also has a depth map, and with AI can track faces and even switch faces or do manual rack focus. It is not true depth of field, but fake depth like portrait mode, and it only works in 1080 30p. According to the video you should also be able to focus after the fact, which would be incredible!

This will be a very impressive feature, and will enhance video, though won’t be perfect just like portrait mode which enhances but not like a real lens with real depth of fieldh. And hopefully someone will make a plug-in for NLE’s that allows focus after the fact much like the awesome focos app. And let’s hope it can be integrated into Filmic Pro as well, as I find it unlikely to record at non-variable speeds

And the extra GPU core of the iPhone Pro and at least 256gb of hard drive space will eventually be getting ProRes recording. Now I am sure that it won’t be ProRes RAW or even ProRes HQ, but instead lite or proxy, but that will beat H.264 or H.265. Of course ProRes is going to wreak havoc on icloud photo storage, and really show how slow lightning cables are.

The Pro can also capture in dolby vision hdr up to 4k 60 fps. I think this means that cinematic mode doesn’t include Dolby Vision HDR, but then what computer monitor can play that back for adjusting color?

I also wonder if the LiDAR scanner in the Pro will enhance the cinematic mode? I guess they would have said so if it did, though it’s depth map would be better you would think, though maybe it is only for night mode.

DPReview on 5 Big Improvements probably coming to Apple’s next MacBook Pro

DL Cade has a great article on possible new features of the next Apple Silicon MacBook Pro. It is very good read, but a couple of things on graphics really stood out for me.

According to several different leaks, the M1X SOC will be available in 16- and 32-core variants that could offer performance on par NVIDIA’s GTX 1650 and RTX 3070, respectively, while sipping less than half of the wattage. If these rumors turn out to be true, the M1X will offer the most powerful iGPU experience on the market, offering more than enough power for most GPU-accelerated photo and video editing tasks.

However, even if the M1X meets these expectations, we would also love for Apple to bring back support for eGPUs. For now, only Intel-based MacBooks support eGPUs, but according to French publication Mac4ever, M1 Macs can detect eGPUs when they’re connected, just don’t have the necessary drivers to put them to use. This could simply be a holdover for Intel-based Mac users on Big Sur, or it could be an indication that eGPU support is coming for more “professional-grade” users of Apple Silicon Macs. We sincerely hope it’s the latter.

Both of these are exciting. The current M1 scared me without it’s external GPU support and while that might or might not be coming, the possible performance of the GPU cores is fairly impressive, especially if they really make one with a lot more graphics cores. I still hate the ram being shared, and soldered since it will be so expensive, but if you can get at least 128 GB you will likely be pretty damn powerful. All speculation now though.