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.

Updated version of Sofi Marshall’s Ultimate Real-Time Workflow for those with a video output box

So I have written about Sofi Marhsall’s Ultimate Rea-Time Editing Workflow (That Won’t Break the Bank) and just wanted to give a little Update on how i have updated that workflow because of my setup, and the difference for me is that I run a older Blackmagic UltraStudio 4k as my video out, which I run to a Samsung HDTV.

I followed her instructions and got a BlackMagic Web Presenter, but got the UltraHD version so I can do 4K video, and it does seem to work just fine with either the front or back USB C unlike the older version she used.

And because I am not using USB-C to HDMI cable for my setup, which is also going to eat up a more of your video ram (displaying as a second monitor. Instead I ran a BNC Cable from my UltraStudio 4k into my BlackMagic Web Presenter, while my Samsung is running out of the HDMI out of the UlraStudio 4k. Sofi’s version is setting up the web presenter as a second monitor, but I am already using a second monitor on my computer, and would rather run the direct output from my UltraStudio from Premiere (or DaVinci or AVID) into my Web Presenter, and you don’t need to setup the web presenter as a second monitor.

My Web Presenter lives on top of my UltraStudio 4K (the Emotive is a DAC I use for listening to music off my computer) someday I will get a rack mount to put them in.

Whatever you are playing back shows up on both monitors for me, and I can see on my TV, which is the black line at top with the power cable running down the wall, and the usb cable to the computer allows the web presenter to act as a USB web cam.

Premier Video Output Settings

Premiere Pro Menu > Preferences > Playback
My playback settings set to Blackmagic Playback with Disable Video Output when in background disabled!
And the Blackmagic playback setup settings for my UltraStudio 4K

So in Premiere I am playing back through Blackmagic playback via my UltraStudio 4K, and I have disable video output when in background (which I usually have checked, disabled, so the signal keeps going to the webcam constantly.

Now again differing from Sofi Marshall here I have the audio setup differently, as she is using Loopback to send the audio to the Web Presenter, but I am using Premiere Pro directly. I am still using Loopback, but differently as I will show.

So for Premiere Pro I go to Premiere Pro > Preferences > Audio Hardware to setup direct audio to the UltraStudio 4K.

Premiere Pro Menu > Preferences > Audio Hardware
Audio Hardware Preferences, default output to Blackmagic Ultrastudio 4k and Map Output to Blackmagic Playback
Default Output selections, I actually usually use Edirol UA-1D which I have an optical cable coming out of to my Edirol and an Emotica AMP for my Speakers as well as a FireStone Audio Headphone amp, and use blackmagic to show sound sync on my TV, but I can live with the sync being the same as the computer monitor most of the time, but for this I use send the audio to the Blackmagic UltraStudio 4k.

I then follow Sofi Marshall’s directions on creating Loopback Device 2, which combines the iMac Microphone (her external microphone) and the audio from the Web Presenter.

I have created my mic for zoom, the “Mic & web Presenter” with the External Microphone and the audio from the Web Presenter 4K combined.

So here is my loopback microphone setup so my cut can be shown with audio and they can here the microphone.

Now since I am running the audio directly to monitor my audio for me it would be coming out of my TV which would then show up in my microphone, so I can’t have that, so I must mute my HDTV, and I want to hear my edit through my headphones. My headphones are running through my Edirol though could be just the headphone jack, so I have made a loopback to send Premiere to my Edirol.

I have also made a setting for DaVinci exactly the same but with DaVinci.

These send my audio from Premiere or DaVinci to my headphones. Now we need to setup zoom.

Zoom Menu > Preferences
Zoom Preferences ? Video for Camera I have selected my Web Presenter 4K as the video, with original ratio and HD.
And Zoom Preferences for Speaker I send the audio to my Edirol (which could be headphone jack) and for the microphone I select Mic & Web Presenter which I created in Loopback.
And make sure to turn on High-Fidelity Music Mode and Stereo Audio.

Now you can do a zoom using my video out from Premiere and Web Presenter. Thanks to Sofi Marshall, as I would have never done this without her.

Logan Baker at Premium Beat on Giving up Premiere Pro for DaVinci Resolve after One Year

Logan Baker at Premium Beat on everything he learned in a year of switching from Premiere Pro to DaVinci Resolve.

Well worth the read. I have delved into DaVinci Resolve myself, at first just for it’s coloring, but then I have also done editing in it.

And I tend to agree with what he says that is better in premiere, basically the interface itself, the ability to control the interface, the integration with After Effects, and the Essential Graphics Panel. I would of course also add the Essential Sound panel as it is a great start for a mix.

The interface control for me is huge. I love how in Premiere like AVID before it there are so many ways to do the same thing, keyboard shortcut or using the mouse, while I feel like DaVinci is much more forcing you a single way with many commands only available through keyboard shortcuts. And you can’t add your favorite controls to the interface, what they chose is what you get.

The article doesn’t talk about it, but I also want to talk a little about the Cut Page. It is a very Final Cut Pro X addition to DaVinci, for quick cutting a rough cut with smart edits and transitions and it is what their Speed Editor interface is totally focused on. While I do like that it will take a folder and string everything together so I can zip through footage quickly, I can do that in Premiere with Stringout sequences. And I spend so much less time on the initial edit than on the actual edit, that I would much rather focus more on the edit page than the damn cut page. Sorry, end of rant on the cut page.

DaVinci is so powerful, but you have to learn their way to do everything, and that is my complaint with Final Cut Pro X. I would much rather have multiple ways to do things, and you can find the way that suits your editing style. I feel like the engineers win here over the actual users. And I hate that.

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.

Chadwick Shoults of Creative Video Tips on the Take Selector in DaVinci Resolve

I have to say Chadwick’s videos are quickly becoming my favorite videos on DaVinci Resolve, I literally always learn something watching his videos, so they are really worth checking out.

I have liked this feature in Final Cut Pro X, and honestly didn’t even realize it was available in DaVinci. Now Premiere needs to add it.