HELP! Exporting h264 makes video colors washed out

Hey All. I ripped my old VHS video to a 640 x 480 MOV. So the quality is already pretty crap. BUT it's a raw vid file so 4 hours is 72 GB. Which is obviously overkill.

I exported to h264 and the video's colors are washed out.

Anyone else have this problem?

What codec is the original QT file?

MPEG-4 Video, AAC

Please open a clip in the QuickTime player. Look in the Inspector window and post the complete information that's listed there or a screenshot.

cyanbaby101 wrote: ... it's a raw vid file so 4 hours is 72 GB...I exported to h264 and the video's colors are washed out....

When troubleshooting, to avoid dealing with such a huge file you can trim this in Quicktime Player. This does not re-encode, so is very fast. If your only purpose in using FCPX is to trim the big clip you might be able to use Quicktime instead for this. support.apple.com/guide/quicktime-player...lip-qtpf2115f6fd/mac

As Tom suggested, we need to know the parameters of the input file. The shortcut key in Quicktime Player is CMD+I.

When you say the FCPX export looks "washed out" - when played by what, and relative to what? If by chance you played one with VLC and one with Quicktime, those can have different gamma settings.

If all were played by Quicktime from the local input and output files, in general I'd expect the color to be the same. However if the captured VHS file has a different color space, e.g. REC 601 and exported as REC 709, maybe that would look different. Quicktime Player will not show this, you have to look in the FCPX inspector under the "i" tab for that clip.

Tom Wolsky wrote: Please open a clip in the QuickTime player. Look in the Inspector window and post the complete information that's listed there or a screenshot.

AAC, Stereo (l R) 48,000 khz
Apple MPEG4 Decompressor 640x480
FPS: 29.97
Data Size: 15.09 GB
Data Rate: 27.01 mbits/s
Normal Size: 640x480

joema wrote:

cyanbaby101 wrote: ... it's a raw vid file so 4 hours is 72 GB...I exported to h264 and the video's colors are washed out....

When you say the FCPX export looks "washed out" - when played by what, and relative to what? If by chance you played one with VLC and one with Quicktime, those can have different gamma settings.

Played in VLC, Quicktime, Previewer. All the same. h264 export coloring is washed out versus original file with specs I posted.

Here is the screen shot of the problem:

If I export with Apple Pro Res it doesnt do the washed out thing. Only h264. However Pro Res file size is huge.

Ouch. Try optimizing your media in FCP and seeing if export H.264 looks better. If not you might have to convert to PriRes in the Finder.

It might be a color space mis-identification caused by how it was originally ripped. At a minimum we need to see the color space identifier of the original clip as viewed in the FCPX inspector under the "i" tab.

I don't know how it was originally captured but many of those tools produce malformed metadata that causes problems downstream.

If you simply trim it using Quicktime Player does that small result clip show washed out color? support.apple.com/guide/quicktime-player...lip-qtpf2115f6fd/mac

Ideally we'd like to see the full output of a tool like Invisor for the original clip. www.invisorapp.com

This tool also enables side-by-side spreadsheet-style comparison between multiple files and is integrated into the Finder via right-click>Services>Analyze with Invisor. You can load multiple files or drag/drop additional files on the Invisor window to compare the metadata.

joema wrote: It might be a color space mis-identification caused by how it was originally ripped. At a minimum we need to see the color space identifier of the original clip as viewed in the FCPX inspector under the "i" tab.

I don't know how it was originally captured but many of those tools produce malformed metadata that causes problems downstream.

If you simply trim it using Quicktime Player does that small result clip show washed out color? support.apple.com/guide/quicktime-player...lip-qtpf2115f6fd/mac

Ideally we'd like to see the full output of a tool like Invisor for the original clip. www.invisorapp.com

This tool also enables side-by-side spreadsheet-style comparison between multiple files and is integrated into the Finder via right-click>Services>Analyze with Invisor. You can load multiple files or drag/drop additional files on the Invisor window to compare the metadata.

Hi Joema. Can I just sent you the video file? It's small. Probably quicker.

cyanbaby101 wrote: ...Hi Joema. Can I just sent you the video file? It's small. Probably quicker.

I sent you a file upload link in a private message. You can upload it there. Let me know if it does not work.

joema wrote:

cyanbaby101 wrote: ...Hi Joema. Can I just sent you the video file? It's small. Probably quicker.

I sent you a file upload link in a private message. You can upload it there. Let me know if it does not work.

I don't see any link or private message. Can I email it to you?

cyanbaby101 wrote: ..I don't see any link or private message. Can I email it to you?

Send it here: www.transferbigfiles.com/dropbox/joema

joema wrote:

cyanbaby101 wrote: ..I don't see any link or private message. Can I email it to you?

Send it here: www.transferbigfiles.com/dropbox/joema

Sent. If you can figure out a way using quicktime or handbrake or anything to export this with h264 and not have it be washed out, that is my ultimate goal. Thanks so much!

In FCPX 10.4.8 on MacOS 10.15.4, I exported your test clip as H264 (fast) and as ProRes 422. Viewed in Quicktime Player 10, I don't see any significant difference in color. See attached. In the FCPX Inspector "i" tab, you could select "settings" at bottom and (1) Verify the color space and (2) Try overriding the color space to some different values then export. Even if it is already Rec601, override it to that then export. Then try Rec709.

If you are on an older version of FCPX or MacOS it is conceivable there have been changes in color space identification.

joema wrote: In FCPX 10.4.8 on MacOS 10.15.4, I exported your test clip as H264 (fast) and as ProRes 422. Viewed in Quicktime Player 10, I don't see any significant difference in color. See attached. In the FCPX Inspector "i" tab, you could select "settings" at bottom and (1) Verify the color space and (2) Try overriding the color space to some different values then export. Even if it is already Rec601, override it to that then export. Then try Rec709.

If you are on an older version of FCPX or MacOS it is conceivable there have been changes in color space identification.

I am on OSX 10.14.6 and FCP 10.4. The clip is already washed out in the FCP previewer even before export versus Quicktime Player even when I select Color Rec709 / Rec601 (Both washed out) in Color Space Override. I tried exported to verify it was not just the previewer and yes, still washed out.

What Display Color setting are you using in System Preferences? It should be the default for the computer. Comparable the color displays in the QuickTime player, in QT7.

cyanbaby101 wrote: ...I am on OSX 10.14.6 and FCP 10.4. The clip is already washed out in the FCP previewer even before export versus Quicktime Player even when I select Color Rec709 / Rec601 (Both washed out) in Color Space Override. I tried exported to verify it was not just the previewer and yes, still washed out...

Your last screen cap shows you are using an older version of Quicktime Player, not version 10. How does the original clip look if you just press the space bar in Finder (Quick Look)?

Also there have been numerous color-related changes and fixes in FCPX since 10.4. While there is not one specifically described as "fixes washed out export", the fix list terminology is often broad and not comprehensive. It makes sense to upgrade to the latest possible version of FCPX. Starting with FCPX 10.4.7 there are also major performance improvements due to Metal.

In cases like this you often cannot trust what you're seeing on a single machine. Can you copy both original and exported clips to another Mac, another Windows machine, an iPhone or upload them to Youtube and check the color during streaming playback on various devices? This might give some ideas about the problem.

joema wrote:

cyanbaby101 wrote: ...I am on OSX 10.14.6 and FCP 10.4. The clip is already washed out in the FCP previewer even before export versus Quicktime Player even when I select Color Rec709 / Rec601 (Both washed out) in Color Space Override. I tried exported to verify it was not just the previewer and yes, still washed out...

Your last screen cap shows you are using an older version of Quicktime Player, not version 10. How does the original clip look if you just press the space bar in Finder (Quick Look)?

Also there have been numerous color-related changes and fixes in FCPX since 10.4. While there is not one specifically described as "fixes washed out export", the fix list terminology is often broad and not comprehensive. It makes sense to upgrade to the latest possible version of FCPX. Starting with FCPX 10.4.7 there are also major performance improvements due to Metal.

In cases like this you often cannot trust what you're seeing on a single machine. Can you copy both original and exported clips to another Mac, another Windows machine, an iPhone or upload them to Youtube and check the color during streaming playback on various devices? This might give some ideas about the problem.

Here is the compressed H264 and original on the iphone. Its not as washed out but there is a clear significance in the quality. As mentioned before my 4 hour video is a whopping 72 GB. I guess at this point I just want to know the best settings for compressing with the least amount of quality loss to drastically lower the file size. Is there any noticeable difference in compression quality with handbrake versus FCP? If not, what would be the optimal settings in Handbrake to compress this? If so, what are the optimal settings in FCP for this goal? H264 or H265? Thanks for your time.