I ’ll be the first to admit that I know almost nothing about the professional world of colour — specifically , the issues affect in coloring material matching between unlike mediums . Theoretically , I know it ’s vitally important to endeavor to keep the colors uniform between , say , your digital camera source image , the edits you perform in Photoshop , and the last printed result on your color photo printer . That ’s theory . The reality in my world is that I photograph pic with the tv camera , pick off them in Photoshop until they look “ right ” to my eye , then send them to the printer — whose output I ’m happy with about 99 pct of the metre . In other words , for the most part I pay up no attention to gloss matching at all .
But there is one area of professional semblance direction that I pertain every time I get a Modern Mac or a unexampled monitor lizard — the Color tab of the Displays System Preferences panel . Using this tab , I create aColorSyncprofile for the monitor . For professionals , this means setting it up to ensure they ’re seeing exact color throughout the procedure . For me ( and I distrust other users as well ) , it ’s more about make the OS X surroundings “ reckon right ” to my eyes . To me , the standard color visibility for OS X is too “ washed out , ” so I adjudicate to darken it up a bit , provide more contrast . I used to go through the Calibrate step on the Color tab , but then discovered that the various predefined “ RGB ” options worked well for me — normally the Apple RGB or sRGB Profile option . So for the last couple yr , that ’s what I ’d been using , and I ’d been quite felicitous with it . Keep this backdrop information in judgment as the rest of the story unfolds …
In 2005 , Apple released QuickTime 7 , which included a newcodecknown asH.264 . H.264 proffer an amazingly high picture quality without requiring huge datum rates or file sizes . As an case , my Canon PowerShot digital video camera shoot 640 - by-480 videos in an AVI format . A recent capture of our vernal daughter was just under two mo in duration , and need 186 Bachelor of Medicine of disk space . Although the picture await great , that ’s barely a usable single file size for posting the video on a Web land site . Enter H.264 . Using QuickTime Pro , I was able to re - encode the magazine using H.264 ( with the Quality luger set between sensitive and low ) using good quality ( multi - pass ) encryption . After a few minutes ’ work , the terminal solvent is a movie cartridge clip whose lineament is nearly indistinguishable from that of the original ( to the everyday viewer , at least ) , and yet is only 13 MB in size . sound like a win - profits , correct ?
Well , for most people , it seemed to be . But on my Mac , I was draw some fearful fading of the H.264 TV , as you may see in the range of a function below ( click it for a larger ( 232 KB ) , higher - tone version ):
The left half of the epitome is a frame from an AVI video as dart by the PowerShot camera . The right half is that same skeletal system , taken from an H.264 rebirth of the same picture show — and using the highest quality configurations . Technically , the two sides should be identical . Clearly they are n’t , as the H.264 reading is bear from some severe flop . I first saw this trouble shortly after QuickTime 7 was released as a public trailer , but did n’t recollect much of it—“I’m sure this ’ll be fix before it ’s secrete . ” Of of course , it wasn’t — and even through the late QuickTime 7 update , I was still seeing this problem .
Making things more frustrating and confusing , however , was the fact that most people who see the video recording I was make would not see this problem — to them , the movie looked fine . So clearly , whatever was happening was on the face of it local to my machine . I also did n’t see a huge uproar about this issue on the usual Web hotspots , further cement the feeling that I had a local trouble . And in the overall scheme of things I need to get done , solving the issue was n’t high on the list — the flick apparently worked well for others , so I just kept putting this take on the back burner .
Last night , though , as I was trying to work on a large number of PowerShot clip for my house ’s blog page , I finally got frustrated enough to go searching for a solution . After digging around in Google for a good flake of meter , I guess I ’ve ( mostly ) solved the job . The first thing I found wasthis long discussionon Apple ’s QuickTime Users posting list . The word there focus around the impact of Core Video , set by Appleas :
In the cite discussion above , Core Video was single out as the cause of the flop . I was able to affirm this on my own machine by downloadingNicePlayer , which is a free media thespian . Amongst its features is the power to set apart which “ viewer ” you ’d like to use to open videos : Core Video , DVD Player , and QuickTime . When I disabled Core Video , the very same washed - out H.264 clip played back perfectly in NicePlayer . QuickTime Player , on the other bridge player , will always employ Core Video if the machine is capable , so I was stuck with the washed out version there . So it by all odds seemed this was the problem on my end . But I was still a bit lost , as I have many protagonist with Core look-alike - open machines who had viewed my clips — and none of them had ever complained about the fade colors . So something else was still involved in my machine ’s event ; it had to be something other than just Core Video .
As a prompt aside , deep down in the discussion list coverage of this job , someone advise a method acting of solving it by fix a black pic mask and a composition blending mode for the snip . While this definitely works ( the QuickTime Player playback is no longer wash out ) , it ’s not really disabling the Core Video playback feature of speech . alternatively , it ’s adding a sorry backcloth and blending it with the washed - out moving-picture show ( at least , that ’s my intellect of what those setting do ) . This , however , causes problem on dim machines — a simple 640 - by-480 30 frames - per - second video run I created played back OK on the Mac Pro and Dual G5 … but was only reach about 15fps on my PowerBook G4 . Clearly this is n’t a peachy workaround .
Just as I was about to give up for the evening , I chance a link tothis Macintouch Reader Reports page , discuss H.264 export issues . In the final entry , date May 19 , 2006 , Christian Kent visualize out what was rifle on and allow for an effective workaround . Christian , like me , was using a pre - defined RGB colour visibility for his reminder , and seeing wash - out video in his H.264 export . He managed to figure out that it was the pre - made visibility that were make the job :
So I had a darker - than - standard color visibility , and Core Video was export lightsome - than - expect H.264 conversion . The solution , as key by Christian ? Just make a new custom-make colour visibility using the Calibrate button and the Expert modal value pick . I did this late last Nox , then re - run an H.264 exportation on the same video shown above . So how ’d it fare out ? Judge for yourself :
As you may see , there ’s still a thin disappearance , but it ’s nowhere nearly as bad as it was ( compare the tree on the veracious side in this image with the one in the first image ) . I require I ’ll be able to fully extinguish it by just tweaking my impost visibility a bit more . Christian tally up the situation nicely in his wrapper - up on the Macintouch Sir Frederick Handley Page :
Color is manifestly part magic , part skill , and part “ who knows what the heck is really locomote on ? ” I ’m just felicitous that I have ( mostly ) correct H.264 videos once again .
