Color shift from V8 to DVDA 4.5?

vitalforce wrote on 11/3/2007, 1:10 PM
I am trying to render an MPEG-2 file from an SDV movie so that the truest color can come through on playback when I burn it to DVD.

I have the color exactly where I want it on the V8 timeline (this is a 92-minute feature), and rendered it to MPEG-2 using the DVD Architect video stream-only template. I dropped the MPEG-2 file onto the Vegas timeline and played it through the firewire monitor--the color is acceptable--slightly darker than the original on the timeline directly above it, and a very slight shift toward green.

HOWEVER, if I load the same MPEG-2 file into DVDA and play it back, outputting the picture through the same firewire and monitor, the picture is way off--lighter, large shift toward green, and about 10% desaturated.

What gives? Should I be deliberately rendering an MPEG-2 file that is set too dark, too saturated and with 10% green removed, trying to guesstimate the picture that will be burned onto DVD? This is no way to run a railroad.

Comments

GlennChan wrote on 11/3/2007, 3:15 PM
Are you using a 32-bit project in Vegas? You can have some weird levels conversions going on in that case.

vitalforce wrote on 11/3/2007, 9:27 PM
Hoped to hear your thoughts on this. Yes, I am trying the project as a 32-bit render to see what happens. Looks like I'm on the frontier.

If it's a trial and error experience, I'll advise how some different settings work.

Disappointing to see that all that R&D for this 32-bit system leaves so many loose ends in the most essential functions, e.g., output to DVD. Having an easy to use, intuitive GUI isn't worth much if you can't predict your output. And that used to be said about (shudder) Pinnacle Studio.

P.S. To all users: My experience so far, running V8 on a Mac Pro with Bootcamp, XP-SP2, 2GB Ram, is that the primary color correction plugin is unpredictably incompatible with the bump map plugin (which I use for area luminance boosts within the frame). And bump map itself is unpredictable unless it's at the end of a chain of plugins--by "unpredictable" I mean you get a completely black screen.
.
GlennChan wrote on 11/4/2007, 12:42 AM
1- The bump map making the image black thing is a bug.

There is another thread on this. Something that restores the alpha channel will fix this... I think a color corrector "Reset to None" at the very end of the chain will fix this??

1b- I think that bug is fixed in 8.0a.

2- In 32-bit, the logic of everything is weird. Consult the table here:

http://glennchan.info/articles/vegas/v8color/v8color.htm

In a nutshell...
8-bit is pretty straightforward.
32-bit mode is not, because some codecs change behaviour and others do not.

In 32bit mode...
The MPEG-2 codec will decode to computer RGB levels.
The DV codec will expect studio RGB levels.
So if you have a MPEG-2 file with proper levels, the levels will look wrong over DV preview.

I don't think this is a very good design, but this is what the 32-bit mode does. If you flip into 8-bit mode, then the DV preview will show your MPEG-2 clip correctly (in 8-bit mode, the MPEG2 codec decodes to studio RGB levels).