Example from tutorial ... “There is a quick way to make sure your Output is Broadcast Safe, by applying the Broadcast Safe filter to the Video Output FX button above the Preview Window. Go to the Video Fx tab and drag Broadcast Colours - Extremely Conservative preset onto the output link. This will clamp everything down so that it does not go past the 16-235 range.”
The broadcast safe filter is a holdover from analog transmission standards, and as a voltage metric, is not entirely relevant to digital broadcasting, although a lot of them still use waveform measurements.
Outlier (specular) pixels in camera footage are not to be considered, otherwise your video will be too flat. Zebra whisperers just need to just let go of useless information.
@AveSatanas I normally just use Levels, I didn’t know about the Broadcast safe FX until I saw it mentioned in the tutorial. I guess the advantage of the Broadcast safe fx is that it gets you there at 16-235 immediately without any fiddling with the Levels fx, quicker really. I don’t produce anything for broadcast so sometimes I kinda comprise by setting levels somewhere between 0-16 and 235-255, I prefer to not lose the contrast. Maybe the VLC player messes this up? by expanding the levels on playback, i'm not sure.
i thought broadcast levels and levels fx were the same, i may be wrong
@AveSatanas They can be used to get the same results, but the controls & dropdowns (not shown in screenshot) are not the same. Levels has the Preset Computer RGB to Studio RGB which gets you there anyway.
I have shown you examples of histograms, both correct and incorrect. The histogram is one of your Vegas Pro Video Scopes, accessed by View->Window->Video Scopes. Hope this clears it up for you!
Here it is again. Look at the lines. Look at your numbers.
Now, here is a slightly "beefier" version. As shown before, this curve shape gives a good knee/shoulder rolloff characteristic. Learn to recognize it. You can also learn to use the Waveform, as @john_dennis and many others prefer, although the histogram is the most visually obvious.
To be clear, there are different ways to set the levels. You can use the Levels filter. You can us the Curves filter, as does j_d. You can use the Broadcast Levels filter. Please do not try using the Brightness/Contrast or HSL filters!