Getting frustrated with Vimeo now. See screenshots. The first is the encoded MP4 file from Vegas, screenshot taken from VLC player. The second is from the video after being uploaded to Vimeo. How the heck is Vimeo making it lighter and washed out looking? What am I missing here?
Ok, I downloaded the Vimeo encoded file and played it in VLC and it looks like the first screenshot, black is black and other colors look correct. So you're saying that the VLC player is causing the videos to look darker than they are? This is what a screen shot looks like in Vegas, it also looks about as good as the VLC player shot, and definitely better than what it looks like in the Vimeo player on the web. Not sure what to fix here
Now that I look at it, the Vegas screenshot and the Vimeo look pretty similar. So it seems that VLC is what is causing this issue. But it still doesn't make sense because according to the histogram and waveform, my black level seems to be correct.
I think I know what's going on here.
Do you have an NVIDIA card? If so try manually setting apps to use full levels by right clicking on your desktop, picking Nvidia control panel, adjust Video color settings, "With Nvidia Settings", Advanced tab, then set it to Full 0-255. Save / exit and try the video again in VLC.
Sounds like VLC is using RGB (TV) levels for playback and the rest of your system is using full range (video is in full range where 0 = total black not 16 like TV levels). There may be a setting in VLC to use full range as well if that's the only program playing w/ the washed out (16-235 limited range).
If the Nvidia setting change works and you don't see any reason to not leave it keep in mind it may reset if you update your GFX driver w/ clean install (or DUU).
Also of note on occasion Vegas will render out MP4s darker than the source (levels get changed from full to limited or something). If you ever have that happen w/ a certain source/render workflow you can add the Levels FX w/ preset "Computer RGB to Studio RGB" and it'll render out matching the source (preview will show washed out). Similarily if you found your render was looking washed out across the all apps and on reopening in Vegas you could apply the Levels FX and use the preset to convert "Studio RGB to Computer RGB".
The Video Levels scopes in View/Windows can be useful in determining when the levels are studio (limited) or computer (full). In your case though I think it's just VLC using internal codecs set to limited. Photo is a quick guid on how to change the levels for Nvidia cards - created that a little while back for people on the youtube subreddit.
joseph-w - Thanks, I'm going to look into this right away! Will let you know what I find
Ok, it was set on "with the video player settings" so I changed it as you instructed. Blacks in VLC player video still look darker than the Vimeo player on the web (google chrome) but the difference doesn't seem to be as drastic so maybe that change had some effect. I didn't really understand what you wrote about VLC because that's the program where the black looks black which to me means it is using the full range. The washed out look was on the Vimeo player on the web.
Mike, There has been some discussion on Vimeo forums that colors on Vimeo appear washed out, unlike YouTube. have you tried seeing what your video looks like on YouTube (maybe just upload a few sec sample)?
Not this particular video, but I certainly could do that to test. Thanks for the suggestion. If others are getting the washed out look on Vimeo too, then at least I know I'm not doing anything wrong. I can just drop the black level a tad more if necessary on future uploads.