YouTube video washed out

BittenByTheBug wrote on 1/22/2010, 7:47 PM

I rendered a video using Sony AVC - Internet 16:9 HD 30p template. The rendered mp4 file looked good but when I uploaded it to YouTube, the video looks washed out, overexposed by quite a bit. Does anyone else have this problem?

I also used Sony AVC with similar settings in Vegas Movie Studio 9. The problem back then was that after uploading to YouTube, the video became darker than the mp4 file. It took me a while to learn how much to brighten up the video to compensate.

I don't know if these are relevant, but here are 3 differences between the Vegas Pro 9 template and the custom template that I made in VMS.

Vegas Pro
Profile: baseline; Bitrate 6,000,000; Project pixel format: 32 bit floating point (full range)

VMS
Profile: Main; Birate: 5,000,000; Project pixel format: 8 bit

Comments

GlennChan wrote on 1/22/2010, 8:14 PM

It may or may not be due to levels:
http://www.glennchan.info/articles/vegas/v8color/vegas-9-levels.htm

quick way to check: add the color corrector FX.
1- Try it without the filter.
2- Try it with the filter, studio RGB to computer RGB preset
3- Try it with the filter, but with computer RGB to studio RGB preset
Only one of those options is correct......

xberk wrote on 1/23/2010, 4:23 PM

Interesting stuff.

I've started reading Glenn's very good color space explanations and trying 32bit renders and uploads to YouTube. My source material is AVCHD and a few jpgs. I leave the AVCHD alone and convert the JPG's from Computer to Studio RGB. I'm rendering using Sony AVC and the stock template "Internet 16:9 HD 30p 1920 x 1080". This creates an MP4 file.

Things look great (nothing is washed out) but I don't see a big difference on YouTube or in Windows Media Player versus the same piece rendered in 8 bit color with no filters applied. I think I am seeing some improvement but very slight. Wondering whether (for me) it's worth the extra time it takes to render in 32 bit?

PerroneFord wrote on 1/24/2010, 9:25 AM

I color in Vegas in 32 bit full mode. When I get ready to output I change to 32 bit video levels, and do a studio RGB to computer RGB. This gives me what I want from my AVC encodes for internet use.

BUT

I have found that when I am going to upload to vimeo (and perhaps Youtube but I can't remember) they do this studio RGB > Computer RGB themselves during their own encode. So for those uploads I do not do the conversion myself.

BittenByTheBug wrote on 1/24/2010, 9:56 AM

Thanks for the info, guys.

I read Glenn Chan's article about color space/levels again. Although on the Codesc Table, I couldn't find info about Sony AVC format, but the article does recommend using the Video Levels mode for 32-bit projects to avoid some potential pitfalls. Perrone Ford's switching to video levels mode before rendering for internet use also seems to indicate this is a good practice. I should also try 8-bit as xberk suggested and see if it is easier to get consistent results.

In my case, the rendered MP4 file looked good. So there must be something during YouTube's process that somehow raised the gamma level. If there is a codecs/format or rendering practice that has proven to produce the same gamma levels for the rendered MP4 file and what shows up in YouTube or Vimeo, it will save a lot of guess works.