Re: [Avid-L2] H264s (or other codec QT) for client review with correct color.

I think the biggest issue is just that every one of your clients has probably NEVER set up their monitors, so who cares about the gamma of the encoding on your end? There are about 5 ways that the color process is going to break down between you and your client. Unless you solve all five, any ONE will kill it completely.

Are YOUR monitors color accurate?
Is the export color accurate?
Is the encoding color accurate?
Is the software playing the file back at the client's place color accurate?
Is the client's monitor color accurate?

Unless you can get all of your clients to set their monitors to match your monitors' profile, none of the rest of it matters anyway. Before you worry about the encoding, getting the monitors to all match is several thousands of dollars worth of color management software and hardware.

Steve Hullfish
contributor: www.provideocoalition.com
author: "The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction"
co-author: "Color Correction for Video: revised edition," "Avid Xpress Pro Editing Workshop" and "Avid XpressDV On the Spot"
presenter: Class On Demand's "Complete Training for Avid Media Composer" AND "Complete Training for Apple Color"
www.classondemand.net/media/final-cut-training/color01.aspx

On Jan 24, 2011, at 9:25 PM, nat jencks wrote:

> Hi lists!
>
> As always I am struggling with the difficulties of creating quicktimes for client review while maintaining accurate color and gamma encoding.
> For this particular job I need to ensure that the color/gamma etc viewed by the client is accurate. I'd like to send H264, but would be happy with other codecs if it would solve the problem.
>
> My problem is that there are a number of people receiving the file, and I don't know if they will be on windows or mac, and if on Mac if they will be on quicktime 7, or quicktime X, and if using quicktime 7, if they will have the "enable final cut pro color compatibiity" check box checked.
>
> The three main variables that seem to wreak havoc on this process are:
>
> gamma 2.2 vs gamma 1.8
> SMPTE range vs FULL range
> Colorsync managed vs Non-Colorsync aware.
>
> What strategies are other people using to deal with this, and has anyone found a pipeline that gives accurate color in H264 QTs? If needed I could insist that the client use a specific platform and version of quicktime player, if I knew what to insist on.
>
> Thanks all.
> best
> -Nat
>
> p.s.
> obviously the client's display's vary wildly as far as quality and accuracy, but this is all assuming that the viewing machine has a vaguely accurate sRGB monitor.
>
> p.p.s
> The tape based solutions are not really good...
> Making a DVD is far from ideal as it scales down to SD, introduces less than best compression, and needs to be fedex'd.
> Making an HDCAM SR etc, isn't cost effective for this stage of approval...
>
>

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