Viewer in Resolve is off from output.

Good day everyone!

I have recently noticed a issue I'm having, and only because I'm lowering the exposure in my footage to darken up some scenes.

The issue I'm having is when I grade my footage to my liking, the render seems to be a half to a full stop brighter in the shadows. This seems to be the case with the frame grabs also. Nothing is matching the viewer window in Resolve.

At first I started working though settings and researching the issue as much as I could, Data levels, etc. Then I realized that it's all relative to my screen, so none of that would matter (I definitely could be wrong) . If my monitor is viewing the rendered video and jpeg stills being brighter in the shadows and also viewing the Resolve window as darker then it can't be my monitor right? It's a Panasonic Plasma for your reference.

After doing a days worth of rendering one shot over and over with different settings I'm starting to conclude it may be a glitch in the Matrix. lol

Thanks in advance for any help!
Here is one example I'm trying to resolve. The darker shot is from my player. (Bottom)
And the lighter shot is from a frame grab in Resolve. (Top)

If you look in the steps you can see the writing on the brighter shot. And the left wall facing the viewer is noticeably brighter in that shot too.
The back and right wall doesn't seem to change exposure. Only the crushed blacks, which I meant to crush for this shot.

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What Decklink card are you monitoring through and what is your signal path to the monitor?

What Decklink card are you monitoring through and what is your signal path to the monitor?

Hi Craig, I'm not using a Decklink, and I'm running straight from my 2013 Mac through a HDMI cable to my monitor.

Using Pocket Cinema Camera in 1080p

Unless I'm missing your point, DaVinci Resolve is designed around outputting a 'clean' signal to a monitor via a designated 'hardware' interface. The simplest solution is to use a Mini-Monitor card (or Thunderbolt version) or any of the various Decklink options, depending in whether you are working in HD or 4K and/or 24P/60P, etc.

These hardware devices 'guarantee' a baseline starting point which is a desirable reference. Unfortunately, your computer's graphics chain can vary greatly depending on various setups you may have configured so cannot be relied upon.

The Mini-moitor solution is cheap and outputs a 10bit, 3G 4:2:2 signal via either SDI or HDMI to your monitor. If your monitor accepts a 10bit HDMI input and can be calibrated, you have a good staring point. Without the above in place, there might be too many variables in your signal chain to make a reliable assessment.

Read p. 690 of the Resolve 12.5 manual: "Limitations When Grading With the Viewer on a Computer Display." This goes into some detail why you cannot accurately monitor directly from the computer and operating system. You have to have a color-managed output, like one from a Blackmagic card.

What 'player' are you using? Sadly there's not a great amount of consistency between software video players on different operating systems. Even browsers play video back differently to each other. Monitor colour profiles also affect this. I have found VLC on the mac is consistent with the Resolve viewer, and with Vimeo. Quicktime will play back your video 'brighter', Quicktime needs a word with itself.

Have you brought the video back into Resolve to see if there is any shift from how it looked when working? If it looks the same when imported, then it's probably your playback that's the issue.

Also turn off 'use max colour profile for viewers'. This setting is counter productive if you are not monitoring using a decklink/minimonitor output card and will make your viewers appear darker.

The manual is not very clear about the "Use Mac Display Color Profile for Viewers" checkbox...

The manual says (p.99) :

This lets Resolve use ColorSync on Mac OSX so your Viewer image should better match your output display.

As I understand, this feature will enable color management in the UI but won't change anything to the Decklink output.
The result should be a more accurate monitoring in the UI Viewer, whether you use an external monitor or not ?

The manual is not very clear about the "Use Mac Display Color Profile for Viewers" checkbox...

The manual says (p.99) :

This lets Resolve use ColorSync on Mac OSX so your Viewer image should better match your output display.

As I understand, this feature will enable color management in the UI but won't change anything to the Decklink output.
The result should be a more accurate monitoring in the UI Viewer, whether you use an external monitor or not ?

Depends what you delivery requirements are. Computer displays use sRGB and gamma 2.2 normally, broadcast monitors use rec.709 at gamma 2.4. This feature essentially adjusts the GUI viewer to morew closely match your external broadcast monitor, this roughly looks like a gamma shift in the resolve GUI, making your footage look darker. What you render out will not change either way, but what you view will look darker in resolve than it does when you play a rendered version back on a computer display.

If you have no external monitor and are delivering only for internet, then enabling this feature will mislead you. It does not increase accuracy or calibrate in any way.

get a 150$ mini monitor and use that for your plasma.

restive is designed to work in that way.

Guys, thanks very much for the responses. It seems like it's not a single issue but more of a lack of proper equipment on my part.
I will definitely check out the manual on grading with the viewer, and I will invest in a mini monitor, and turn of the unneeded functions in Resolve unless the end benefit is a negative one. I'll experiment with that one because of the two options on the issue. Thanks.

I do use Quicktime, and have used VLC in the past. I think it's time for me to make VLC the default player.

I will try to work through all the tips. Thanks for your time guys!

So after my just recent post, I tried the quick option for a fix, and I unchecked the"Use Mac Display Color Profile..." and my viewer immediately matched my output exposure!

You guys are the bomb, Thanks again.

I'm still going to look at the other options if it's going to help improve my overall image in the long run.

I'm still going to look at the other options if it's going to help improve my overall image in the long run.

It does help a great deal to avoid trusting any computer displays whenever possible. They key factor in good color correction starts with having a monitor you can really believe in. Without that, the train can quickly go right off the tracks.

Alexis Van Hurkman's book Color Correction Handbook goes into a lot of detail about how to select a hero display for judging color, how to calibrate it, and how to position it in your control room. Alexis also wrote the Resolve manual, so he's pretty well-informed when it comes to this stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/Color-Correction- ... 199&sr=1-1

So after my just recent post, I tried the quick option for a fix, and I unchecked the"Use Mac Display Color Profile..." and my viewer immediately matched my output exposure!

You guys are the bomb, Thanks again.

I'm still going to look at the other options if it's going to help improve my overall image in the long run.

It's a feature I only recently understood properly. There are so many new users getting into resolve and the majority wont have eternal monitoring gear to begin with, so this feature is causing quite a bit of confusion. Avid has a great set of options for monitoring internally, you can switch the viewers between rec.709 legally scaled, full scale, sRGB and some others. I really like this option in Resolve but perhaps it needs to not be on by default and could do with renaming.

Do invest in a mini monitor and some calibration gear, it will ultimately make you trust your image properly and you will learn more about professional colour workflows.

Try these setting.
also monitor in video if you are not using any log profiles, otherwise monitor in full Lvls. you can leave the clip attributes on auto and they should work fine.

Try these settings in the project settings

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