Why can't I get decent colours when rendering out of Resolve

Hi Guys,

I'm a relatively new BMCC and Raw User (going through the painful switch from DSLR). I'm having trouble rendering anything out of Resolve that keeps its colours and look.

I have tried loads of codes. 422HQ, 4444XQ - I even tried rendering uncompressed and the colours still looked much more washed out than they do in Resolve?

Please tell me this isn't as good as it gets?

I'm doing something wrong, and I can't figure out what it is. Can anyone help?

Many thanks,
P x

PS - I'm using Resolve 11 Lite on a powerful Mac Pro 2014.

Do you mean it looks washed out compared to the preview window on the GUI?

Is your target for television or internet or something else?

My initial advice (swimming in a lack of information) would be to make sure you are using an external calibrated monitor driven by an IO card that is operating independent.

e.g. A decklink or intensity card running out to a calibrated monitor, and then the image on that monitor should match your output.

This is a deep issue though, it could be all manner of issues on your output settings etc.

Hey,

Sorry for being so vague and crap with the details.

I meant that the image on my computer screen when I grade in resolve is rich and vibrant. When I render out the video, the picture is faded and inferior.

I am using a Thunderbolt Display, hooked up to a MacPro. I would love to get an external monitor, but unfortunately, I don't have the means to get one just now.

In terms of the Export settings, I am just selecting "Export to Final Cut" and then applying different codecs to try to get a good result. Every rendered video is much worse than my graded videos in Resolve.

I know a monitor would be preferable, but is there no way to use Resolve on a Mac Pro with Thunderbolt display to get a pretty good result? At the moment, the difference between what Resolve is showing me and what's coming out in the final render is a mile away from each other.

Really do appreciate the help on this...

Phil

Try using a calibrated grading monitor through a color-managed output and see how it looks.

Alexis Van Hurkman's Color Correction Handbook goes into this in great detail.

Try using a calibrated grading monitor through a color-managed output and see how it looks.

Alexis Van Hurkman's Color Correction Handbook goes into this in great detail.

Hi Marc,

And if I don't have the means to get a calibrated grading monitor, is it not possible to grade on Resolve?

How do people do it on Laptops and Displays? Do they just accept that the quality is going to take a huge hit when it comes to rendering out the finished product.

I just can't help but think that I'm doing something wrong to get such a big disparity between Resolve and finished product.

x

Screen Shot 2015-04-24 at 3.49.45 pm.png (88.78 KiB) Viewed 3128 times

It could be the video range you are rendering in. Bit 64-940 is common for broadcast, but looks washed out when viewed on a computer monitor. If you are rendering for computer display try the DATA (4-1019) setting in the output page setup. If left to auto setting it is common for the output to match the camera clip format.

Just make sure you change the levels from automatic to data in the delivery tab.

Yes, change from Auto to Data while giving your output. Use Prores 4444 or Prores 4444(XQ) as the codec.

Then view your rendered out clips in QT player 7. In QT player 7 go to preference setting and tick on the "enable Final Cut color" option.

You should not be facing problems.

Thanks for all your help guys.

I was watching the rendered files in Quicktime, and it was killing the colours... I switched to VLC and the result was much MUCH better.

Will experiment with the above ideas also. Thanks for everyone's input.

x

You can kinda calibrate your monitor by clicking System Preferences, Display, Color, (select Adobe RGB 1998) Calibrate. Apple Display Calibrator Assistant will walk you through the rest of the process. This is not true monitor calibration, but its better than nothing.

The washed out footage might be a result of gamma settings discrepancy between apps (2.2, 2.4, 2.6).

And if I don't have the means to get a calibrated grading monitor, is it not possible to grade on Resolve?

I would avoid it, yeah. There are affordable monitors out there like the Eizo CG-series.

This is no different from trying to mix music or films on cheap speakers. You can try, but there is a minimum cost of entry involved. If you can't trust what you see, all is lost.

You can kinda calibrate your monitor by clicking System Preferences, Display, Color, (select Adobe RGB 1998) Calibrate. Apple Display Calibrator Assistant will walk you through the rest of the process. This is not true monitor calibration, but its better than nothing.

The washed out footage might be a result of gamma settings discrepancy between apps (2.2, 2.4, 2.6).

That is actually not the right choice and it will DEFINITELY make the image washed out.

SRGB color space with a gamma of 2.4 if possible for hd or 2.2 for Internet.

You don't have a LUT enabled for the GUI do you?

I've not had this problem, the output when viewed in QuickTime is identical to the picture in the GUI. I do worry that it's got much lower blacks than what I see on the video output though. I'd expected to see the black level being higher on the computer display than the video out (video out adjusted for video black, computer having data black?)
I'd like to be sure Iknow wwhat's going on between these three points, video output, QuickTime render/playback and the GUI...

Download charts and test images from Internet, load in resolve and export then as tiff first. Make them match.

Then try with qqt, this will help to avoid scaling issues

If you have a "scope", the output value discrepancy would be obvious. This is a larger issue than just a couple of misinterpretations -- monitor profiles that are handled differently under various display applications, whether 0-1024 means 0-100 or not (relative to RGB vs Y'CbCr 709 linear video), whether the "Auto" selection is being influenced by the sequence settings from the edit-source timeline, ambiguities in how codecs wrap code values, obsolete operating systems that still treat display media as graphics (gamma coefficient differences), and of course a certain amount attributable to poor monitor calibration. Typically the complaint is that exactly the same file will appear to be different on the same monitor under different software control.

Recently, I round-tripped a series of commercials through a UI-only system (not my setup or preference), and we got this result. Sequences were cut from original camera source material -- exported to Resolve in its native format and then rendered back out in ProRes. Changing the render scaling to full-scale digital 0--1024 fixed the issue. Several of the NLEs ask you to set the scaling interpretation on import -- Media Composer does this, and we get this discrepancy often with ProRes4444 because there is no flag reporting whether the media is RGB or Y'CbCr.

its annoying. But necessary.

jPo