Fusion output too dark on Broadcast Monitor

Hi

I have just gotten my Blackmagic Ultrastudio 4K Mini and installed it successfully on my system. It's showing video from Resolve as expected, I have only one problem.

Inside the Fusion Page in Resolve I can send any node's output to the Ultrastudio, via the third white dot on the node or pressing 3 on the keyboard.

Fusion does show me the node's output on my broadcast monitor but it's too dark. Is there a setting that I have missed so that the gamma (which I suspect is wrong) is correctly displayed?

As soon as I step out of the Fusion page — for example into the Color page — the very same image looks as expected. Also on the computer monitor within Fusion's GUI the image looks correct.

Please point me in the right direction.

cheers

Florian

What's the source footage? You probably need a viewer LUT in the Fusion viewer for studio vs data levels?

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I have simple REC709 footage, so in Fusion's GUI Viewer everything looks as it should.

I have simple REC709 footage, so in Fusion's GUI Viewer everything looks as it should.

OK. But Fusion assumes data (full) levels on the output device and Decklink may be set to work in video levels...I don't own any BMD I/O card and don't know if you can set it to output full levels but suppose you can. It would probably fix it without resorting to viewer LUTs.

Afaik viewer lut can not change video/data levels because luts operate on RGB data but levels is a luma-chroma color model property and specific to signal encoding.

Sorry, but I don't understand that.

I have found out some more info though: If the project is set to Da Vinci YRGB Color managed the output of the broadcast monitor is too dark.

If I switch to Da Vinci YRGB it looks correct on the broadcast monitor too, but for many reasons I prefer a color managed workflow.

Sorry, but I don't understand that.

I have found out some more info though: If the project is set to Da Vinci YRGB Color managed the output of the broadcast monitor is too dark.

If I switch to Da Vinci YRGB it looks correct on the broadcast monitor too, but for many reasons I prefer a color managed workflow.

Aha. So what are your color management output settings set to? Any LUTs applied to the external monitor?

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I have the following set in "Color Management" besides DaVinci YRGB Color Managed:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/f1xxps1oio2mb ... 8.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g58kqz4upvzc2 ... 1.png?dl=0

Just to emphasise: Outside the Fusion Page (Edit, Cut, Media, Color, Deliver) the image looks fine on the broadcast monitor. It's just inside Fusion.

I am having the exact same issue. Inside the Fusion page, my broadcast monitor is way too dark if Color Management is set to YRGB Managed. If it's set to YRGB, then the broadcast monitor is better (but not great.)

(On the Edit page, the 3rd Broadcast monitor/viewer looks correct)


On viewers 1 and 2, there's a LUT pull-down on the upper right (next to ROI and Color pull-downs). The default is Fusion View LUT, but Managed makes them look correct. But there's no equivalent control for viewer 3 (the broadcast monitor) so I'm not sure how to control the look from the main page. I haven't seen anything in project settings that fixes this other than unchecking Managed and going back to Unmanaged.

Anyone know how to control the look of Monitor 3?

Yes exactly. Anyone please?

Bump

I have the same issue.

Everything looks and exports correctly when Color Science except when in fusion if I have a my color prefs set to managed.

Same issue here

I still got the problem I described with 16.1.1. can someone elaborate how and why this happens?

The Fusion output is displayed in Linear gamma for Colour Managed projects.

This is true for the main viewer, the Video Clean Feed Viewer, and the monitor output. Unfortunately, only the main viewer has the capability to display a normalised image via the Viewer LUT button/menu.

Hopefully there will be a fix soon as this is certainly annoying. In the mean time, I'd suggest working around it either by going to YRGB when doing Fusion comps*, or else having a colour transform node at the end (OCIO) and just having it enabled while making the comp. Though there may be a better way that I am unaware of, I'm no Fusion expert.

*of course, this may not be doable depending on the nature of the comp. Since Fusion is working in Linear gamma in Colour Managed projects, this will affect how certain operations turn out.

Hi,
A workaround when using Workspace/Video Clean Feed to view Fusion page output.

In the node graph, AFTER the Media Out node, append an OCIOColorspace node (Add Tool/Color/OCIO Colorspace).

For my work, the parameters that seem to give approximate correct tonal range are
Source Space: linear
OutputSpace: rec709 (matches my monitor's setting)
Look: None

Highlight the OCIOColorSpace node, and press 3 to assign its output to the "3rd Viewer", which is the "Clean Video Feed" monitor in my case. In other cases it could be your Ultrastudio output device, etc.

By putting the node AFTER the Media Out node, it leaves the signal on all other pages unaffected (Edit, Color...).



Resolve v 16.2.7, macOS 10.14.6

I've just found this thread as I'm having the same issue in the fusion page of Resolve 17b6 going to an HDMI output. Again it looks fine in every other page and on the main laptop screen but the "Video clean feed" output is wrong.

I've used the OCIOColorspace node workaround as posted above but it's annoying and doesnt exactly match the output from the other pages.

Any updates on this?

Make sure in Project Settings - Master Settings - Video Monitoring - SDI Configuration is selected as “Single Link”.

It’s counter intuitive but that actually controls the Luminosity output to any external video output.

Even my iPad as sidecar second monitor would appear dark with dual link selected.

Hello guys.

This works for me.

Right click on the video clean feed monitor and uncheck "Enable"

Well... Works for me.

Cheers.

Hello guys.

This works for me.

Right click on the video clean feed monitor and uncheck "Enable"

Well... Works for me.

Cheers.

This worked for me too.

Thanks Jose

Right click on the video clean feed monitor? Where am I right clicking? when I right click the view preview on the second monitor I don't see an "enable" option??

When you right click on the clean video feed monitor, the pop up window will show on the other monitor in the UI.
Under LUT... you will find the enable option. Unchecking it did fix the dark problem for me (finally!!!)

however; I'd still love to get the LUT to match what's in my UI window and cannot figure out the combo of settings to get it to match.

One of the suggestions about using a color transformation after the media out definitely changes the view, but it doesn't seem to get my any closer.

I haven't updated to 18.5 yet, so maybe that's something that has been fixed

I haven't updated to 18.5 yet, so maybe that's something that has been fixed

I don't think it has been fixed, I'm still running into this issue. Using the Linear > Rec 709 LUT helps but doesn't get me to a correct match. And as others have said (for several years), the output is perfect in the other modes like Edit and Color.

Is it that I'm using my MacBook Pro as the viewing monitor? Would there need to be a LUT to get it to display in that color space?

Really just seems like a bug that needs squashing.

2025 and this is still an issue in v20 beta 1. Why even bother with external monitoring being a feature if we don't have the ability to make it look correct?

Curious about this as well.

Should be the ability to set a Viewer LUT for the External Feed just the same as any of the Fusion viewers No?

I know you can force the External Feed through a Color Space Transform node, but that is a hack and a cumbersome way to do it, not to mention you now have to cache two different composite branches every time you want to preview.

I figured out the solution.

So, to re-state the problem and it's cause: When sending a node out to a broadcast monitor via Blackmagic hardware (by clicking number key 3), the output looks dark and over-saturated when the project or timeline's color science is set to "DaVinci YRBG Color Managed". The reason is because Fusion is automatically converting all properly interpreted footage into a linear gamma, which is optimal for compositing math.

So... here's the solution.

Simply add a "Color Space Transform" node into your composite with the output Color Space AND Gamma BOTH set to Rec.709 (or whatever your monitor is set to).

Then connect your final node, or any node you'd like to preview on the monitor to that Color Space Transform node... and set it to broadcast (click the number 3 key).

Done. Works perfectly and has no impact on output.

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Screenshot 2025-04-17 at 9.35.53 PM.png (82.72 KiB) Viewed 558 times

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This is a workaround but this is not really the solution.

You are not able to view anything but the end of your flow unless you are constantly moving around that CST node and repatching at whatever part of the stream you need to view.

When doing anything other than the most basic compositing, you'll be flipping around so much that this because super annoying and untenable. I know this because I do it all the time.

There needs to be a viewer LUT that can be applied to the Blackmagic Hardware output, same as any viewer.