Messages posted by MisterCerberus

Converting the mp3 to a WAV file makes it work fine. I suppose this is a solution, but it's still strange. Thank you.

I'm trying to export a video as an mp4 using the following settings

DVD PAL
25 fps
Progressive
High Profile

CAVLC

9000 Kbps

Max Quality

AAC

Stero

384 Kbps

For some reason, when I export it, the mp3 file in the project doesn't play. Audio associated with video clips plays, but the standalone mp3 does not. It plays fine inside PowerDirector, just not when I export it. The audio also works if I export the file as an avi, it's only when trying to export as an mp4 that I have the problem. The same happens whether the mp3 is in the 'sound' or 'music' track in the timeline.

Any help with this?

It seems this isn't a problem with PowerDirector, or at least, not a problem unique to PowerDirector.
I exported the image from Adobe After Effects as a video and got the same results, the colours were the same in SD export, but different in HD export, in the same way as PowerDirector.
What makes AE different is that it has a manual custom frame size for exported video (Which as far as I know PD doesn't have), so I could make videos of any size between 576p and 720p to see where the problem begins. It turns out it is 576, any value below that will give correct colours, any value even a pixel above will give altered colours.

AE's manual frame size also lets you break aspect ratio, and it seems that it is only the vertical frame size that causes the problem. The same video with the frame width 1500 x 560 produces the correct colours, but the frame width of 720 x 600 produces the altered colours. The horizontal frame size makes no difference to whether or not the effect is triggered.

Quote:

Have you tried a pure colorboard that is a 1920x1080 PNG image?

I made this one to the same color you show as your original image.
I do not know if it will make any difference. the Color boards in powerdirectctor, I do not think are Full HD size although they will fill the screen.

This one is 1920x1080.

It didn't seem to make any difference. I exported it as a 1920x1080 MP4, and the result was 247, 55, 28. Roughly the same as using the regular colour boards.

Okay, so get this, this is a weird one.

So if I export a colour board as an HD video file, the colours are different in the exported video, right?

Well, if I import that HD video back into PowerDirector, and then export that as an SD video file, the colours return to almost what they originally were.

This is proof that the HD file contains the information for the original colours, otherwise it wouldn't be able to recreate them after a degree of seperation from the original file. If anything they would become more different, not return to what they were. The question is: Why doesn't the HD video display those colours when it is played?

For me this is very good news. Presuming this is consistent, it means I can safely export the components of my videos and the colours will be preserved when I put the components together into the final product, provided the final export is in SD. I'd still like to find a solution to the problem for making HD video, but for now at least I can make full SD videos without worrying about quality loss from exporting SD files multiple times.

Since solid colours have shown an alteration in the green channel, I was wondering if this would also happen if I exported greys. It turns out, no.
I tried three greys: quarter-shade, half-shade, and three-quarter shade (63, 63, 63; 127, 127, 127; & 191, 191, 191), all of which exported nigh-perfectly with only a maximum 1 point of difference in any channel.

I thought perhaps the quarter-shade would show an increase in the green channel and the three-quarter-shade would show a decrease, as though PowerDirector is normalising the greens in export as it appears with the solid colours. But no.

There's that hypothesis down.

There are so many variables... what your display is doing, what PD is doing, how YouTube processes

YouTube is kind of a null point now. I uploaded the video to see if it was perhaps my video players having the problem and played via YouTube it would look fine. I also wanted to see if if was my computer's display setting which were causing the problem so wanted somebody else to look at the video.
As uploading the video to YouTube causes no noticable change to the video, it is pretty moot as a factor.

Okay, I've tried exporting solid block colours and I've come a little closer to finding what the problem is

Pure Red: 255, 0, 0 --- Output: 255, 26, 0

Pure Blue: 0, 0, 255 --- Output: 0, 16, 255

Pure Green: 0, 255, 0 --- Output: 0, 216, 0

The greens are what's changing.

Quote: I'm not sure which colour board you used in the first instance. In PD, there are two "reds": 247,32,48 & 255,17,4 - the red one's the one I think you used.

I created a custom one based on the main red used in my title graphic, which is 230, 34, 38. The image I posted was the colour of the colour board going in on the left, with the colour of the exported video on the right.

Quote: Here is my screen capture Lg 24" monitor of the video you attached.
This was from screen capture then pasted into my Paint program and saved.

So it doesn't seem to be my display settings then, the colour actually is encoded into the video. This is just bizarre. The colour is correct when imported back into the PowerDirector timeline, and the YouTube video thumbnail is also the right colour. The correct colour exists in the file, it's just not displaying when played.

I thought if it was just my machine displaying it that way and it was fine for everyone else then it didn't matter; but it seems to affect the final product.

I've stopped using my title because it makes it difficult to test the difference, and started using basic colour boards as it makes the difference more obvious.

Left: Original
Right: Output from PD

I want to check if it's something to do with my display settings, so could somebody take a screenshot of this and post it for me so I can see how it displays on other people's machines.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFEiW2SNqUU

Quote: Okay, I think I figured out why I'm having the issue, at least. I have an NVidia card, and it defaults to displaying video at a color range that makes the black levels muddier. I switched it in the NVidia control panel (Video > Adjust Video Color Settings) and selected to make color adjustments "With the NVidia Settings", then selected a dynamic range of 0-255.

I installed the Catalyst Control Centre for my AMD card and activated dynamic range 0-255, but sadly it didn't make any difference. That seems to have been the default setting because setting it to Limited 16-235 makes the problem even worse and black becomes grey.

I thought perhaps it could be a problem with my video players and my local display settings. However, I've tried uploading the exported video to YouTube and the playback there looks the same as when I play it through Media Player Classic. Although, strangely, the thumbnail appears to have the correct colours.

What I know so far:

1. Video exported from PD in HD comes out with desaturated colours
2. Video exported in SD has the correct colours
3. The desaturated video appears desaturated in the media library, but with the correct colours when added to the timeline (If exported again, the video is still desaturated, although no moreso than before)
4. The video seems to be desaturated regardless of the method used to view it

This is really starting to bother me, because I just want to start producing videos.

Okay, a new development. This doesn't help me for what I want, but it might help to figure out what the problem is. If I export the video as a standard definition MP4 (720x576 (DVD PAL)) then the colours in the playback are accurate. It's only when exporting as an HD file that the colours are washed out.

If you know what that means it could go a ways to solving this.

Quote: In Windows 7 (64 bit)to set your Color Management:
Start > Control Panel > Color Management. Advanced Tab.

Okay, I've found the screen, but I have no idea what I would do here to fix the problem.

Quote: Anyone know where the OP's gone?

Sorry about disappearing, my area lost its phone connection for about a week.

Quote: Were your screenshots taken in the Media Library, timeline or somewhere else?

The screenshots showing the washed out colours were taken from a media player after exporting the file. I tried three separate media players (Windows Media Player, Media Player Classic, and VLC Player) and got the same results with each.

I've tried importing the produced video back into PowerDirector. If I preview the video in the work area, the preview has the same washed out orange palette as when I play it in a media player. However, when I move it into the timeline, the colours appear normal and red once again, which I suppose proves that the exported file does contain the correct colours, it's just not showing them for some reason.
Exporting the video again produces an identical video, no further colour changes.

Quote: It probably has to do with the video levels ranges 16-235 vs. 0-255. Your graphics card software such as AMD Catalyst has a setting just for video to control whether the 16-235 (TV) or the full 0-255 range is used. The 16-235 range will make video frames look "washed out" compared to an image which is usually shown with the full 0-255 range.

That sounds possible. If my media players are using a more reduced colour palette to say, my image viewing software, that would explain the difference in the video playback.
How would I go about checking if this is the case and, if so, how would I fix it?

I don't need the colours to be replicated perfectly of course, but if my reds noticably become oranges in a title logo that mainly contains reds (And contains the word 'Red' as the first word in the logo), that's just going to be a problem.

-deleted-

-deleted-