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Participant
February 17, 2025

Bug Report – H.264 Output Gamma Hard-Coded to 2.4 ( and also other codes )

  • February 17, 2025
  • 6 replies
  • 397 views

When exporting projects from After Effects using Adobe Media Encoder (AME) to H.264 (MP4), the rendered output is tagged as Rec. 709 with a gamma of 2.4 (the TV broadcast standard) even when the project is set up and previewed with a 2.2 gamma (computer display) setting. Although the Preferences → Color setting in AME allows me to adjust the preview from 2.4 to 2.2, this change is not reflected in the final exported file.

Steps to Reproduce:

  1. Set up an After Effects project in Rec. 709 with a desired gamma of 2.2 (for computer display).
  2. Export the project directly from After Effects to MP4 – the output appears correct.
  3. Export the same project via Adobe Media Encoder (AME) to H.264 MP4.
  4. In AME, adjust Preferences → Color (switching from “broadcast” 2.4 to “computer” 2.2) – note that the preview reflects the change.
  5. However, the rendered output remains tagged with a 2.4 gamma, resulting in a noticeable shift (e.g., darker shadows or a “white halo” in some areas).

Workaround:

Re-encoding the file with FFmpeg (using, for example, the eq filter with a gamma value adjustment such as eq=gamma=0.8) corrects the appearance close to after effect correct export—but this extra conversion step is not ideal.

Impact:

This bug forces users to perform an additional step outside of AME to achieve the desired 2.2 gamma output. For workflows that require accurate color management—especially when delivering content for computer displays—the lack of an option to manually set the output gamma is a significant inconvenience.

 

Input data to after effect was just png sequence. Try also different codecs already (example DnxHD) - not helped. Please it was tested with different setting in encoder what I can found. Render max depth and so on... 

 

Probably is knows issue, but why this issue persist also in 2025 encoder. 

6 replies

Adobe Employee
February 21, 2025

Thanks! Just answered your private message.

Participant
February 20, 2025

Write me Private message I ve prepared link for share

Adobe Employee
February 19, 2025

Would you be able to share a small After Effects project that reproduces the issue? I want to look into it. I can private message you the instructions in this forum.

Participant
February 18, 2025

It was tested on two seperate machine

Both Windwos

PC1

Ram: 32 gb

CPU: Processor AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core

GPU: Nvdia 3070 8 GB

PC2:

Ram: 128 GB

CPU: Processor AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core

GPU: 3090TI

Adobe Employee
February 18, 2025

Thanks for your report. What are your system specs (OS, CPU, GPU, memory)?

Participant
February 17, 2025

There may be some inconsistencies in my report, possibly due to summarizing it with AI. However, the main issue I want to highlight is the gamma shift problem in the media encoder.