h264 color shift between exports - same source, same setting

[ondřejh71856982]

Hey guys,
I need the hive mind. Ive stumbled upon super strange problem I cant seem to solve.

Look at the image and behold - these two are rendered with exactly same render setting, however theres visible color shift between them that I just cant get rid of.

So far I tried everything i could think of:

- exporting to img sequence: colors fine
- exportin to uncompressed formats: colors fine
- exporting to h264 mov or mp4 (directly from AE / through media encoder / using intermediate format mentioned above): COLORS ARE SHIFTED
- I have tried rgb / srgb project settings, jpeg sequence with embeded color profile, the result is the same
- also tried quicktime and vlc to exclude player problem but the shift is visible in both

Is there some sort of h264 setting im missing? Im using 3.1 high 40mbps (40 mbps are specs from media owner, thats why i moved profile to high).

Im seriously losing my mind over this...

[ondřejh71856982]

update - this is apparently media encoder bug (tried both 2017 and 2018). When using wondershare video converter the colors are maintained. Used same export settings as in AME:

[Byron Cortez]

Hi ondrejh71856982,

The H.264 is an excellent video codec but it is compression and especially affects the colorimetry, not the luminance, because the human vision is more sensitive to the changes of luminance than to the color ones, for this reason the changes in the color compression is less noticeable. However, the trained eye can not be deceived, yes it is a little opaque if we compare with the original video. If what you need is to have an excellent quality of video you should use for example an Apple ProRes codec if it is for broadcast, but if you need it for Web if it is with the H.264 codec. Surely the Wondershare internally applies a bit of saturation so you do not notice the change when compressing your video, and if that's how you need it, perfect!

[ondřejh71856982]

Actually these are just two videos exported with same settings, theres no original and final one. These are two exports of same source data (same graphic elements etc, not sure i understood what you mean exactly

I understand what h264 does, what I dont understand is why adobe encoder gives me inconsistent results while wondershare (or any online video convertor out there i tried while figuring it out) represents the colors consistently (even tough it gets shifted). Does it mean that AME h264 algorithm is dependent on video size?

In general the problem is I can justify the color shift based on codec ti the brand manager, but i unfortunatelly cannot justify having two videos with different colors.

[Byron Cortez]

Are both at the same bitrate? Maybe you have to put a little bit more bitrate to the large video.

[Byron Cortez]

Sorry, again:

Are both at the same bitrate? Maybe you have to put a little bit more bitrate to the small video.

[ondřejh71856982]

yes I used same export preset for both. the same happens when exporting h264 mov directly from ae using same export settings.

thats what bothets me

[Byron Cortez]

Look up this, have you got updated your AME CC 2017? 'cause here we have an issue fixed. Try updating.

[ondřejh71856982]

this happens in both ame 2017 and 2018, both up to date