AVC Intra 100 MXF Metadata Colour

[michaelm11605974]

Hi,

I've noticed Adobe AVC Intra 100 MXF files have the below colour metadata:

Color range : Limited
colour_range_Original : Full

Telestream (Vantage) AVC Intra 100 MXF files only has:

Color range : Limited


Adobes extra metadata of colour_range_Original : Full - Appears to be confusing other video transcoders outside of Adobe software resulting in the colours being lifted.

What is the reason for this extra metadata?

[jamieclarke]

Hi @michaelm11605974 -   Thanks for raising this you’re right to notice that Adobe AVC Intra 100 MXF exports include both Color range: Limited and colour_range_Original: Full.

As of version 25.3, Premiere Pro has begun honoring DataRange metadata in MXF files but currently only for DNxHR/DNxHD. For AVC Intra, proper interpretation is still pending, and in the meantime, Adobe applications may rely on other metadata fields or known heuristics (e.g., gamma or camera profile) to determine how to treat signal levels.

We understand that conflicting metadata can create issues in external tools that interpret the colour_range_Original tag too literally. This is a known challenge across the industry, and improving control over color range handling is something we’re actively looking into.

[michaelm11605974]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. This isn't a camera file. It's an MXF export of a sequence from Premiere Pro using your AVC Intra 100 Preset.

[jamieclarke]

Hi @michaelm11605974 -  Could you please share a screenshot of the MediaInfo output for your original files?  That will help us better understand how the color range metadata is being handled.

[michaelm11605974]

There's no original files. I'm exporting a Premiere Pro Sequence to AVC Intra 100 50i - as that's what we use for broadcast output. We are using the AVC Intra 100 50i Sequence Preset and the sequence is made up of multiple video formats (ProRes, H264, AVC etc).

[jamieclarke]

HI @michaelm11605974 -  This behavior actually stems from a known issue in the original AVC-Intra 50/100 specification from 2005.

The spec incorrectly required the bitstream to be flagged as Full Range, even though the actual video content is always legal (Limited) range. To maintain compliance, Premiere Pro sets the full range flag in the bitstream and includes colour_range_Original: Full, while the MXF wrapper correctly marks the file as Color range: Limited.

This mismatch is a well-known quirk in the spec, and most professional media applications have long been designed to decode based on the wrapper, not the bitstream flag. If we exported AVCI files with the full range flag set to false, it would technically violate the spec, and many media validation tools would reject the file.

In short, the current metadata is there to ensure compatibility, even though it can look misleading when interpreted outside of that context.

[michaelm11605974]

Hmm - very odd. It does mean other encoding software are lifting the colours of Adobe AVC files due to this. Telestream Vantage does not add this additional metadata into their AVC Intra 100 files. 

It does look like other encoding software aren't using this 2005 spec as if you've said yourself it was incorrect to begin with. Might be worth Adobe also following through and dropping this.