Color issues with the new M1 MacBook Pro

It sounds like your problem had to do with HLG clips on a Rec.709 timeline?

That issue is from the massive rebuilding of Premiere's color systems this series.

There's also tge problem with SDR/Rec.709 files outside of Premiere on a Mac dur to Apple choosing to use non-standard settings for Rec.709 media.

The first issue is something on Adobe, the second one is on Apple.

Both are frustrating of course.

Neil

Kevin,

First, there are new color management options in PrPro that are confusing to many users. Both for media in the bin in the Project panel and also for Sequence Settings for timelines. Check those to make sure they are correct for the project you are in.

Next, the Mac OS has the house-built ColorSync color management app. That app was for some odd reason designed to mis-apply the Rec.709 pro broadcast standards. It's a total mess, I work daily with a ton of pro colorists who are royally ticked about it. They're of course mostly Mac based.

What Colorsync does wrong, is it leaves out the required display referred transform of Rec.709/Bt.1886, and also for some weird reason applies a gamma of 1.96 rather than the 2.4 specified for all Rec.709 setups.

Between the two, a proper Rec.709 file will appear a little low in saturation, and the shadows will be lifted giving a "low contrast" look to the file. It's not that the file is wrong ... it's that the display of the file is wrong.

And there's not really a way around it. BlackMagic has Resolve offer a "Rec.709-A" export option which gives the file a different NLC tagging. Which they realized ColorSync will then see and actually apply correct Rec.709 standards to.

Unfortunately, that tagging means that on full-on Rec.709 systems ... and many PCs and Android devices ... the file will be interpreted too dark and over-saturated. Right.

On most systems and especially Macs, users should have the PrPro Preferences option of "display color management" option turned on.

Now, one further thing ... no one ever sees exactly what a pro colorist sees on their highly calibrated kit. They can't even perfectly match two screens in-suite. They can visually come close. But as soon as you take that file on other kit in other viewing environments, the image will be different. Some subtle things, some actually pretty major.

So that's the first thing anyone exporting media for other viewers needs to understand. The "out there" is a Wild Place ... and you have no control whatever. Every screen will show your media differently, and no one will ever see the exact same image you do.

Neil