Grey thumbnails in Media Browser: Color Management enabled

[jjohanson]

Hi!
I may have just discovered a possible problem in the Media Browser of Premiere Pro.

When turning Color management on ("Display Color Management (requires GPU acceleration)", found in Edit -> Preferences -> General..., see attached "Preferences.jpg"), the thumbnails for JPEG files shown in the Media Browser are all grey (see attached "Media-browser-CM-ON.jpg". When turning Color management off, the thumbnails show as normal (see attached "Media-browser-CM-OFF.jpg").

I have noticed that thumbnails for videos and Photoshop files (PSD) seems to show as normal even with Color management turned on. Also, PNG files show as normal thumbnails.

The contents of JPEG files show OK in the timeline, in the Program window and in the Source window even when Color management is on.

Otherwise, turning Color management on seems to work OK. On my wide gamut color managed monitor (Eizo CG2730) the colors shown on the timeline, in the Program window and in the Source window are all correct (matching the same JPEG images as shown in Photoshop). Of course, when turning Color management off, this is no longer true on a wide gamut monitor like Eizo CG2730 (colors are no longer correct, but that is to be expected).

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System info:

OS: Windows 10 Pro x64 version: 21H2 - Os build 19044.1466
Adobe Premiere Pro: version 22.1.2 (build 1)

GPU processor: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060
GPU Driver version: 511.09
Monitor: Eizo CG2730 (calibrated regularely with Xrite i1 Display)

[R Neil Haugen]

What is the color space of the jpgs? Should be sRGB.

Neil

[jjohanson]

Hello,

I have tested with JPEGs having sRGB, Adobe RGB and Rec.709 color spaces. None of the JPEGs show (just grey squares).

The same image as a Photoshop PSD file saved having sRGB, Adobe RGB and Rec.709 color spaces all shows normal thumbnails.

J

[R Neil Haugen]

If you are working in Rec.709/SDR, the monitor should really be set to Rec.709/SDR settings also. When you turn on the DCM option, it looks at the monitor ICC profile, and tries to remap the image to display a correct Rec.709 image within the monitor's space.

So I think this might be part of the problem.

Neil

[jjohanson]

Hi!

Thanks for the feedback!

The problem shows up in the Media Browser browser, before I start working on any import or sequence. I just included Rec.709 as a color space when preparing the images in Photoshop as an additional test. It does not seem to matter which color space is used for the JPEGs browsed. When Display Color Management is turned on it seems that JPEGs with any color space/profile turns up as grey squares. So far I have tried sRGB, Adobe RGB and Rec.709 (in my normal workflow all my JPEGs have an sRGB color space with an attached sRGB ICC/ICM color profile).

[R Neil Haugen]

Again, what is your monitor set to for ICC profile and for color range et al? Rec.709, I hope?

Neil

[jjohanson]

A summary of my monitor calibration target can be found below and also in the ColorNavigator 7 screenshot attached as "ColorNavigator7Target.jpg" (ICC profile version 4.2, Gamut Native, Gamma 2.2 etc.).

The result of the last calibration can be seen in the attached screenshot "ColorNavigator7Result1.jpg".
As far as I can tell general color management and the current calibration works well (outside the media browser in Premiere Pro).

Some more testing:

The problem seems to be related to the display of thumbnails for JPEG files (with embedded color profiles**) in the Media Browser (while Display Color Management is turned on). I have attached another screenshot, "Media-browser-CM-ON-all.jpg", that shows the following:

- There are 3 JPEG files and 3 PSD files

- As indicated by the file names (marked in yellow):
= one JPEG and one PSD file have sRGB color space
= one JPEG and one PSD file have Adobe RGB color space
= one JPEG and one PSD file have Rec.709 color space

- All three JPEG files have a grey square as a thumbnail
- All three PSD files shows normal thumbnails

- All files show correctly in the Source window when double clicked
- In the screenshot, the Rec.709 JPEG has been used as an example

- The image shown for the 6 files in the Source window in Premiere Pro are all identical and all matches exactly (colorwise) what I see in Photoshop (and in other color managed image viewers) as long as Display Color Management is turned on.

**) Just noticed that JPEG files with no embedded color profiles shows OK thumbnails in the Media Browser. So, the problem only seems to show up for JPEG files with (any?) embedded color profile (the Source window shows the images OK both with and without embedded color profiles).

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Eizo CG2730 Calibration target summary:

Brightness:
100 cd/m2

Black level:
Minimum

White point:
Color Temperature: 6500 K

Gamma (EOTF):
Standard Input: 2.2

Priority
Standard

Gamut:
Native

ICC Profile policy
At every calibration
Version: 4.2
Tone curve: LUT (Recommended)

[jjohanson]

Sorry, formatting got wrong...

Eizo CG2730 Calibration target summary:
--------------------------------------

Brightness: 100 cd/m2

Black level: Minimum

White point: Color Temperature: 6500 K

Gamma (EOTF): Standard Input: 2.2

Priority: Standandard

Gammut: Native

ICC Profile policy: 
- At every calibration
- Verson: 4.2
- Tone curve: LUT (Recommended)

[R Neil Haugen]

Just a couple commment on the basic setup. In general, Rec.709/SDR work is viewed with a 2.4 gamma in a semi-darkened room. 2.2 acceptable for bright-room editing or web delivery, so ... your gamma is a bit lighter there but hey, if it works fine.

Next ... gamut is "native" ... any reason you're not using a Rec.709 option for gamut?

Now, that your jpg's simply don't display an image if they have a color space is odd. I don't have any troubles here with jpegs with sRGB color space from Photoshop. Yes, this is ... bizarre.

Neil

[Frederik Andersen]

I suddenly had this issue, too - and it turned out that it was due to DropBox files being 0 bytes (but still there, so not missing). I must've made some files Online Only in the heat of the moment, and accidentally made one of the embedded files 0 bytes. After making all files Available Offline it started working again.

[Michael Grenadier]

yup, this is a gotcha for many types of files and sometimes dropbox spontaneously changes the status of the files...  fwiw, it's a good idea to check this status for regularly used files on a regular basis.  I have a folder which contains all my premiere projects stored locally which automatically mirrors on dropbox which gives me confidence in always having my projects saved...  Since I pay a monthly fee to dropbox, I also can access different versions for a month...

fwiw, dropbox support is problematic and they'll try and avoid due diligence.  Had a file uploaded for review with a link that didn't work.  Went to support and they said they appreciated my post and suggest I jump thru many hoops to troubleshoot...  I asked repeatedly if they had tried the link?  No answer.  I asked again...  No answer.  Finally went ballistic and they admitted it was their problem and fixed it...  Not the worst example of corporate support I've experienced, but still sucked.