Premier v22 keeps switching between 709 & HLG randomly

[Nancy2216307499sk]

Started a project about a month ago in Premiere v22.  (15) 20 Min sequences assembled and first pass color with Lumetri. I opened a few days ago and bam...eveything is BLOWN out.  Of course I research and find that Premiere has swithced the way they manage color. The thing is, I have not updated or made ZERO changes to the software, this is all of a sudden. 

So, after research, I try to change the sequnce settings to the HLG2000 color space, but this does not give the same color results. Second problem, I cannot use the Modify/Interpret dialog box to force the S-Log footage to Rec709 color space. Because this project was shot like a feature, the sound clips were used to create merged clips to edit with. Now that they are merged the interpret feature is greyed out. Even if you modify the originall footage it will not change the merged clips.  

I spent 3 hours with Adobe techs inside my computer, no fix. They cannot explain why one day it's seen as Log footage, the next day it sees it as HDR, so on, and so on.  

Is there a way to interpret the merged clips to force to 709? Is there a workaround?

I see two options: one is I finish the edit and send an XML to a colorist to finish in another application. Not a great solution because this is costly and I can't even deliver review files to my client the way it looks right now.

Second, I spend the next 4-5 days overcutting the original footage over my merged clips using the source TC for refrence. (Match Frame wont even work, it just goes back to the merged clips)

[John V Knowles]

So sorry this happened. Is it possible you had "auto update" turned on in Creative Cloud, and it installed an update to 2022?

And I hate to point out the obvious but this is why merged clips are bad. I know there's stil some call for them and that's why thee feature is still in there, but most of the time it's not the best way to sync audio because of issues like this.

[Nancy2216307499sk]

Yes, I am painfully aware to not use merged clips ever again.  🙂

I did get Adobe to admit that there was a bug in v22 that their developers are aware of. That v22 has a problem specifcally with the Sony Fx9 footage and how Premiere interprets the compression codec.

 I have talked to colorist that are working in DaVinci and Baselight and they have seen some similar issues with the Sony FX9.

In the meantime the best work around was to transcode all my footage to ProRes422 and then Relink to the new files. Evereything seems to be working now.

[R Neil Haugen]

Hey, just glad you're working again.

Sony seems to do something interesting in their file headers/compression or whatever with every new camera. I mentioned the issues some are having here with both the A7's and some of the FX rigs to a colorist bud. He said ain't any problem for him at all. Any "newish" Sony cam he simply t-codes to a solid codec for grading.

And then he added some Canon rigs also put out "unique" media.

Makes it fun for us working stiffs, eh?  Hmmm ...

Neil

[R Neil Haugen]

Hey, that's a right pain. John's right, they completely rebuilt the underlying color system in Pr2022.

And he's also right about merged clips being limited. A bit late to find out how limited sadly.

The multicam process is so much more robust for joining camera and separate audio. You can have five different clips in a bin, each with a separate recorded audio only file in the bin.

Select all, right-click/create multicam, and it will create essentially a clip of each with their separate audio. Most editing tools work normally with them, like the Q an W of "tops & tails" editing.

And as to the log-encoded or HLG clips, yea, those will need the override to Rec.709 action in the bin. You can select a bunch of clips and do it on all at the same time.

Neil