Premiere Pro Exports Darker video

It might be a bug. I would drop the rendered video clip into Premiere Pro and see if it looks correct. All video programs use different playback methods and color space. It might look different using a Quicktime player.

yuw ...

Have you tried bringing both software and hardware exports back into Premiere ... and compare how they show in Premiere's program monitor against each other and the original sequence?

I'm trying to find if there's an actual difference in the file itself other than the 'tag' in the header. If they both play the same inside Premiere, then it's probably the header difference ... that one has 'limited' listed and the other doesn't.

Neil

Basil ...

As to the difference between "why black level difference HW/SW encoding" ... this is something to puzzle out.

I'm not seeing any difference on my windows system. Nvidia 2080Ti GPU, and a 24-core Ryzen CPU. I can certainly tell the software-only encode, as it takes a LOT longer. But brought back into PremierePro, the files are identical. Viewed in VLC, the files are identical.

I do know that some folks have set their Nvidia GPU controls to show 'full' ... which is actually wrong. Very few format/codec combinations are supposed to be full/0-255. Nearly all Rec.709 media should be 'limited' 16-235. It is odd that Premiere puts the limited tag in the 'software only' encode but not the other.

So I wonder if on systems that have this problem ... the difference in the way the videos show outside of Premiere ... is it because of an issue with color management on those systems?

Neil

known bug it seems:

Having text on screen makes video brighter. - Adobe Support Community - 11398704

Why black level difference - HW vs SW export? - Adobe Support Community - 11824047

H.264 Rendering Issue, a Serious One - Impacting m... - Adobe Support Community - 11686384

Switch to adobe's software encoder, that should fix it. Or try free 3rd party export plugin, called Voukoder, it may work differently.

What is your system? Do you have the "Display color management" option enabled in preferences or not?

What steps have you taken to calibrate the monitor?

Neil