Premiere Pro interprets wrong color space for MP4 files.

[tommyhopkins]

I noticed that Premiere Pro make wrong color space interpretation for some type of .MP4 files. This produces big color shifts for imported clips.
.MP4 files with 0-255 luminance range at 8 bit which should look exactly as .MOV files, but in Adobe products they interpreted differently for some reason.

Here is raw ARIB color bars outside GH5 with correct Adobe interpretation (for .MOV 0-255 and 10 bit/16-235 MP4 files):

And here is wrong Adobe interpretation with noticeable color shift for 8 bit/0-255 .MP4 files (look at greens, yellows and reds):

This issue affects only MP4 8bit files with 0-255 luminance. Any MOV files or .MP4 files, but recorded with 10 bit, or any other luminance levels (16-235/16-255) interpreted correctly.

That's not a camera issue, because In software like Davinci Resolve or video players these files looks identically. But in Premiere Pro, After Effects and Photoshop .MP4 files has wrong, shifted colors (looks like they're in Rec.601 space).

This huge issue especially for Panasonic Lumix cameras like G7/G85 and GH4/GH5 which shoot videos in .MP4 at 0-255.

Tested on few different PCs (Win7,Win10 x64) with latest updated Premiere Pro CC. Tested with Lumix G7, GH4 and GH5 cameras.

I can upload raw sample clips with Color Bars for your own test if you need.

Hope, Adobe Tech Team will check this, because I think precise color science is the one of the main features for software like Premiere Pro. Thanks.

[R Neil Haugen]

Could you upload and link a second of those to so I could download/test? Would be interesting to work with. You could also 'message' me with a link.

Neil

[tommyhopkins]

Sure. I sent you a link via message. Would be glad to know if you will have the same problem with color space interpretation. Thanks!

[R Neil Haugen]

I'll check them in a bit. Having a few issues with PrPro & my custom workspaces at the moment.

Neil

[excited_Genie16B8]

One is 8 bit and one is 10 bit.  That could be the difference you're seeing.

[tommyhopkins]

No, in my screenshots both footage are 8 bit. The only difference is file extension. Also, these files show proper colors in any other software (like Davinci Resolve), but in Adobe products for some reason MP4 files (0-255 8 bit) interprets with color shift.

Here is complete list from my tests:
.MOV 8 bit 0-255  -  CORRECT colors
.MOV 8 bit 16-235  -  CORRECT colors
.MOV 10 bit 0-1023  -  CORRECT colors
.MOV 10 bit 64-940  -  CORRECT colors

.MP4 8 bit 0-255  -  WRONG colors (looks differently than all others)
.MP4 8 bit 16-235  -  CORRECT colors
.MP4 10 bit 0-1023  -  CORRECT colors
.MP4 10 bit 64-940  -  CORRECT colors

As you see Adobe can't interpret correctly only one type of these files (unfortunately, it's the most popular for Lumix camera shooters)
In Davinci Resolve all these files are identical, without any color shifts.

Additional info:
.MOV files are MPEG-4(QuickTime) AVC/PCM
.MP4 files are MPEG-4(Base Media / Version 2) AVC/PCM

Here you can check raw footage (both are 8 bit 0-255) with correct (.MOV) and wrong (.MP4) colors in my case:
Adobe MP4 Colors Issue - Google Drive

Please, let me know if both files looks exactly the same on your side. Thanks!

[chrisw44157881]

ill check it out. in the meantime, you can use a lut to compensate for the drift. or maybe we can edit the header files of the .mp4 to trick premiere

[chrisw44157881]

I can confirm that its very skewed. rgb values rotate around +-20 creating hue and gamma shifts via my pixel sampler.

[chrisw44157881]

i reencoded it as a .mp4 through handbrake and it fixed the colors inside premiere.

FORMAT profile:

correct:   quicktime

incorrect   base media / version 2

correct: id qt

incorrect mp42

and my gh5 fix test is:

base media / version 2

mp42/bt. 709

format profile was 5 on good color and 4 on handbrake export

so that doesn't matter.

so strangely my gh5 handbrake re-encode's

metadata matches the incorrect one but they display

differently inside premiere.

I couldn't find a combination of color transforms with sd/hd/601/709/16-235 that would match perfectly. it seems to be an odd matrix transform that cannot be fixed normally. even 3d grading wasn't perfect.

your best bet as of now is to transcode(not using adobe products as they all share the same import engine) until we can figure out how to strip the metadata.I don't even know where it's wrong right now but premiere/AE seem to be hardcoded to a random matrix(probably a bug)

[R Neil Haugen]

Yea, that's an interesting bit of oddness.

Now ... go over the methodology to get each file precisely so I know what I'm seeing the result of.

Neil

[Warren Heaton]

I haven't cut any footage from the GH5 yet, but doesn't 10-bit color require shooting ALL-Intra instead of 8-bit Long GOP?  if you're talking MP4 files at 4-2-0 color space, you're also always talking 8-bit color.

Not sure if this is helpful or not.

[Warren Heaton]

Quick update... just checked the specs... 150Mbps (4:2:2 10-bit LongGOP) (LPCM) is in there.  So... never mind.

[Grigor Poghosyan]

The problem maybe coused becouse of some other software not running properly or not with the recent update. I had similar problem and it was solved after updating Quicktime player

[tommyhopkins]

As I said, Adobe software is up-to-date. Quicktime was discontinued for Windows, but on my PCs still installed latest version of it. Anyway, I don't think that the issue is in updates. For me, it looks like Premiere Pro reads metadata in a wrong way for this specific type of files for some reason.

[excited_Genie16B8]

I recommend getting rid of QuickTime completely.  It's not required for Adobe software to function properly, and has actually caused issues with Adobe software when installed.

Use the following to Uninstall it.  Choose the Automatically remove residual files checkbox.

IObit Uninstaller - Best Free Software Uninstall Tool for Your Windows XP/7/8/10 PC

[R Neil Haugen]

In an email discussion with the head of color for PrPro, he did say there are a couple circumstances under which PrPro can read the wrong values between data/legal (or full/limited, take your pic) and display the wrong values. I'm expecting that if he's aware, he's doing something. So I'm wondering if this isn't one of the circumstances.

And from that discussion, as I'm not a software engineer, I couldn't tell exactly what the issue was, but guess that with a certain codec exported in a certain fashion in another program, PrPro might not catch the 'flag' for the value range ... or something. Again, total guess, but what I think he meant was that sometimes something could be 'flagged' as limited (16-235) but rather than then showing that as full range, it would simply show it from 16-235 in a 0-255 range. No black, no white ...

Neil

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi tommyh,

File any potential bugs here: Premiere Pro: Hot (30 ideas) – Adobe video & audio apps

Thanks,
Kevin

[tommyhopkins]

Hi Kevin,
Ok, thanks. I did this here: Fix wrong colors in MP4 0-255 files – Adobe video & audio apps
That's pretty annoying bug, which I hope will be fixed in the next updates.

[tommyhopkins]

Is there any fixes of this major issue in the new CC 2019?
Look at the link above, I'm totally not alone, and it happens with many different cameras.

[Warren Heaton]

Yes, the unexpected color value shift with the MP4 file appears to be corrected with CC2019.

I downloaded the files that you posted back on Mar 29, 2018 and imported them into After Effects CC2019 version 16.0.0 (I believe there has been one update, but that might be for Premiere Pro).

GH5 ARIB WRONG Colors.MP4 matches GH5 ARIB CORRECT Colors.MOV.

Out of curiosity, I tried these files in QuickTime Player X, Compressor 4 and Final Cut Pro X.  The MP4 appears as expected in QuickTime Player X and Final Cut Pro X.  It would not import into Compressor (whatever's allowing AV Foundation Frameworks to support the contents of the MP4 wrapper must not be updated yet).

This is a little off topic, but I'm am totally missing QuickTime as a system driver for time based media.  If the application had the QuickTime logo, you pretty much knew you could bring the file from Electric Image to After Effects to Final Cut classic then to Flash or wherever.

-Warren

[joer72002444]

Unfortunately, it looks perfect for me in AE, but when I import in Premiere, color space is still wrong. Very frustrating as our DP keeps telling me that Final Cut X is way superior.....not that I'm gonna switch, but makes Adobe look bad.

[R Neil Haugen]

On my system, I'm not getting a bars & tone digression between Ae & PrPro ... could you upload a clip of the problem media I could test?

Neil