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Ayapic
Inspiring
April 7, 2017
Answered

Ultra Key eyedropper not working on PC

  • April 7, 2017
  • 8 replies
  • 24661 views

After spending an hour on this, I decided to search and realize this has been a problem for many since around 2011.

I just installed the trial Premiere because I wanted to test green screening to see if PP worked better than my older editor.  When I use Ultra Key and use the eyedropper to select my green color, the color choice turns black (regardless of which color I pick with the eye dropper).  I'm *certain* I'm using Ultra Key and the eyedropper correctly.  In fact, if I manually change the color, the green screening works fine --- it's just that the eye dropper isn't working.

Can anyone offer a suggestion here?  thanks!!

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer TaranVH

oook, so I have 4 monitors on my system, some with different UI scaling. I've noticed similar behavior, where the color the eye dropper tool selects is not accurate. however, it is not always black. it is just a color that is half a screen away from where it should be.

Because I have a cursor click visualization script, I can see what part of the screen premiere is ACTUALLY sampling color from.

Try click+dragging your cursor from the eyedropper, all around the screen and watching the color change. is it ever anything other than black?

8 replies

Participating Frequently
November 30, 2023

Still broken in the 2024 release! My primary editing setup doesn't have any issues across three monitors with the same scaling. But running a Surface Pro with high DPI connected to a vanilla 1920x1080 monitor breaks the eyedropper feature. 

tylerl76900638
Participant
February 28, 2023

Thank goodness I found this. Still broken in 2023. Luckily I am working off a laptop and a 2nd monitor so I just dragged my Premier Pro screen onto my laptop screen and selected the color I wanted and it worked, then moved the Premier Pro screen back onto my monitor. 

Participant
March 20, 2022

Had the same issue. To fix this I had to disconnect all extra monitors and restart my PC, this is after trying all other methods first.

toy toy
Inspiring
February 11, 2022

still broken in 2022

this is only gonna get worse with monitors getting higher in resolution....

name is already taken
Known Participant
September 25, 2020

Still having the same problem in 2020, Taran isolated it tho, the problem IS having multiple screens with different levels of scaling. 

name is already taken
Known Participant
September 26, 2020

After working on a different post about the same thing I seem to have found exactly what is causing things to break. AND how to avoid it.

 

In my setup, the eyedropper stops working when it is off the main screen AND the second screen it is on has a different scaling setting. 

 

If the scaling is the same it's ok, and as long as the effect controls on the main screen it works on secondary screens, but if it's scaled differently and that's where the effect controls are it stops working.

 

I don't know how this works if you have three screens or if your second screen is higher resolution but that's what's doing it for me.

R Neil Haugen
Legend
September 27, 2020

As noted elsewhere, the Program monitor needs to be on the same screen as the Premiere menu system ... and the ECP should be on that screen as well.

 

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...
Participating Frequently
July 8, 2020

UPDATE TO ULTRA KEY PICKER PROBLEM.

Stumbled on the fix. If you hold the Command key down at same time while you drag the Dropper around, you will see the color box reflect the dropper's color. Clicking locks the keying in and voilá the chroma disappears.

Participant
July 14, 2017

Can you provide more detail on this" cursor visualization script"?  Im having the same issue, I'm on CC 2017.1.2, late 2015 imac, retina 5k, mac os sierra 10.12.5, 4ghz intel core i7, AMD Radeon R9 M395X 4096 MB.

I did the photoshop workaround, but it sucks.  i.e. screenshot, open in photoshop, get color value there using eyedropper, copy and paste it into Ultra Key.

This problem is not solved.  Adobe, please take note.

FWIW I spent 2 hours on the phone with adobe tech support last time this was bothering me a few months ago, they weren't any help. Had me uninstall and reinstall everything to no avail, wwasted a lot of time not coming up with a solution.

TaranVH
Inspiring
July 15, 2017

Uh, yeah, sorry. Here is a link to my script:

https://github.com/TaranVH/2nd-keyboard/blob/master/Taran

Click on the RAW button, then do a 'save as' to get that file onto your computer. You'll have to download and install autohotkey for the script to work. Double click on it to run it, and you'll see a little star appear in your taskbar. You can put a shortcut to that file in your startup folder, if you want it to launch every time your computer starts up.

Soooo, that script ALSO has scroll wheel acceleration built in, a feature that you will not necessarily want. But I think you can just delete lines 95 to 106, save it, run it, and you will be fine...??

Again, this does not fix the bug, it just gives you a little ( indicator for where your cursor ACTUALLY is, as opposed to where Premiere thinks it is. There is plenty of other software that can visualize clicks onscreen, and any of those might work fine for you, but I wrote my script because I found none of them to be sufficient for my own needs.

PS: Use the Wishform - Adobe Premiere Pro to report this bug. The more who report it, the more likely it will get done. Adobe doesn't really check the forum for bug reports, but they do check that.

Also, take a look at my big list of Premiere problems, here: ALL Taran's feature requests and bug reports for Adobe Premiere - Google Sheets and send in a wishform with any that you also encounter.

TaranVH
TaranVHCorrect answer
Inspiring
April 8, 2017

oook, so I have 4 monitors on my system, some with different UI scaling. I've noticed similar behavior, where the color the eye dropper tool selects is not accurate. however, it is not always black. it is just a color that is half a screen away from where it should be.

Because I have a cursor click visualization script, I can see what part of the screen premiere is ACTUALLY sampling color from.

Try click+dragging your cursor from the eyedropper, all around the screen and watching the color change. is it ever anything other than black?

Ayapic
AyapicAuthor
Inspiring
April 8, 2017

Amazing...thanks!

I have a two monitor setup -- my Microsoft Surface connected to a 4k TV that I'm using as a monitor.  I moved Premiere over to the Surface screen and it suddenly worked.

Clearly it's a bug...and one that's been around since at least 2011, but probably not enough people are using Ultra Key on this kind of set up for it to be a big enough problem to address maybe.

Anyway thanks!!

CJLEARN
Participant
November 11, 2019

Two screens and a Surface Pro 6 with Premier 2020. Just encountered this issue and the workaround was successful.