QuickTime player does ​not​ show any file correctly. It's color-blind, pays no attention to the tags/flags for color space & such. Period. Not particularly useful for actual professional media evaluation.
Potplayer & VLC do, as far as the system is set up for it.
New Macs using the various P3 monitors they've gone to present an interesting challenge. The video standards for Rec709 media (nearly all b-cast/video media is Rec709 or used as such in post-processing/distribution) involve two parts: the original Rec709 camera transform function (think ... curves applied to the image data) and the added Bt 1886 ​display​ transform function that came into use a few years back. PrPro applies both sets of transform, applying the complete current standard.
From their testing, the engineering staff think that the recent & current Apple OS and FCPx ​apply only the first part, the camera transform function, and ​not​ the second part, the display transform function. The white/black points are actually the same, but the curve used for data placed between them is slightly different.
Older pre-P3 Macs in some way treated things differently, and although there has always been the issue of QuickTime player being a bad boy, in general the machines seemed to work with full Rec709 media as expected.
There's a new setting in PrPro 2019 that can partially help with working with Rec709 media on a Mac/P3 system, in the preferences: enable ​display​ color management. Have you tried that? As PrPro works internally to the pro-video set of Rec709/sRGB standards including both transforms, this option can help especially in the Mac OS on P3 systems to match the program to the monitor (which is ​not​ in the proper display color space for pro video work without transforms being applied). An NLE of course can't 'control' the monitor ... that's up to the OS, the particular monitor, and the user.
To really "see" the material as close to perfect as possible ... takes a system with the video output going to an external box with LUT-calibration settings in that box, to a proper broadcast-capable monitor. That type of gear is a must for colorists, and some editors do use such also. Many of us don't.
And ... I'm always amazed at how many Mac users assume that whatever monitor comes with their computer is perfectly calibrated forever and ever ... and never have even checked the color space/profile the monitor and OS are set for, nor calibrated that monitor (if possible) for Rec709/sRGB at video levels using a puck-software setup ​at the minimum​.
Neil
32
Replies
AdChoices