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Filmlinjen
Participant
February 11, 2021
Question

Why black level difference - HW vs SW export?

  • February 11, 2021
  • 1 reply
  • 1888 views

When exporting from a h264 timeline. It seems that hardware encoding makes the export darker than the software encoder. Why is this?

Watching in VLC makes the blacks crushed. But if exporting using software encoding the result looks like in premiere's preview window.

Looking at metadata the software encode says "limited range" i.e. 16-235 wheras the hardware encode does not. Making me think premiere's inherent color range in the preview might be 16-235. But this does not make sense in lumetri scopes which have 0-255 levels.

It just seems very inconsistent. Why is it and how to fix it?

Thanks 🙂

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1 reply

R Neil Haugen
R Neil Haugen
Legend
February 11, 2021

H.264 is limited (video) range ... period. I'm not getting the issue you are, but then ... my settings in the Nvidia controls are that Rec.709 media is set to limited/16-235 so my system will handle all Rec.709 correctly in or out of Premiere.

 

I'm wondering about the metadata question ... maybe I'll have to test this. In MediaInfo, see if the hardware encoding also has the appropriate file information. Huh.

 

Neil

Everyone's mileage always varies ...
    F
    FilmlinjenAuthor
    Participant
    February 17, 2021

    Thank you for the reply. I will further investigate.

    Sorry for a late response.

    I have not noticed any change by adjusting the setting in nvidia, I will try it again. All that did was making quicktime player cohere to the setting when playing back. VLC did not honor it at all.

    Will do some more testing. Also we are on windows 10 win studio drivers, for the knowledge.

    Thanks.

    F
    FilmlinjenAuthor
    Participant
    February 17, 2021

    And yes, I checked in mediainfo. (Sorry I can not see anywhere to edit my post. If it is under "more" it is not showing for me, only a white blank popup" - no adblockers), 

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