How do I change the color range of a source file from limited to full range?

Thanks Anna and Neil, that's more or less what I meant.

I understand that in Premiere you can't work in the full range? Without using this filter unfortunately I see that the ranges 0-15 and 235-255 are simply cut out.

We'll see how it goes -- for now +1 for Vegas 🙂

Thanks for the advice, but that's not the point.

My source MTS file is full range -- YUV 0-255 (exactly in the range of 16-235, but I have to read it as full range so I don't lose the range of 236-255).

This is what it looks like in Premiere -- you can see on the graph that the whites are blown out.

I need to change the input range like I do in Vegas (pic below).

All YUV Rec.709 by the standards is to be encoded to limited range, and will be displayed correctly as full 0-255 by the display device. IF the user hasn't mucked up their display device settings.

So if the limited range isn't being displayed correctly there is probably an issue with your color managment settings, which are ALL in one place.

Lumetr panel Setttings tab, the tab NAMED Settings.

Set Display Color Management, auto detect log, auto tonemapping to on. Set the Sequence to Rec.709 and your vieiwing gamma to your preference.

On Macs, also set Extended Dynamic Range when availablt to on ... and you have an odd choice for viewer gamma.

Viewing (and working) gamma choices

On Macs, especially without Reference modes set to HDTV, Apple's ColorSync utility is set WRONG. It will use a wrong display tranform for Rec.709 video, using essentially a gamma of 1.96 rather than the correctly specified display transform of essentially gamma 2.4.

Through testing I've seen, Apple also doesn't stick the landing for color space transform of the colors of the Rec.709 sRGB space into the display's native P3 color space. So it isn't that the colors are visually less saturated, they're actually 'off' a small amount in hue values.

So outside of Premiere on Macs without a Reference mode set to HDTV, the image will be lighter in the shadows. And the colors will be less saturated and vibrant.

If on such a Mac, you set the viewing gamma option to gamma 1.96, you will see a similar image inside Premiere and outside, as long as the outside app or player allows ColorSync to manage color.

This means QuickTime player, Chrome and Safari browsers.

Some apps/players, such as VLC, PotPlayer, and Firefox, will normally not let ColorSync manage the display transform, and will show a darker, more saturated image than Qt player, Chrome and Safari.

ALL other screens will show the image more similar to the VLC/Potplayer/Firefox image.

So you get to "pick your poison" ... who gets what image.

Viewing gamma of 2.2 or 2.4 choice explained

This should not be chosen based on where you will 'send' your deliverable, make this choice based on how bright your working environment is while doing color changes in Premiere.

This is the proper method as set in the professional standards. 

Colorists will be working in a very dark, near but not quite completely black room. And that is so their color sensitivity will be 'best' according to many tests of this. Pro colorists are required to use a display gamma of 2.4 while working in such a dark environment.

BUT ... if you are working in a normally lit room, then you are supposed to use a screen display of gamma 2.2 so that it mimics the view of the screen at gamma 2.4 in a very dark room.

ALL users should have their screen set to simply the "Rec.709" setting of the device, without mucking about the underlying controls other than properly calibrating the device.

Past that ... set your screen accordingly. Most people should be using viewing gamma of 2.2 in Premiere, as very few people work in that really dark room environment.

But if you are on a Mac without Reference modes set to HDTV, and only worry about how it looks in such screens, use viewing gamma 1.96. All those using correctly set screens will see a much darker image of course.