Image sequence - VirtualDUB - HuffYUV - washed colors

[Bucic]

Thank you very much on behalf of the DCS (Digital Combat Simulator) community at http://forums.eagle.ru/. Both of you!

But...

You want to avoid un-necessary conversions. Ie, don't go from RGB to YUY2 to RGB to YV12, to YUY2 to yada, yada, yada. Each of those conversions has the potential to degrade the image a little.

The biggest issue is to avoid going from YUV to RGB.

Me: Keep RGB color throughout the video capturing and editing process by using Lagarith mode RGB (default) and only produce the final material to x264 YUV12. As long as we will be able to use Lagarith without any problems we're on the safe side

...is the way to talk to me

[Bucic]

Can you tell me how I should save images from MP4 and youtube vids for true comparisons? I know I can take avi shots in VD but it doesn't open MP4s. Would Avidemux be fine? I tried and it gave me somewhat paled out red.

[poisondeathray]

Can you tell me how I should save images from MP4 and youtube vids for true comparisons? I know I can take avi shots in VD but it doesn't open MP4s. Would Avidemux be fine? I tried and it gave me somewhat paled out red.

There is no such thing as a "true comparison"

Your video data is in YCbCr colorspace, and how it gets converted to RGB for display will alter how the screenshot looks.

e.g. it might use Bt.709, or Bt.601, it might use full range, or limited range. In addition, the software used to take the screenshot can alter the picture as well (maybe post processing) , and the effects of renderer can alter it as well . This is why all those questions were asked in the first few posts. This is why when you have RGB and stay in RGB, there is less confusion and you should have identical results

Avidemux may do it's conversion slightly differently than vdub (IIRC it does, and it's display is very different as well). Vdub uses bt.601 even for HD, but IIRC, avidemux uses bt.709

If you want full control and consistency, you have to be aware of the decoder settings (what it's set for input & output levels), and how the RGB conversion is done (what matrix e.g. Bt.709 vs. Bt.601, full or limited range), and if any post processing or other things in the processing chain are in effect

If you're not aware of what colorspace, or how conversions are done, programs will use their default settings and you might not get what you want. In this 1st post is an example of Bt.601 vs. Bt.709
https://forum.videohelp.com/showthread.php?t=326757

[Bucic]

OK, so what's the easy and reasonably true method? I did notice the difference between Avidemux grab and YT so A is not right...

[poisondeathray]

You can load it into vdub with avisynth

e.g.
DirectShowSource("video.mp4")

vdub will use rec601 conversion but you can specify rec709 conversion

e.g.
DirectShowSource("video.mp4")
ConvertToRGB(matrix="rec709")

[Bucic]

Thank you. That should do. Thanks.