x264 produces brighter colors

[Youda008]

I have a recording from a game that i'm trying to edit.

When i render the result using x264, it produces a video that has a noticable yellow tone added to it compared to the original recording.
In comparison, Mainconcept or AMD VCE both retain the colors but produce a lower quality (more pixelation) for a given bitrate.

original recording

[Attachment 71157 - Click to enlarge]

rendered with AMD VCE

[Attachment 71158 - Click to enlarge]

rendered with Mainconcept

[Attachment 71159 - Click to enlarge]

rendered with x264

[Attachment 71160 - Click to enlarge]

Is there a workaround to make it look like the original?
I would really like to use x264 over Mainconcept because it has higher quality and more settings, but this is discouraging me.

[ProWo]

Post a mediainfo report (text mode) from both the original file and the recoded x264 file here.

[Selur]

probably tv vs pc scale and may be missing vui tagging,...

[Youda008]

Original:

General
Complete name : E:\Youda\Videos\compression colors\colors - OBS AMD - 0 orig.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom (isom/iso2/avc1/mp41)
File size : 130 MiB
Duration : 20 s 284 ms
Overall bit rate : 53.9 Mb/s
Frame rate : 60.000 FPS
Writing application : Lavf60.3.100

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.2
Format settings : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames : 4 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 20 s 284 ms
Bit rate : 53.7 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 60.000 FPS
Standard : Component
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.431
Stream size : 130 MiB (100%)
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709
Codec configuration box : avcC

--------------------------------------------------------
x264:

General
Complete name : E:\Youda\Videos\compression colors\colors - OBS AMD - 3 x264.avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
Format settings : BitmapInfoHeader / WaveFormatEx
File size : 69.1 MiB
Duration : 20 s 283 ms
Overall bit rate : 28.6 Mb/s
Frame rate : 60.000 FPS
TCOD : 0
TCDO : 202833333

Video
ID : 0
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.2
Format settings : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames : 4 frames
Codec ID : H264
Duration : 20 s 283 ms
Bit rate : 26.9 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 60.000 FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.216
Stream size : 64.9 MiB (94%)
Writing library : x264 core 152 r2851bm ba24899
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=18 / lookahead_threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc=cqp / mbtree=0 / qp=21 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=0

[ProWo]

Try this on the x264 file:

ffmpeg -i input.avi -map 0 -c copy -bsf:v h264_metadata=video_full_range_flag=0 output.avi

[Youda008]

Erm, i don't have the command line tool. I use the x264vfw launched from a video editor.

Is this going to do what you expect?

[Attachment 71161 - Click to enlarge]

[ProWo]

Try it, but i think it will not work.
Download ffmpeg from the software section here and executemy commandline above.

[Youda008]

Done. EDITED (wrong file): The colors in the result are still wrong.

[Youda008]

Hm, this is interesting.
I rendered the video using the exact same codec with exact same settings, but in VirtualDub instead of Movie Studio and now the result has correct colors.
So it's Movie Studio doing some crap with it. Unfortunatelly, the MediaInfo app shows exactly the same data in both files so i cannot find the difference.

x264vfw from Movie Studio 17

Video
ID : 0
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.2
Format settings : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames : 4 frames
Codec ID : H264
Duration : 20 s 283 ms
Bit rate : 26.9 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 60.000 FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.216
Stream size : 64.9 MiB (94%)
Writing library : x264 core 152 r2851bm ba24899
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=18 / lookahead_threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc=cqp / mbtree=0 / qp=21 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=0


x264vfw from VirtualDub

Video
ID : 0
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.2
Format settings : CABAC / 4 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames : 4 frames
Codec ID : H264
Duration : 20 s 283 ms
Bit rate : 33.2 Mb/s
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 60.000 FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.267
Stream size : 80.2 MiB (95%)
Writing library : x264 core 152 r2851bm ba24899
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=18 / lookahead_threads=3 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=25 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc=cqp / mbtree=0 / qp=21 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=0

[jagabo]

The problem is that Movie studio assumed your limited range (16-235) source was full range (0-255) and converted it to limited range. So your limited range video is "extra" limited range (32-215). You need to convince it not to do that.

I also recommend you flag the range and color matrix in the x264 options. The command line x264 options are:

--colormatrix bt709  --range=tv

I'm don't remember how to convert those to x264vfw extra options format.

<edit>

I checked and for x264vfw it's the same:

--colormatrix=bt709 --range=tv

Those two items will then show up in a MediaInfo report. And this gives you the best chance that players will display it properly.

</edit>

[ProWo]

Use clever Ffmpeg-GUI for the conversion.
Load the original file, click main, click encode video stream, set crf to 21 and click encode.
Colorspace and colorrange are got from the source file.
If finished, you will find the encoded file into the outout folder.

[Youda008]

So there is no other way than to split my video editing into 2 steps?
1. edit the recordings and generate uncompressed video
2. use ffmpeg to compress the video properly without losing colors
That's unfortunate as that's gonna require me to always have 100 GB of free space whenever i want to create a video.

[jagabo]

See if there is a way to stop your editor from reducing the contrast. It's usually something like right click on the video in the assets list or timeline, then selecting properties...

[Selur]

Didn't Vegas 18 add pixel format to the project settings which could be changed to '8 bit (full level)', '8 bit (limited level)',...? Shouldn't that fix the problem?

[Youda008]

Unlucky me. I have bought Movie Studio 17 and the current one (23) looks terrible. Hope they still sell the old versions.

EDIT: never mind https://www.magix.info/us/forum/changing-from-movie-studio-to-magix--1299268/

[poisondeathray]

In older versions of vegas pro, one workaround is to apply a computer RGB to studio RGB preset before exporting. It should be under "levels" . Not sure if vegas studio version has it

[Youda008]

So, in the end putting

--range=pc

into the "Extra command line arguments" for the x264vfw was enough to fix the colors.
I can now edit and compress the videos in single step

Thanks everyone for help!


In case someone gets here via google search, here are some useful articles about this topic
https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/full-vs-partial-color-ranges-explained-for-streaming.1029/
https://referencehometheater.com/2014/commentary/rgb-full-vs-limited/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL55sKJ5TDk

[_Al_]

this is what we had to do while using frame server from Vegas (to Avisynth/Vapoursynth) scaling to full range, because vegas deals with that video in rgb and does some woo-doo with certain formats internally (and fixing it while using his encoders but not likely while using third party exports).
To vapoursynth example: video = core.resize.Point (clip=video, format=vs.YUV420P8, matrix_s="470bg", range_s="full")

But better seams to be to fix it directly in Vegas as poisondeathray mentioned (though backwards, perhaps a typo) if movie studio has that effect also , in Levels try studio to computer RGB preset before exporting, if it is done internally in Vegas like that it looks better (could be just me, because deinterlacing was involved, not sure)
Or set it in properties (as Selur mentioned) , but movie studio perhaps cannot do that and that setting is floating point solution only, so everything takes more processing
edit: double checking and in Vegas 19 (watch, they have a live bug now, it will not launch if connected to internet, disconnect, launch Vegas 19, connect), in properties for project, Pixel Format, 8bit full range was added, not sure from what version it was added there, but it is there for 8bit as well

[Attachment 71171 - Click to enlarge]

[rgr]

Didn't Vegas 18 add pixel format to the project settings which could be changed to '8 bit (full level)', '8 bit (limited level)',...? Shouldn't that fix the problem?

Yes and yes.

[rgr]

RESOLVED

In the end putting

--range=pc

into the "Extra command line arguments" for the x264vfw was enough to fix the colors.
I can now edit and compress the videos in single step

Thanks everyone for help!

In your case it would be better to record with --range:tv and force Movie Studio to export in that format (limited range). Now you have an unnecessary tv->pc conversion only increasing the file size. (The image quality will also deteriorate slightly, but this is a negligible matter.)

[Youda008]

SOLUTION

In your case it would be better to record with --range:tv and force Movie Studio to export in that format (limited range). Now you have an unnecessary tv->pc conversion only increasing the file size. (The image quality will also deteriorate slightly, but this is a negligible matter.)

Actually, I will rather do it the other way around. I switched OBS to record in full range, since games output the full range and Vegas apparently internally operates in full range too, and i will convert it to limited range only at the end of the processing.
If i get a source video with limited range, i will apply the "Studio RGB to Computer RGB" FX according to https://youtu.be/VL55sKJ5TDk?t=493

[rgr]

This is an old video, not for the new versions of Vegas. Currently (since version 18) all you have to do is select the output type (project settings --> project).

Also if you have a video in full range then save it in full range. Converting to limited will reduce quality unless it's not that important.