Colors too saturated after x264

[crooper]

I'm trying to figure out a good standard profile to use for rendering camcorder (Canon HF100) video to x264 for hardware accelerated 1080 playback. I've been using wmv in the past but I'm unhappy about video quality and no hw acceleration.

This is what I've tried (from a guide I found on a different forum):
1. Record in 1920x1080 60i, full 17 Mbps quality
2. Sony Vegas 9.0a Platinum, profile set to 1920x1080 60i, top field first, no deinterlacing, best video, best audio
3. Render as lossless Lagarith avi with sound
4. Load in MeGUI, avisynth = yadif deinterlace, no resize, minimal denoise, include sound
5. Render using a standard profile (also higher quality profiles), at 7000 Kbps
6. View using latest mpc-hc, 8800GT acceleration.

The video plays fine and is clear enough for me, but brighter colors tend to be oversaturated, unnatural. I've compared it with the Lagarith and wmv renders from Vegas and they don't appear to have this issue.

What setting might fix the color issue?

[poisondeathray]

How are you determining this? How are you comparing the colors? (1 video application or 2 instances? ) Do you have any filters enabled?

Did you specify a matrix for your yv12 conversion? (when you export from vegas it will usually be RGB)
e.g.
ConvertToYV12(matrix="Rec709")

Did the preview avs script in megui before encoding - did it look "oversaturated" as well? or did it look ok? Save and open that .avs script and play that in your same media player - how does it look ?

[crooper]

Comparison by visual inspection -- by playing the videos in serial. The saturation difference is noticeable to me (and my wife), mostly red and yellow. No filters. I've seen the difference on my monitor (Sony FW900) but it's more noticeable on my TV (Sony SXRD). I don't know about matrices (I posted in the Newbie section for a reason). I set the Lagarith render to YV12 because MeGUI specified it in the error message when I used the wrong one. What does rec709 do? I'll try your recommendations.

I'm just hoping to find a general one-size-fits-all for good x264 conversion so I can use it to archive my camcorder videos, without becoming an expert.

[poisondeathray]

rec709 is the color matrix commonly used for HD video, rec601 is for SD. If you just use ConvertToYV12() it will use the incorrect rec601 matrix - but this doesn't explain a large change in saturation - the colors will only be a bit off

If you can post a sample or screenshot it might help to narrow down the issue. e.g. you could cut a small sample from the lagarith avi with virtualdub using direct stream copy mode, using mark in/mark out. you could cut a small sample from the encoded video with yamb or mkvtoolnix

It could still be a playback issue, graphics card/driver calibration issue. There is a conversion from YV12 colorspace to RGB for your display. How you specify that conversion , or what decoder, or what renderer used, can change how the video appears , even though the underlying video is exactly the same.

I'm just hoping to find a general one-size-fits-all for good x264 conversion so I can use it to archive my camcorder videos, without becoming an expert

For a true "archive" you should be keeping the original footage for future projects e.g. make some original copies on some HDD which are fairly affordable these days. You're destroying the footage by single rate deinterlacing it. For example, in that format 1080p29.97 , it's not compatible with blu-ray and you're limiting your future options, not to mention incurring generational quality losses.

[crooper]

I tried the ConvertToYV12(rec709) and avisynth said that the source isn't RGB. I believe Vegas already converted it when I saved it as Lagarith. Would it be better to save it as RGB from Vegas, and convert it in avisynth?

I've noticed the shader option in MPC-HC to convert the color space. I've used that and I think it looks nicer (IMO) for downloaded bluray movies, a little more muted.

What is a standard BluRay format? I don't have a burner but I suppose someday I will.

I guess what I mean is that I want to have my videos in a good-looking 1080p AVC format. For a while I converted my camcorder vids to wmv9, which doesn't have hw acceleration, and therefore lags horribly on my meager HTPC, and looks kinda smeary. I want them in a hw accelerated format so playback isn't an issue. I suppose I could keep the originals, but they're not THAT important, except for videos such as my wedding. Most of these are just a day at the zoo with the kids, etc. I have the option of using the Sony AVC in Vegas, but I've read on here that it's inferior to x264.

[jagabo]

Displaying a rec709 video as rec601 will cause reds to darken and greens to brighten. Many people wouldn't notice the difference without the two playing side by side. Here's an example of an rec709 video played back as rec709 and rec601, alternating between the two (xvid avi):