Yet another weird Premiere Pro issue (v210, extreme black)

[Asterra]

Same project, different bug.

I've rendered some onetime AVCHD 1080p59.94 .MTS files as raw v210 through the use of Avisynth, VirtualDub and the v210 Drastic Codec. Doing so solved the following two Premiere Pro issues: 1) PPro renders AVCHD with a chroma bug, and 2) PPro gives the correct color to raw HD footage only under special circumstances, one of which being that it is v210.

The new problem: Premiere Pro is, for some reason, treating the brightest whites in these videos as some sort of ultra-deep black. Said whites show up as black specks in the program monitor, and as blacks of about -8 IRE:



See the headlights of the oncoming vehicle and corresponding -8 value in the scope (just right of center, along with other examples not shown in this image). Loading the same video back into VirtualDub does not reveal these artifacts, and there are no background media players taking over the graphics or anything silly like that.

I don't know why Premiere Pro is doing this and I suspect nobody is going to be able to tell me. I'd rather have a fix. My experimentation reveals that the "Broadcast Colors" effect (probably an RGB conversion) eliminates the problem. (Other RGB-based effects do not.) The trouble with that approach is that I must first adjust the luma levels (0-255 -> 0-235) or else I lose the detail in the superwhites. Unfortunately, Premiere Pro's function for doing this - which normally works like a charm - also forces those extreme blacks up a bit, to -7 IRE or thereabouts. And after this has been done, the Broadcast Colors effect merely crushes that -7 to 0 like the other RGB effects, meaning the black specks are kept intact.

Just so you're sure I'm not making this up, I present two so-affected frames of video:

00000ds_clip1.avi

Sorry about the perpetual issues, folks. I sincerely wish I could solve all of this on my own, and you might be surprised how much I have managed to. ;p

[poisondeathray]

Your clip looks ok in PP here

I think you're making it up

But seriously, I can't think of why there would be a difference

Maybe Try clearing the cache? (deja vu), or try rebooting ?

[Asterra]

Maybe Try clearing the cache? (deja vu), or try rebooting ?

Yep, pretty much. I knew this one would stump folks. Already cleared the cache. And as for rebooting, well.. I actually noticed this problem weeks ago and only today found it was time to start dealing with it head on.

Oh well. My solution: Smoothlevels. Presto - instant Premiere Pro bug avoidance. And all it takes is about another 1TB of storage and about an hour of fiddling with dozens of scripts.

You could build a pyramid at Giza with the man hours Premiere Pro's bugs have cost society.

[poisondeathray]

CS4 right? do you have all updates ? (BTW I fired up my CS4 to test that clip)

What about exports? Are they affected (maybe only program monitor is affected by some graphic setting or something?)