Well, I've acquired permission from the band to share the video footage with the forum in hopes that someone has a solution. This latest file cuts FCP out of the equation entirely. it is the 5DtoRGB ProRes 422HQ file, graded in Resolve and exported as individual 16bit TIFF images for each frame. I then used my newly-purchased Quicktime Pro (7) to export that TIFF sequence as an H.264 file via X.264 flavor of the codec.

The TIFF images looked 100% accurate when played back in QT Pro (7), but the exported H.264 file is washed out when opened in QT.

This is the same file that is uploaded here, AKA the "original" file.

If someone with a few minutes could download it, and check it in QT/MpegStreamclip/VLC, that'd be awesome. The latter two programs seem to display it correctly.

You will also notice that Vimeo jumps between "super washed out" and "kinda washed out" at random throughout the video.

There is no sound.

Password is: cpycpm

maybe some timecode references, cuz I see no glitches whatsoever on the vimeo video, and the color and gamma look totally fine.

@B3Guy The Vimeo video you just posted looks good to me. I'm not technically skilled in grading and exporting etc, but my eye says you did it well. Also, it looks identical to the good "resolve" frame grab from your original Oct 8 post on this problem. Given a few people on here see the video as good on vimeo, maybe it's your monitor or computer that's causing it to look bad in certain situations. Maybe try watching on a friends computer to see how it looks.

@shian @vicharris @matt_gh2

Thanks so much for the help and feedback, sorry if I'm beating a bit of a dead horse, but I've spent I don't know how many full-on days trying to troubleshoot this from every conceivable angle, to no avail. First snow of the season here in MN cheered me up a little bit this morning, though :-)

Yeah, not my best work, but I'm happy with it, considering I did four other videos for them that day, each on a time crunch while on the road (5 minutes to pile out of the bus and set up, time for one take, pile right back in and keep driving), but that's the band's strong suit if you ask me. They're crazy good live, even without their full/proper instruments, and these videos manage to showcase that attribute perfectly.

I've subsequently done a paid shoot for them when they recorded a live in-studio for the Minnesota public radio station. The extra cash allowed me to hire a second camera and to rent some Zeiss Standard Speeds. There is NOTHING quite like real cinema glass. It just renders differently, and the result was amazing. Pair that with studio-quality live audio and Driftwood's Moon V7 of course, and ho.ly.crap. Best work I've ever done.

So now you know why I'm itching to get this bug sorted out. I've got my best work on hold, waiting in the wings.

Here's a sneak peek at the grade (ungraded/graded), pre-relight.

I just watched it on my phone(Motorola droid mini) and I couldn't see any changes in color or gamma other than a single quick change of exposure around the 5 second mark.

Does your Mac have video hardware built into the processor as well as a discrete graphics card?

My lenovo has a core I5 processor with the built in Intel hd4000(or something) graphics as well as a separate nvidia card. Sometimes it doesn't seem entirely consistent as to when it will use the superior hardware acceleration of the nvidia. Add to this being able to set custom gamma and rgb settings for the nvidia and the Intel units and it would be easy to see why a computer could be switching modes from windowed to full screen or even in the midst of playback depending on processor load.

I don't know if the same could apply to your Mac but it might be worth a look.

hi, @jpbturbo

There are no color jumps in my original MTS file, and most versions of my video that I create do not have the jumps. The jumps come after uploading. The problem is 100% surely Quicktime related, but I don't know how to fix it. It does not matter what file type I export from Resolve (ProRes, TIFF sequence, Uncompressed RGB), once I convert it to H.264 Quicktime can no longer display the color correctly. It also does not matter what program I use to encode the H.264 (Handbrake, QT Pro, MPEG Streamclip), Quicktime still displays the color incorrectly and has a color shift between fullscreen and windowed playback modes.

@shian yes, I do have an NVidia card. But that still does not explain why Vimeo's files are messed up. I'm about ready to take it back to them and tell them it is something on their end that they need to look into. I'd chase down Apple over the Quicktime issues, but I know already that's a dead end.

@B3Guy Is this Vimeo only or does it also happen on YouTube? If YouTube works and you like how it looks on YouTube, maybe ditch Vimeo. I did because the playback in Vimeo is often slow and delayed.

Yeah, in theory Vimeo is better, but delayed playback was killer for me. If you go YouTube route, google how to control what your thumbnail is - there are tricks to basically select what you want as thumbnail. If you can live with Vimeo's occasional delayed playback and audio sync issues, remember that a lot of people on PV thought the video looked fine, so maybe just upload it and realize perfection is often impossible. It's a bitch having to make decisions like this, particularly as we strive so hard for quality with cams, hack settings, lenses, composition, talent performance, lighting, audio etc. Best of luck.

is "frame reordering" turned on? If so, you might want to try turning it off.... it'll make the file size bigger, but it may change things.

It looks about the same to me as the previous version, where the changes in saturation or whatever were hardly noticeable.

If I randomly came across the video online I probably wouldn't have thought anything of it.

Are u not using mp4? You're a ColorGhear guy, use my settings. I stopped using h264 a long time ago. Straight H264 sucks.

Export "movie to mpeg-4"

yup - I use 720p to save on vimeo weekly data cap