Colour variations on different players

[vmorley]

Hello!
My movie made with Sony Vegas 6 & DVD Architect looks good on my PC. Problem is that colours vary greatly when the movie is played on home DVD players through the TV and on other PC’s & laptops. The PC’s all make the colours very bright & saturated (so I have been believing my authoring PC & not bumped up the saturation too much), yet the colours are dull & washed out on the TV & laptops.

Should I know something about colour calibrating the Vegas program or the Monitor of my PC? Commercially produced DVD’s don’t produce such a variation in colour. My aim is to produce a DVD that looks good on MOST players, as it will be played on many different ones. All footage looked fine on the camera as well.

Thanks very much for your help!
Virginia

[Endeavor]

Basically, the desktop monitor is a way better monitor. Everything is going to look worse on a standard CRT TV. As far as the laptops go, they generally have lower quality screens than those of the desktop variety. I think it’s a simple matter of quality. It’s a good idea to have a TV monitor to preview your stuff as you work. That will, if nothing else, relieve the shock of seeing your nice, pretty footage looking like poo on a TV. I do feel your pain, believe me.

[Anonymous]

vmorley,

What youre seeing is very typical all around the world. It could be that your project’s color is fine but the hardware that youre showing it on is all wrong. There is a lot more to television and PC monitors than just simply turning them on. There are a series of settings and adjustments that may not be set right within that particular monitor. The hue, color or tint could be off. The contrast, brightness and color temp could be off. All of these together can greatly affect how a picture will look. There are tools and techniques out there that allow you to properly calibrate your viewing monitor to the specific standards set by industry. 99.0% of the TVs you buy are not set to standard for one reason or another. Sure they show a colored picture to the normal eye when you plug them in and turn them on but they are most likely not technically set to standard. Most people could care less but if you are chasing a consistent, uniformed standard, you will need to calibrate the TV in.

The bottom line is that the only reason your videos color looks so different is because these monitors are set all over the place. As Endeavor already mentioned, double check how it will look on a TV monitor first BUT make sure you have it calibrated correctly. Thats all you can do on your end. Everyone else watching your video will have to adjust their TVs on their end if color is an issue.

RAM

[vmorley]

Thank you all very much for your advice! I will be perusing my monitor’s manual to see if I can calibrate it, & also checking video colour regularly on my TV. Is anyone aware of where one could find out what the national colour standards are? (i.e. a website etc?).

Cheers!
Virginia

[Anonymous]

Virginia,

There are set-up DVD’s out there that you can get which helps you set up your monitors. These come with a setup DVD and usually some colored gels. All you do is put this DVD in a player that is connected to the monitor that you are calibrating and a series of test screens and patterns come up. A voice on the DVD instructs you as to what to do. When you’re all done your set should be very close in not right on to the industry standard.

A friend of mine lent me his when I set up my 53" HD DLP. It’s real easy and the results are amazing. See if there is a local TV appliance store around by you and ask them if they have something like this. They should have them. Otherwise the link below will take you to a version of this that you could buy over the Inet.

http://www.mysimon.com/9000-11124_8-0.html?mlpid=2000305259

RAM

[vmorley]

It is so great to know that such a tool exists! Once again, many thanks for your help!

Virginia

[Author]

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