Black levels between CCE / ProCoder

[jriker1]

I have been struggling with the black levels on my final MPEG2 file with CCE. Seems when I take my already YUY2 format file, which from what I understand CCE needs as input, the final YV12 format file is a lot "brighter" than the original. Blacks are no longer black, other areas seem hazzy. Some of my settings for CCE are:

- Change N/M on advanced from 5 to 4
- Change Offset line from 1 to 0
- On Picture Quality uncheck "Low"
- On Picture Quality Set block scan order to Zigzag
- On Picture Quality check progressive frame (video is progressive)

Rest I leave alone.

In ProCoder the only thing I change is to tell it the footage is not interlaced like it thinks it is.

I prefer CCE, however the below shot shows on my TV that the ProCoder seems to get closer with the darks than CCE does. I feel more comfortable with CCE due to the ability to tweak the variable bitrates manually thru the entire sequence, however can not ignore the color change that comes out of it. I am using 2.70 of CCE and version 3 of ProCoder. Any thoughts?

Background is the orignial AVI:
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/7067/comparequ1.jpg

Thanks

JR

[PhillipWyllie]

4.12 Luminance level
Cinema Craft Encoder uses a YUY2 pixel format internally. If the
source format is RGB, the color space conversion into YCbCr will be
performed using this luminance range.Found under advanced of the profile settings.
6.3.10 Black screen
Paints the screen black. It can help you to cut the noise on the black
screen.Found under picture quality of the profile settings.

[jriker1]

Found under advanced of the profile settings.
Found under picture quality of the profile settings.

Maybe a dumb question, however what does this have to do with my issue?

Luminance level only deals with RGB input which I do not have.

Also, what does the black screen option have to do with it?

JR

[manolito]

I can confirm these black level differences, but in my case QuEnc (and CCE) appear to be true to the original while ProCoder darkens the image considerably.

Source: DVB-T capture (already YV12)
QuEnc and ProCoder: No filters at all, just LogoAway to get rid of the station logo. For ProCoder the "ConvertToYUY2(interlaced=false)" statement was appended to the script.

Original:
http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/3667/originalgo3.png (http://imageshack.us)

QuEnc:
http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/7533/quenceg3.png (http://imageshack.us)

ProCoder3:
http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/238/procoder3jq7.png (http://imageshack.us)

I have no idea what to make of these differences. Any ideas?

Cheers
manolito

[jriker1]

Ping Pong.

Thought I would revive this. So no answers to the difference in black levels from the source?

JR

[scharfis_brain]

the only colourspace that gives reproducable results with Procoder is YUY2.
YV12 and RGB alters the lumarange.

[Video Dude]

I compared a black frame from DVD-RB output (CCE Basic and ProCoder) with the original using ColorYUV(analyze=true). Input to both encoders is YUY2.


Original:
Y U V
Avg 16.75 128.75 128.75
Min 15 127 127
Max 18 129 129
L Min 16 128 128
L Max 17 129 129


CCE Basic:
Y U V
Avg 16.75 128.75 128.75
Min 15 127 127
Max 18 129 129
L Min 16 128 128
L Max 17 129 129


ProCoder:
Y U V
Avg 16.75 128.75 128.75
Min 16 128 128
Max 18 129 129
L Min 16 128 128
L Max 17 129 129



If the original is min 0-15, CCE retains these values.
Does ProCoder always force a clamp to 16?