Pale colours with MeGui encoding

[antineff]

If this thread is in the wrong place, please put it in the correct forum. Thank you!

As you already could learn from another thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1264754#post1264754) I am trying to encode a DVB-T captured MPEG2 cartoon to h.264.

I tried this in two ways: With XMediaRecode and with MeGUI. I really tried to have all possible parameters set the same in both programs, but while the result of XMedia Recode ist really close to the original, the MeGUI always results in paler colours.

I tried to change a few things in the settings. I also put the colour-correction in the avisynth settings on and off. But no change!

Does anybody have an idea, what the reason could be?

Thanks!

[poisondeathray]

Are you sure it isn't a playback issue ?

What software / decoder /renderer are you using for playback?

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=143689

If you can't figure it out, it might help to post some samples or screenshots

[antineff]

Well the problem might go in that direction somehow as described in the referenced thread, but I think it happens in the encoding process though and not while displaying.

Of course I used the same player and technique to play back the files. But, yes, I did not use a "real" player that plays back the files directly. I used DirectX via SMPlayer to watch them. But since both of the output files are MP4, done with x264. The displaying result should be the same if there was no difference during the encoding process.

Since I am using DirectX it is not possible to make a screenshot the normal way (using the print key). The video area would be black. What (free) software would be able to separate a single frame from the videos (mpeg2 and mp4)?

[poisondeathray]

Screenshots may be unreliable, depending on what decoder, software , renderer etc... Please post:

1) sample of the source video
2) sample of encoded video
3) avs script

And someone will look at it. There are many free hosting sites, eg. mediafire, megaupload

[Adub]

Yes, post a sample. My first instinct is to look at your overall script and source material, as this may be fixable with proper usage of Colormatrix.

[Varies]

I think its VMR-9/DirectX color problem :D
may be this thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=142013) will help you :)

[antineff]

Yeah, thats funny! Watching the samples with vlc it is, that the two mp4 files look nearly the same, while the original file is still better.

I did not find, where to switch between VMR an overlay-mode in SMPlayer so I tried vlc from which I believe, that it does not use DirectX.

But here are the samples anyway. Maybe somebody more experienced can tell me what the real problem is:

The original file (http://neffneff.de/doom9/test-original.m2v)

The XMediaRecode conversion (http://neffneff.de/doom9/test-XMediaRecode.mp4)

The MeGUI conversion (http://neffneff.de/doom9/test-MeGUI.mp4)

[poisondeathray]

I think VLC will use overlay by default, that might explain why they looked similar using VLC

Regarding the colors and luminance: I don't think there is a problem; I think it's a playback issue.

Have a look at the screenshots, the underlying video looks the same (taken through ffmpegsource and avsp, so that takes the various renderers out of the equation)
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?jm2izgdhtzm

[antineff]

Thanks poisondeathray! Yes, the screenshots look like what I saw watching the videos with vlc. The two mp4s look somehow the same and the mpeg2 is a little better.

I find it quite strange though, that in the watchin scenario with SMPlayer and DirectX the two mp4s look so significantly different. Because everything used was the same, except the encoding gui.

I wonder what happend during the encoding process making SMPlayer interpreting the results that differently.

[poisondeathray]

Perhaps your smplayer install is corrupt? It looks the same to me regardless, in kmplayer, mpc, smplayer

This is a different frame (tough to identical frame in smplayer), taken with default settings, but they look the same to me in terms of color/levels:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?mbaejkzjizj

Maybe you can try uninstall/reinstall smplayer?