Help with Sony Vegas Render

I've never had this problem. Have you tried contacting Sony for troubleshooting ideas?

haha. I have the OPPOSITE problem with Premiere and QT.... My nice deep images, get alpha boosted when rendered to QT..


Which from some seraching might be the same issue..

Interestingly, when uploaded to vimeo my video return to the correct gamma.. maybe yours will too?

I hope this doesn't just confuse you more..

Have you tried different monitors? Make a couple of DVDs and try it on a number of different TVs.

Maybe the program in which you are viewing it has it's settings askew?

The Vegas preview and the final render are being viewed on the exact same monitor so they should look the same. I am viewing with Windows Media Player. I downloaded the DIVX player and am having the same results with that.

Hi, Nemesis. Are you using Vegas Pro by any chance?

It does not seem like a monitor calibration issue, as you are previewing and running the final render on the same monitor but it's essential to calibrate your monitors at least once every two weeks to help with this kind of stuff. That's beside the point here though. Not entirely sure why you are getting the difference in quality on the same monitor, but logic would suggest that the problem is inside of Vegas. So I'd test a few sample renders on a small Region of one of your video tracks (primary track would be the best) after making some adjustments using the Levels Video FX filter.

If you don't have Pro then (using Levels) drop the Gamma below 1.000 (don't do too much as this is a very sensitive level). Use the Split Screen View on the preview window for a before and after check. After previewing your changes then render your small test region and see if your adjustments have done anything to help with the brightness in the final output (in windows media player). If there is no discernible change and your output is still dark then you may have a Sony Service Request call on your hands.

However, if the Gamma level adjustment test has impacted the output then there you're getting somewhere. You would have to go back and adjust your Input start and end levels to improve upon the Gamma changes. This is where having Pro makes life easier. If you have Pro turn on your Scopes (View/Video_Scopes) and adjust your levels using your waveform monitor and vector scope to correctly change your levels or you could end up with washed out colors or worse yet even darker colors. This effort is a combination of art and your personal tastes.

Once you've achieved the optimum levels in your test render section then go back and apply these changes to either the entire track or from shot to shot (if your shots are considerably different). Be mindful, your new adjustment Levels may not work as a panacea on different shots because they are, well different. So you may need to tweak your levels to gain uniformity or to meet your tastes.

Hope this helps.

Kosh

Kosh,
great detail, but Im missing a big picture context..

Can you give a high level overview of what you think the problem is that your excellently detailed post fixes?

On a side note, your video card control panel applet might have some impact. For example with my nvidia card, I can OVERRIDE the various video players software image settings, brightness, contrast, etc.

I noticed though that this doesn't effect my video displayed in premiere or after effects. This could produce the exact same thing your seeing..

Hey, wheatgrinder.

To be honest I have no idea what Nemesis’ issue is here. It could be hardware, software or picture quality related. I was not trying to diagnose his problem but instead use the process of elimination to test what is within Nemesis’ sphere of immediate control - which to me is the very picture being rendered . Also, while I am in full disclosure honesty mode - I was dead tired, half asleep even, last night/this morning when I wrote that post. I’m kind’a freaked out myself at the level of detail that spewed outta me there.

Back on point tough. High level this could be hardware or software related. If that’s the case then I must admit that I am not tech savvy enough to assist on this one. But Nemesis still came to the right place as there are a lot of very tech savvy folks on here. My “detailed flap poetic” was aiming at tackling the problem from a process of elimination POV - change what you can, what is within your control, and assess if that’s the problem. The quality of the picture seems to be controllable at this point. (That said this could be a setting issue too, though nothing comes to mind for me at the moment. Is Nemesis’ preview window set to an external monitor, perhaps?) I had something like this happen to me once. My final render looked fine on my editing machine’s monitor but dark on my laptop and even darker on my TV. It hinted of a calibration issue. But to get the look I was going for I used the filters to correct/compensate for my poorly calibrated test monitor. That's where my suggestion of changing his levels comes from - to see if it is the picture itself that is the problem. The test renders may not work at all (meaning it's not picture quality) and this could be a bigger issue (software and/or hardware) and if so you escalate - but at least you rule picture quality/monitor calibration out of the equation.

In the end I was just suggesting ways to troubleshoot and kind’a fix the picture quality issue (brightness) at the same time. I was not trying to diagnose the problem. My apologies if my approach and detail have caused any further confusion. Good luck Nemesis, you are in good hands on tis site.

Thanks.

Kosh

Thanks Kosh, I hope you didn't take my comments as a rebuke.. not meant to be.. I was just looking for some underlying wisdom.. which you gave.
thanks!

No, not at all, wheatgrinder. My hesitation was about hijacking the thread. There is a fine line between helping based on personal experience and bringing something to the discussion that causes more confusion. I just wanted to stay on point so as to help Nemesis and not add to any confusion. Never once thought of your question as a rebuke, wheat, no way, you've been a tremendous help to me on here.

Thanks.

Kosh

I saw this and registered to help you guys out. I had this same problem, and I recall that If the render is not matching your preview window in vegas, you should set your compositing gamma (in project properties) to 32 bit floating point and the second box to full range 2.222 and render then.

This worked for me .

Cheers

ahHA.. stupid gamma.. gets in the way of everything..