Keep colour vibrancy in video play back

Hello, I am encountering issues with video colours when playing back video clips in Cubase 12. Basically, when I make a video with Final Cut Pro in mp4, the colours remain vivid as the original, whether they are play on Quick Time or Social media. But when I import the video in Cubase for play back, the colours become murkier, eg red become brown. Can anyone help me with settings in both Cubase and FCPX ?

A massive thank you !

Henri

I think I’ve solved it. Here some tips if of help as it is not a topic that is commnly addressed (vs. the TONS of videos that explain how to change the colour of a track…).

The issue comes from the colour not staying in the FCPX Colour Space of the project (also called gamut). There are 2 colour ranges (I simplify) : the Standard (rec 709) and the Wide range. The Standard range is the gamut used by most of the players one uses. The FCPX library properties and the project properties must be set to the same gamut. Then one needs to check the colour range with the FCPX Viewer : there is a view that shows the colours that are not in the range with “greyish” artifacts.

Then one needs to use the colour board to play with the exposure to remove these artefacts. This makes sure that one uses the best colour spectrum in the defined space. The colour correction in the effect panel can stay on “automatic”. Warning : it is quite tedious and, especially when one has got several layers on composite effects.

I know this is very FCPX oriented, but it will ensure that the colors are respected when played back in Cubase. The funny thing is that even when the colours are out of range, non-pro players like quicktime or youtube manage to keep the colours unadultered. This tells me that the Cubase video player colour space is not very up to date or accurate.

Now, before I get the rotten tomatoes of “Cubase is a music program, not a video player etc…”, let me point out that some people need to used Cubase for video play backs and as it is a PRO program, it should handle better imported videos colours. And no, Nuendo is not for me.

With best regards.