HB DVD to x265 transcode, colors look "washed out"

[eusi]

Hello,

following issue:

After transcoded a DVD video via HB to x265 576 present, the color looks "washed out".

Source video screenshot (via VLC 3.0.6)
https://i.imgur.com/LVCxkKY.jpg

HB transcode screenshot (via VLC 3.0.6)
https://i.imgur.com/Lbg6FTV.jpg

HB Log (HandBrake 1.2.2, Win10)
https://pastebin.com/raw/2J4TZ9nb

I tried this several times with different options. In the above HB Log, I tried "pix_fmt=yuv420p", but without any effect.

Didn't know HB can affect the colors like this :-/ Actually a color-correction-feature would be great, but in this case the result is not good :-/

Any idea what happens or how to "fix" it?

Greetings
eusi

[mduell]

An Activity Log is required for support requests. Please read How-to get an activity log? for details on how and why this should be provided.

[Ritsuka]

Try with a better player, for example mpv

[eusi]

Thanks for the answers!

An Activity Log is required for support requests. Please read How-to get an activity log? for details on how and why this should be provided.

Hm? Is the following log not an activity log?

...
HB Log (HandBrake 1.2.2, Win10)
https://pastebin.com/raw/2J4TZ9nb
...

Try with a better player, for example mpv

Eventually, when I open original video and new mkv (made via HB) in MPC-HC, they almost look identical... How on earth is this possible?
That means:
New HB transcode looks via MPC-HC and VLC identical (washed out)
Original video looks via MPC-HC also washed out, but on VLC way darker.
So there are some color-flags in the original video that are interpreted by VLC on a different way? Or how to understand this?

[Ritsuka]

VLC never tried to display colors correctly. It can do HDR to SDR tone mapping, but nothing more (if I remember correctly, on Mac it was uber broken, never tried on Windows). However, it should not look so different. But you might have better luck asking this question on VLC support forums or irc channel.

[eusi]

VLC never tried to display colors correctly. It can do HDR to SDR tone mapping, but nothing more (if I remember correctly, on Mac it was uber broken, never tried on Windows). However, it should not look so different. But you might have better luck asking this question on VLC support forums or irc channel.

Really weird. Thanks for your answer.
I try my luck on VLC forum. But not yet got an answer. We will see

[eusi]

... But you might have better luck asking this question on VLC support forums or irc channel.

Oh, I forgot to post the VLC thread:
https://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=148580

Last answer and current result:

Hi,

I looked at the files. The source file is marked as BT.470 for the Transfer Function and the Matrix Coefficients (according to MediaInfo). In the destination file the values are BT.709 for the Transfer Function and BT.601 for the Matrix Coefficients.

You are using Direct3D11 so the colours are adjusted for your display in both cases, but the adaptation is different. It should not be an issue if Handbrake did the color space conversion correctly. But it seems it didn't. I believe MPC-HC also doesn't do the BT.470 handling and it also looks washed out for both, which gives the impression the transcoding worked as expected.

Comparing the source file in Direct3d9, where the conversion is not done properly/at all, and Direct3D11 the colors of the source look like the transcode in D3D9. But these are are the wrong colors. It should be more saturated.

So I think it's an issue in handrake which doesn't do the color conversion or set the flags correctly.

@Ritsuka what do you think about their answer?

[Ritsuka]

He's right, bt470bg transfer function is gamma 2.8, and HandBrake doesn't support it yet (probably because so few DVD-Video used it? Who knows after all this years).

And we can't just pass the tag through because it's not supported by modern players. I think there are some plans to add a color space conversion filter to HandBrake, but there is no ETA.

One point to VLC this time

[eusi]

He's right, bt470bg transfer function is gamma 2.8, and HandBrake doesn't support it yet (probably because so few DVD-Video used it? Who knows after all this years).

And we can't just pass the tag through because it's not supported by modern players. I think there are some plans to add a color space conversion filter to HandBrake, but there is no ETA.

One point to VLC this time

Many thanks for clarification!

Last question to this issue: Because this is not supported, is it already possible to change gamma via additional options in Handbrake?
(similar like filters for ffmpeg like brightness=...)