Question / Help Color, Saturation, and Contrast issue & Color Space

AudioBorg

New Member
Been trying to figure out why colors and contrast are so off when I use Display Capture to record anything; a game, an application, or just the finder. Was reading another post that gave me the idea to match the OBS Color Format setting in Settings > Advanced, with the color "space" of my monitor, which is RGB.

Screen Shot 2020-03-21 at 10.32.38 PM.png

Screen Shot 2020-03-21 at 10.34.27 PM.png


This is the first time I've seen a recording that truly represents the colors, saturation and contrast displayed on my screen. Great... ..but wait, as soon as I switch Color Format in OBS to RGB, I get a red text warning at the bottom.

Screen Shot 2020-03-21 at 10.36.34 PM.png


Is there a better method of achieving display image accuracy for recording, as well as streaming, and not incur a CPU usage hit?




 

Narcogen

Active Member
Not that I'm aware of, no.

Keep in mind your audience is going to be watching in 601 or 709, so you're getting translation somewhere, the only question is where/when.
 

alexgerbrandt

New Member
I'm not sure if this is what you are dealing with, but Apple does some funky stuff with color profiles and OBS doesn't deal with it too well, as of yet. These findings may only apply to Mac users who have a P3 (or wide color gamut) display.

When you open OBS on a Mac, the preview window displays an unmanaged color profile. Pretty much every other app on your Mac uses your display's Color Sync profile to display its colors. The practical result of this is that media played inside of OBS has more contrast than when it is played in an app, such as QuickTime, or YouTube(on Safari).

The link below is useful to combat the aforementioned problem, but instead of using the "sRGB" profile that it mentions, I found that the "HD 709-A" profile was the only profile that worked for me.


In addition to the LUT that is generated via the method mentioned in the link above, I found that following the below process helped to unify the colors in OBS vs. different apps:

-Ensure that OBS is closed.
-Navigate to System Preferences > Displays > Colors.
-Select the HD "709-A" profile.
-Open OBS.
-Switch back to your displays normal profile.

Following those steps seems to match OBS to the QuickTime, and YouTube(on the Safari browser). Keep in mind that resizing OBS windows will reset the colorspace, and the process will need to be repeated.

I think that some work needs to be put in this area of the program for Macs. The whole thing seems a bit buggy to me. I hope this helps though!
 

Muny9

New Member
Wow that worked! The fact that it does work means OBS needs an update to adhere Apple’s display profiles the way every other Mac app does.

As the original post noted, the hack of switching your display to Rec 709 before opening OBS then switching to your normal profile breaks if you resize the preview/program windows... or projector windows, or the multi view window, or switch in or out of Studio Mode.

It just works on one profile, so not a great fix if you have multiple color calibrated monitors that each have their own display profile. It also occasionally flickers to the “bad” color.

Not a very workable hack. I’m new to OBS... what does it take to get this in the bug fix queue?

The other tip listed above about using a LUT is not a suitable option because it is taking source material that actually has the correct colors/gamma/etc permanently changes them to inforrect colors that Wilson look right in OBS but be wrong in the video stream or recording that OBS outputs.

The problem is with how OBS shows content in the app. The actual output is good... you just don’t know while you’re recording/streaming!
 

Snufon

New Member
M1 MacBook here, the M1 shouldn't matter as its the same DCI-P3 colors for the display.

My problem was not just how OBS displayed the video but the stream output as well appearing washed out. What worked for me was to use the filter with LUT technique (I used the same one as advised in the link, original.png) with ColorSync Utility (preinstalled on my mac), using Match to Profile : srgb iec61966-2.1. With that there was no need to change the profile of my Mac under System Preferences and the colors are totally accurate.

The difference was subtle when looking from OBS (only some colors seemed to change like reds and blues that "pops" more in typical DCI-P3 fashion) but massive on the stream. Here are 2 twitch clips highlighting the difference : the first one is without the filter. When watched from my screen, the second clip is perfect and reflects exactly what is natively on my screen, this may look too saturated on computers with a worse color space though.

Clip 1 : https://clips.twitch.tv/GentleCovertRabbitVoHiYo-oz3oTfD7w2jlC6Yv
Clip 2 : https://clips.twitch.tv/CuriousBlindingSwordPanicBasket-TW8RgOSlEAnoYBXS

Hope it helps someone !
 

Snufon

New Member
Latest update broke something so I had to redo it with one additional step (might have done it last time then forgot, or had the "right" original.png as a base)

- Download the standard original.png that you see here :

36eaa1bb9049b0a31193c3c38ea1bf495be4d553.png



- With Colorsync : ASSIGN PROFILE : Colour LCD, which visually makes the colours pop more as you see here. You may be able to download this version directly

original.png


- Finally, use MATCH TO PROFILE : srgb iec61966-2.1 with ColorSync, which doesn't change anything visually but gives the right LUT to use in OBS.

The best way to test is with the red color. If you have the problem I'm talking about, you should see the red color becoming more and more washed out in the OBS preview as seen here :

Screenshot 2021-06-02 at 22.34.21.png


Hope it helps ^w^
 

aadi06d

New Member
Latest update broke something so I had to redo it with one additional step (might have done it last time then forgot, or had the "right" original.png as a base)

- Download the standard original.png that you see here :

View attachment 71788


- With Colorsync : ASSIGN PROFILE : Colour LCD, which visually makes the colours pop more as you see here. You may be able to download this version directly

View attachment 71787

- Finally, use MATCH TO PROFILE : srgb iec61966-2.1 with ColorSync, which doesn't change anything visually but gives the right LUT to use in OBS.

The best way to test is with the red color. If you have the problem I'm talking about, you should see the red color becoming more and more washed out in the OBS preview as seen here :

View attachment 71790

Hope it helps ^w^
Hey Dude

I am a total noob to this. I just wanna record videos via obs from my m1 macbook pro (default colour profile is Display P3)

How can I sync the of obs and my mac. obs displays washed out colours while recording.

Can you explain step by step cuz I am complete noob at obs and macos

Thanks
 
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