Question / Help Colors are off, can't figure out why

A

amedeus

New Member
The colors in all of my OBS recordings are wrong. Not massively so, but the reds are more orange, the blues are more washed out, and the lighter greens are darker. It's less noticeable in more graphically complex games, but it sometimes stands out in the simpler 2D ones. Game Bar captures everything spot-on, but Game Bar doesn't work with as many games as OBS does.

I already have my settings at
Color Format: NV12
Color Space: 601
Color Range: Partial

I've checked playback using different video players and video formats, and checked OBS against Game Bar, and it definitely doesn't seem like it's a playback issue. It's happening during recording.

Here's a fresh log: https://obsproject.com/logs/T7yiR43XYR2QVqHw
 
carlmmii

carlmmii

Active Member
Can you post a screenshot of what you are observing? Does this behavior exist for all capture methods? (game capture / window capture/ display capture)

Do you have a color profile set within your intel graphics control panel?

Do you have any other software that could be changing your color profile? (i.e. Lux, color calibration software, etc)
 
A

amedeus

New Member
I checked window and display captures and they both had the issue, same as game capture. I also checked my Intel color settings, and they're all set to default - brightness, hue, and saturation all at 0, and contrast at 50. I can't think of anything I have installed that would mess with my color profile, unless it's maybe something that's built into Windows. I know I turned on the "night light" feature once last year, but it's been off since then.

I do have a screenshot comparison handy that I made when I first noticed the issue. Something about The Messenger just didn't look as gorgeous as the game itself in playback, and I was trying to figure out why. This isn't the most drastic difference here, but should at least give you the general idea in a few specific places. The corona and reflection of the sun are more orange, the sun itself has more yellow in it, the lower clouds blend together a little more, and the green of the birds is less vibrant. The sea's a tad washed out too, though I think blues aren't hit quite as bad.

OBS is on the left, Game Bar on the right: https://i.imgur.com/b9zHlUl.png
 
carlmmii

carlmmii

Active Member
Ok, so the difference is very subtle, but it is definitely there.

In OBS's advanced settings, I would try changing your color space to 701. If that doesn't change the actual recorded color, then I would see if changing from Partial to Full gives you the expected color dynamics.
 
A

amedeus

New Member
Yeah, the subtlety definitely lets it get away with it depending on what I'm recording. When I recorded the original Quest for Glory, the darker greens of the grass and forest weren't noticeable enough to be an issue thanks to the checkerboard shading style of that game's art, but the washed out red text in the menus was much more distracting (especially as I had to switch from Game Bar to OBS midway through the game). I did a grayscale Kirby game run through a pink Super Game Boy palette, but at the end of the day a more washed out pink is still pink. I definitely wouldn't record a Virtual Boy game this way, though.

I tried switching the color space to 709. It seems to do exactly the opposite of the issue I'm having - the greens are brighter, the blues are darker, and the reds are further on the purple side. It's really bizarre. It's like I need a 650 option to land this right in the center where everything will be spot-on.

The color range didn't seem to change anything. I tried it with both 601 and 709, but no dice.
 
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