When using an external display for video playback, you should also con rm that the display profile is set correctly to the color space that corresponds to the capabilities of the display. When using an Apple P3 display, make sure the display profile in System Preferences > Displays > Color is set to the default profile. “To view the expanded color space in a wide-gamut project, you must use a P3 display. This display profile can be set in System Preferences > Display. “Final Cut Pro uses macOS ColorSync technology to match the known color space of an image or video to the color space of an Apple display, according to the display’s ICC profile. We didn’t need a great mic to record such a limited sound.ĬOLOR SYNC, WIDE COLOR GAMUT AND YOUR MONITOR Using our audio analogy, if our high-performance microphone records just a 1,000 Hz tone, that tone can be reproduced perfectly on our tinny speakers, because the original sound was so limited. The visual experience of wider-gamut colors can be subtle, and vivid colors may be more noticeable in images generated by graphics and animation applications.” Many naturally occurring images already fit comfortably within the Rec. As Apple describes in their white paper: “Although cameras that support log or RAW recording have the ability to capture wide-gamut photos and video, a given recording will contain wide-gamut colors only if the scene being shot actually contains those wider colors. However, just because this wider color gamut exists, doesn’t mean we always need it. The white paper from Apple, linked at the end of this article, has more information about this. NOTE: Though you can see them via an external video (not computer) monitor. If you have a system that was released before 2015, yet runs FCP X 10.3, you can still edit these wider color gamut images, you just can’t see them on your computer monitor. NOTE: P3 video can be displayed on all Macs released since 2015, along with both versions of the iPhone 7, along with the 9.7″ iPad Pro.
It has a greater color range than 709, yet within the capability of some of today’s monitors. That middle ground is where Display P3 comes in. 709, but not as many as described in the Rec. New flat panel displays have the ability to display more colors than Rec. This happens when we shoot RAW, Log or R3D formats as well as most DSLR cameras shooting still images in RAW format. The big problem causing a lot of angst today is that camera sensors can capture more colors than our monitors can reproduce. While still significantly more restricted than the human eye, P3 clearly improves on 709, especially in the red and green spectrum. Here’s an illustration comparing what the eye can see (area in color) vs. My understanding is that while the spec is “locked,” our ability to meet it continues to evolve. The ITU standard that governs 4K, UHD, and HDR media. Display P3 uses the same color gamut as digital projectors in movie theaters. Even today, 20 years after the standard was first developed, it is the standard for all high-definition television broadcast.ĭisplay P3. The ITU standard for color gamut (again, among many other specs) in high-definition video. The ITU standard for color gamut (among many other settings) in standard definition video. (The human eye can see and distinguish a wider range of colors than any current video color space.) The range of colors that can be recorded and reproduced by a given standard. Wide Color Gamut deals with this third option.Ĭolor gamut. These are often casually referred to as: More pixels, brighter pixels and fatter pixels. Video in the future will have three key components: Higher resolution, greater gray-scale range, greater pixel saturation. So, I need to stop mindlessly using the catch-all term: “HDR,” and start being more specific. 2020 media doesn’t exist, yet. Its gonna take a while for this all to sort out. However, another problem, is that we can’t make this jump all in one step. Inadequate monitoring is part of the problem. The full-quality of the sound is recorded, but we can’t hear it… until we replace our speakers with higher-quality gear. This is analogous to having a really high-quality microphone that can record the full frequency richness of a symphony orchestra, but we can only listen to it on cheap tinny speakers. So, what I want to do here is explain where we are now, with the release of Final Cut Pro X 10.3.įirst, we need to understand that there is a difference between what we can edit and what we can see. I thought, as we left the convoluted world of standard definition media behind and moved firmly into the brave new world of HDR, that things would get easier.Īs Jamie LeJeune wrote in a comment to my blog on FCP X 10.3: “At the moment, HDR and wide-color gamuts are a multi-standard mess.”