Summary of Colour Online: sRGB... We Need To Talk

00:00:00 - 00:55:00

This video discusses the need for a new term to replace "gamma" when referring to the pure 2.2 power law eotf color space. The proposed term, "srgb display," is intended to avoid ambiguity. Distribution strategies for using srgb display should be re-evaluated in light of this change. Baselight's compound function is obsolete and will be replaced with the srgb display color space.

• 00:00:00 The presenter discusses the issue of color reproduction on different devices when exporting or rendering to SRGB, as well as the different strategies for content publishing.
• 00:05:00 The Colour Online standard was developed in 1997, and 20 years later it is still relevant. In this standard, there is a table of content describing the theoretical display and image encoding, which is more complex than just specifying a pure 2.2 power law. There is also a spoiler about a future 5.3 update that will add an attention symbol to the tilde symbol indicating that the function is not a pure 2.2 power function.
• 00:10:00 The video discusses the discrepancy between the true power law of 2.2 and the srgb encoding function, which uses a slightly different curve to account for different display characteristics. The mismatch causes the image to appear darker in the shadows and can be problematic when using 8-bit processing. SRgb carries an implicit flare compensation, which helps to make the image look more consistent across different displays.
• 00:15:00 The video discusses the issue of color online, specifically how there is a mismatch between how images are encoded and decoded, and how this leads to potential flicker and other issues. It also discusses a survey that was conducted in order to gather information about how the industry currently deals with color mismatches. It seems that the majority of display manufacturers and calibrators are calibrating towards a 2.2 pure power law, while software developers are mostly expecting their software to use a 2.2 plane gamma.
• 00:20:00 The presenter discusses how colour is displayed on different devices, how content creators should manage their videos for different platforms, and how srgb content is different from standard rgb. They also mention that srgb has a mismatch in gamma that is used for surround compensation.
• 00:25:00 In this video, RGB color delivery is discussed. Colours may look different depending on the device they are viewed on, as well as the viewing environment. The video also demonstrates how different colour delivery methods affect image reproduction.
• 00:30:00 In this video, the presenter discusses the various problems that can occur when encoding an image to srgb, and how to avoid them. Case one is when the drt does not compensate for bright surround, case two is when the drt attempts to make surround compensation but is overwhelmed by flare, case three is when there is no surround compensation for brights, and case four is when a video is encoded with a pure 2.2 power law and then declared as srgb. Case five is when the image is encoded to srgb with a proper surround compensation in production. All of these cases result in a mismatch between the encoding and decoding, which the presenter describes as an "implicit surround compensation."
• 00:35:00 The RGB color space is not linear, and needs updating. RGB encoding functions, such as the piecewise one, can be avoided. The time has changed, and we now need a more advanced encoding function.
• 00:40:00 The video discusses the need for a new term to replace "gamma" when referring to the pure 2.2 power law eotf color space. The proposed term, "srgb display," is intended to avoid ambiguity. Distribution strategies for using srgb display should be re-evaluated in light of this change. Baselight's compound function is obsolete and will be replaced with the srgb display color space.
• 00:45:00 The video discusses how to render content for different devices, and recommends setting the color space to "srgb" and using automatic color tagging. It suggests that using proper meter data will help ensure the color rendering is correct on all devices.
• 00:50:00 The video discusses the different color spaces that can be used when encoding video for different devices and displays. It says that, generally, if content is watched on a newer Mac with Apple's p3 display, it will be color managed and look better on those devices. However, if the same content is viewed on a legacy browser or legacy display, the chances are higher that the encoded pixels will "approximate a srgb display," but the color space will still be present in the software and be accessible with a shift click. If you know that the video is encoded in srgb, you can use it in your pipeline without worrying about color space accuracy. Finally, the video discusses how to create an srgb master for theatrical release if the client requires it. By combining an edit with a different drt and creating a new lut, the filmmaker can approximate the brightness compensation of the original drt without changing the saturation or color.
• 00:55:00 The video explains how to set up a custom DRT (Display Reproduction Technology) for viewing color spaces, depending on what streaming service is being used.