<p>It seems to be related to NVIDIA Hardware Acceleration, though I don't know why it only affects some videos.</p>
<p>When I disable Hardware Acceleration in the Firefox settings, white areas become white.</p>
<p>(Firefox must be restarted between changes)</p>
<p>When I enable Hardware Acceleration again, they become gray-ish again.</p>
<p><strong>Hardware Acceleration can be enabled but then this option needs to be explicitly set as well in the NVIDIA Control Panel:</strong></p>
<p><strong>Also, the NVIDIA Display Service must be running at all times.</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/hdQZQ.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/hdQZQ.png" alt="NVIDIA Control Panel" /></a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-29T17:11:01.450Z
2023-01-20T01:00:03.283Z
2023-01-20T01:00:03.283Z
AyCe
<p>When I upload a video to YouTube, the white areas become grey and the colors seem a bit washed out.</p>
<p>This is how it looks locally:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/CKCnj.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/CKCnj.png" alt="Local Video" /></a></p>
<p>And this is how it looks on YouTube (Screenshot from Firefox):</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/wjSgP.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/wjSgP.png" alt="YouTube Video" /></a></p>
<p>This happens when uploading the original screen recording (via OBS), as well as when uploading an edited version (edited with Shotcut).</p>
<p>YouTube is clearly able to show &quot;full white&quot; in screen-recorded videos, as seen in this screenshot:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/Tfdyb.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Tfdyb.png" alt="Other YT video" /></a></p>
<p>These are my Shotcut export settings:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/a2ueN.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/a2ueN.png" alt="Shotcut export settings" /></a></p>
<p>When I change the &quot;Color range&quot; option from MPEG to JPEG, there is no difference except for Windows Media Player (WMP) showing the colors too bright. VLC Player and YouTube show the same as before.</p>
<p>Changing the codec to libx264rgb made no difference except now WMP isn't able to play the file. Changing the framerate and quality also made no difference.</p>
<p>I just want the video to look the same on YouTube as it does locally. To look the same as the screen that I recorded. And how Shotcut previews it. Why is that just not working? VLC player always shows the video correctly, and even WMP usually does. So why is YouTube different?</p>
<p>Surely I'm just making some stupid mistake here?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-29T15:11:29.603Z
Have you got the YouTube link, so it can be double-checked on a colour-managed system?
Tetsujin
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-29T15:19:04.533Z
@Tetsujin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngvQrExjAk0&feature=youtu.be and here is the video file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fp5j5zxjeme6f8i/electrance.mp4?dl=1
AyCe
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-29T15:47:48.900Z
Thanks. Checked. YouTube has re-encoded the video you uploaded. It does look exactly the same if I view it or DL it from YT. Your original video is quite washed out in comparison. Nothing I have here will show it in the 'darker' version from your 2nd pic. YT looks similar to your first pic. I suspect 2 things; your workflow isn't calibrated, causing the mismatch on upload & Firefox is doing its usual 'wonderful' job of failing to translate profiles correctly.  Pic - https://i.sstatic.net/8ysBA.png Left YT, centre YT downloaded to Mac, right Your original from DBox.
Tetsujin
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-29T15:47:55.890Z
See if this will help with FF - https://photo.stackexchange.com/a/124357/57929 - this is how I have mine set & it looks the same as in Safari, Mac on a fully colour-managed system.
Tetsujin
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-29T16:20:54.203Z
@Tetsujin Thank you for your support! I think I'm still confused about how and why videos must include this color information. I applied the about:config settings exactly as you described but it still looks gray-ish on YT for me. I also read that apparently FF does not respect these settings for playing videos. The screenshots from you look correct. I can see "full-white" in other people's videos but not in mine. Another version of the source video, the other one looked fine in VLC but not in WMP (too bright there, JPEG export): https://www.dropbox.com/s/2pub3dhlgtr214j/electrance_old.mp4?dl=1
AyCe
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-29T16:30:19.520Z
@Tetsujin Testing in Chromium via the Steam overlay shows the video with correct colors. So it does seem to be related to using Firefox somehow. I don't understand why I can view other videos there just fine and my videos are displayed wrong. Of course I would like the video to be displayed correctly for everyone. So maybe there is some information embedded in the video that shifts the actual colors and makes it display properly elsewhere, but Firefox ignores that? In that case, the other videos seem to not require this, at least from what I can see. I would like my video to be that way too...
AyCe
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-29T16:58:00.973Z
@Tetsujin I disabled hardware acceleration and now the video looks correct in Firefox. But again, I didn't have this problem for other videos. Strange.
AyCe
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-29T17:24:06.520Z
You 'old' version looks like it has the correct colour - i.e. they match those in YT. I can't even guess at how/why the hardware setting affects the video output - Mac just don't have those settings at all. Windows is completely *weird* as to how it allows the user to mess up graphics settings without telling them what things do;) Mac has a single, managed, colour workflow.
Tetsujin
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-29T17:39:38.617Z
@Tetsujin Yup, the 2nd, "old" version is the one with Broadcast Limited (MPEG) color range. The one I posted first was JPEG. No idea why the first one looks "overexposed" in some apps. I posted an answer about the hardware accel setting. After that fix, it looks overexposed to me even in VLC, which had it right before. And it's strange to me why there is color management for videos in particular. I, a beginner in video editing, would have expected color management to be system-wide rather than per media item or per media type. Oh well, seems to have been unrelated to video encoding after all.
AyCe
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-29T17:55:31.917Z
JPG is a stills format, not video. Video is more likely to be using Rec709 than sRGB. The two are similar but have different gamma curves. I'm afraid I have no understanding as to how Windows decides on its profiling methods… they seem to be 'random' & not properly controlled by the OS. As a Mac user I'm used to the fact that this all 'just works' once your display has been correctly profiled. The OS handles everything after that, only 3rd party browsers have additional settings that will, by default, make poor colour decisions [like those in FF. Chrome has similarly bad default settings].
Tetsujin
<encoding><youtube><colorspace><shotcut>
Understanding YouTube Video Color
AyCe
# Understanding YouTube Video Color

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-12-29)

When I upload a video to YouTube, the white areas become grey and the colors seem a bit washed out.

This is how it looks locally:

[![Local Video](https://i.sstatic.net/CKCnj.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/CKCnj.png)

And this is how it looks on YouTube (Screenshot from Firefox):

[![YouTube Video](https://i.sstatic.net/wjSgP.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/wjSgP.png)

This happens when uploading the original screen recording (via OBS), as well as when uploading an edited version (edited with Shotcut).

YouTube is clearly able to show "full white" in screen-recorded videos, as seen in this screenshot:

[![Other YT video](https://i.sstatic.net/Tfdyb.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/Tfdyb.png)

These are my Shotcut export settings:

[![Shotcut export settings](https://i.sstatic.net/a2ueN.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/a2ueN.png)

When I change the "Color range" option from MPEG to JPEG, there is no difference except for Windows Media Player (WMP) showing the colors too bright. VLC Player and YouTube show the same as before.

Changing the codec to libx264rgb made no difference except now WMP isn't able to play the file. Changing the framerate and quality also made no difference.

I just want the video to look the same on YouTube as it does locally. To look the same as the screen that I recorded. And how Shotcut previews it. Why is that just not working? VLC player always shows the video correctly, and even WMP usually does. So why is YouTube different?

Surely I'm just making some stupid mistake here?

**Tags:** encoding, youtube, colorspace, shotcut

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Have you got the YouTube link, so it can be double-checked on a colour-managed system?  
> **username_0**: @username_1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngvQrExjAk0&feature=youtu.be and here is the video file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fp5j5zxjeme6f8i/electrance.mp4?dl=1  
> **username_1**: Thanks. Checked. YouTube has re-encoded the video you uploaded. It does look exactly the same if I view it or DL it from YT. Your original video is quite washed out in comparison. Nothing I have here will show it in the 'darker' version from your 2nd pic. YT looks similar to your first pic. I suspect 2 things; your workflow isn't calibrated, causing the mismatch on upload & Firefox is doing its usual 'wonderful' job of failing to translate profiles correctly.  Pic - https://i.sstatic.net/8ysBA.png Left YT, centre YT downloaded to Mac, right Your original from DBox.  
> **username_1**: See if this will help with FF - https://photo.stackexchange.com/a/124357/57929 - this is how I have mine set & it looks the same as in Safari, Mac on a fully colour-managed system.  
> **username_0**: @username_1 Thank you for your support! I think I'm still confused about how and why videos must include this color information. I applied the about:config settings exactly as you described but it still looks gray-ish on YT for me. I also read that apparently FF does not respect these settings for playing videos. The screenshots from you look correct. I can see "full-white" in other people's videos but not in mine. Another version of the source video, the other one looked fine in VLC but not in WMP (too bright there, JPEG export): https://www.dropbox.com/s/2pub3dhlgtr214j/electrance_old.mp4?dl=1  
> **username_0**: @username_1 Testing in Chromium via the Steam overlay shows the video with correct colors. So it does seem to be related to using Firefox somehow. I don't understand why I can view other videos there just fine and my videos are displayed wrong. Of course I would like the video to be displayed correctly for everyone. So maybe there is some information embedded in the video that shifts the actual colors and makes it display properly elsewhere, but Firefox ignores that? In that case, the other videos seem to not require this, at least from what I can see. I would like my video to be that way too...  
> **username_0**: @username_1 I disabled hardware acceleration and now the video looks correct in Firefox. But again, I didn't have this problem for other videos. Strange.  
> **username_1**: You 'old' version looks like it has the correct colour - i.e. they match those in YT. I can't even guess at how/why the hardware setting affects the video output - Mac just don't have those settings at all. Windows is completely *weird* as to how it allows the user to mess up graphics settings without telling them what things do;) Mac has a single, managed, colour workflow.  
> **username_0**: @username_1 Yup, the 2nd, "old" version is the one with Broadcast Limited (MPEG) color range. The one I posted first was JPEG. No idea why the first one looks "overexposed" in some apps. I posted an answer about the hardware accel setting. After that fix, it looks overexposed to me even in VLC, which had it right before. And it's strange to me why there is color management for videos in particular. I, a beginner in video editing, would have expected color management to be system-wide rather than per media item or per media type. Oh well, seems to have been unrelated to video encoding after all.  
> **username_1**: JPG is a stills format, not video. Video is more likely to be using Rec709 than sRGB. The two are similar but have different gamma curves. I'm afraid I have no understanding as to how Windows decides on its profiling methods… they seem to be 'random' & not properly controlled by the OS. As a Mac user I'm used to the fact that this all 'just works' once your display has been correctly profiled. The OS handles everything after that, only 3rd party browsers have additional settings that will, by default, make poor colour decisions [like those in FF. Chrome has similarly bad default settings].  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_0 on 2022-12-29. Score: 0 | Accepted answer

It seems to be related to NVIDIA Hardware Acceleration, though I don't know why it only affects some videos.

When I disable Hardware Acceleration in the Firefox settings, white areas become white.

(Firefox must be restarted between changes)

When I enable Hardware Acceleration again, they become gray-ish again.

**Hardware Acceleration can be enabled but then this option needs to be explicitly set as well in the NVIDIA Control Panel:**

**Also, the NVIDIA Display Service must be running at all times.**

[![NVIDIA Control Panel](https://i.sstatic.net/hdQZQ.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/hdQZQ.png)


---

