<p>Pixel data in videos is typically stored as YUV, whereas colorlevels works upon RGB format pixels, so it tells ffmpeg to convert it beforehand. After the filtering, the reverse conversion to YUV before re-encoding uses a YUV format not compatible with basic players, so one has to force conversion to a compatible format.</p>
<pre><code>ffmpeg -i ORIGINAL_VIDEO1.MP4 -vf colorlevels=romin=0.4:gomin=0.4:bomin=0.4 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a copy BRIGHTER_VIDEO_1.MP4
</code></pre>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-02T07:01:03.123Z
Thank you! Would you be aware of any built in or other features that can increase brightness without oversaturation? colorlevels seems to be a very linear effect.
user321627
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-02T07:18:36.897Z
See the eq filter
Gyan
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-08-02T05:48:53.020Z
2020-08-02T05:48:53.020Z
Gyan
<p>I changed the color level of an video (&quot;ORIGINAL_VIDEO1.MP4&quot;) that had previously played well in Apple Quicktime. After brightening,</p>
<pre><code>ffmpeg -i ORIGINAL_VIDEO1.MP4 -vf colorlevels=romin=0.4:gomin=0.4:bomin=0.4 -c:a copy BRIGHTER_VIDEO_1.MP4
</code></pre>
<p><code>BRIGHTER_VIDEO_1.MP4</code> can no longer be played in Quicktime and it says something about the video missing elements. All the while, VLC plays it perfectly. Is there something I am doing wrong?</p>

<ffmpeg>
Apple Quicktime cannot open a video that has been brightened using ffmpeg?
user321627
# Apple Quicktime cannot open a video that has been brightened using ffmpeg?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-08-02)

I changed the color level of an video ("ORIGINAL_VIDEO1.MP4") that had previously played well in Apple Quicktime. After brightening,
ffmpeg -i ORIGINAL_VIDEO1.MP4 -vf colorlevels=romin=0.4:gomin=0.4:bomin=0.4 -c:a copy BRIGHTER_VIDEO_1.MP4

BRIGHTER_VIDEO_1.MP4 can no longer be played in Quicktime and it says something about the video missing elements. All the while, VLC plays it perfectly. Is there something I am doing wrong?

**Tags:** ffmpeg


---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2020-08-02. Score: 1

Pixel data in videos is typically stored as YUV, whereas colorlevels works upon RGB format pixels, so it tells ffmpeg to convert it beforehand. After the filtering, the reverse conversion to YUV before re-encoding uses a YUV format not compatible with basic players, so one has to force conversion to a compatible format.
ffmpeg -i ORIGINAL_VIDEO1.MP4 -vf colorlevels=romin=0.4:gomin=0.4:bomin=0.4 -pix_fmt yuv420p -c:a copy BRIGHTER_VIDEO_1.MP4

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thank you! Would you be aware of any built in or other features that can increase brightness without oversaturation? colorlevels seems to be a very linear effect.  
> **username_1**: See the eq filter  

---

