How can the color reproduction of video files be optimized for Firefox?
Hi Firefox community,
I have the problem that the color reproduction of videos seems wrong in Firefox. I have done intense testing with different browsers and could improve color reproduction for IE and Chrome by adding the metadata to the mp4 videos:
matrix coefficients: BT.709, Transfer characteristics: BT.709 Color primaries: BT.709.
Unfortunately these changes do not affect the color reproduction in Firefox. I have compared the color reproduction on an class 1 monitor as well I work in a post production facility. Firefox always differs to the reference using Windows and Mac. On an iPad nevertheless the colors are reproduced correctly in Firefox. Do you have an idea what metadata could be added to videos so that color reproduction gets better on Windows and Mac with Firefox? I have added an example, left Chrome, right Firefox. Thank you in advance.
Best Constantin
All Replies (9)
What's your computer system and Firefox version?
Download a clip. Then watch it on your computer. Is the problem still there?
Thank you for your answer. We use an iMAc Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015 with macos high sierra 10.13.6 and firefox quantum 63.0 (64 bit version).
When we download the clip and open it locally with Quicktime Player the color reproduction is right (differing to what we see in Firefox).
Best Constantin
Both of the clips are in a Browser how would one see the difference if there was? Also how did you calibrate the monitor?
You can easily visually see the difference. The color of the bricks in the background or her jacket for example differ. If you like I can make a new screenshot with Quicktime locally, Firefox and another browser next to each other. The monitor is set up by Apple default, it is an iMac. The strange thing is that Chrome, IE and Safari all match Quicktime Player when watched locally but not Firefox.
Firefox might "color manage" videos the way it color manages JPG and PNG images. That doesn't always match Webkit/Blink-based browsers like Safari/Chrome.
This thread discusses all of Firefox's color management settings and behavior that I know about so you can see whether that is a factor: Colors inconsistent/inaccurate.
Thank you for the link. We have tested with the mentioned settings. We found a strange behavior:
gfx.color_management.display_profile is by default empty, the system wide standard should be used. I think that is not working in Firefox. We did the following test:
We changed the color profile of the mac with Color Sync Utility from REC709 to REC2020. One can clearly see that the colors of the Operating Systems GUI as well as for example of Chrome change. In Firefox nevertheless colors do not change at all. I therefore think that leaving the field empty is not working properly. The system wide default is not used.
Next we typed in the absolute path of different ICC profiles. No changes could be observed when doing so. We also tried all options with gfx.color_management.enablev4, gfx.color_management.mode and gfx.color_management.rendering_intent. In all combinations, no changes happened to Firefox.
Did the changes affect JPG & PNG but not video, or didn't affect anything?
Hi Jscher2000. The changes do not affect Jpg and PNG. When changing the color space, colors shortly change in Firefox and then jump back to the original look.
- Bug 789871 - The gfx.color_management.mode setting does not affect HTML5 video
(please do not comment in bug reports
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html)