Colour in mpv is dimmed compared to QuickTime Player

[fumoboy007]

mpv version and platform

macOS 10.12.3, mpv 0.24.0, pre-built by stolendata

Reproduction steps

Open the attached sample video in mpv and QuickTime Player.

Expected behavior

The colour in mpv looks the same as in QuickTime Player.

Actual behavior

The colour in mpv is dimmed compared to QuickTime Player.

QuickTime Player (good)

mpv (dimmed)

Log file

http://sprunge.us/EQOa

Sample files

Config

player-operation-mode=pseudo-gui
icc-profile="/Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Displays/Color LCD-F466F621-B5FA-04A0-0800-CFA6C258DECD.icc"
hwdec=auto
log-file=/Users/fumoboy007/Desktop/output.txt

Sample Video

https://www.dropbox.com/s/khnzs60z1wz2fjt/Rec%20709%20Sample.mp4?dl=1

The video is tagged with the colour profile that Finder describes as HD (1-1-1) (Rec 709).

[fumoboy007]

cc @UliZappe

I’ve been reading through those old gigantic threads about colour management. What conclusion did we come to?

[UliZappe]

@fumoboy007

No final conclusion yet, unfortunately.

Meanwhile, we do know what would be needed to achieve 100% color consistency with QuickTime Player (the only color-managed video player so far).

However, there are two problems:

1. There is disagreement if QuickTime Player compatibility should be the goal at all. There are basically two points of view: A POV drawing from earlier stand-alone video technology which wants to emulate this technology and its workflow and understands color management as only some (isolated) kind of color control, and a POV drawing from computer technology which understands color management as the more ambitious task of getting consistent color between all applications on a computer (which de facto means ICC color management and QuickTime Player compatibility). After we were almost there achieving this second goal, mpv’s implementation switched to the first POV, trying to emulate classic stand-alone video technology, which produces results different from QuickTime Player.

2. A QuickTime Player compatible (i.e. ICC compliant) mpv will need LittleCMS (the color management library it uses) to be ColorSync (Apple’s color management library) compatible, which means LIttleCMS would need to adopt the so-called Slope Limit technology which corrects the TRC (tone response curve) for near-black colors. While Adobe, Apple and Kodak all use Slope Limiting in their color management modules, it is not an official part of the ICC spec, just a de facto standard. I’ve written a patch to add Slope Limiting to LIttleCMS, but so far, Marti Maria (the author of LittleCMS) has not wanted to incorporate it in the official distribution, because he worries about patent issues and probably also because he wants to strictly stick to the ICC spec. The mpv project, on the other hand, seems to only want to use the unmodified LittleCMS library.

I’ve been an ardent advocate for the second POV, arguing that color management on a computer means, above all, color consistency between applications and a measurably correct color reproduction, and that it makes no sense to try and emulate isolated video technology from former times including its shortcomings (apart from, maybe, an optional legacy mode).

Unfortunately, I had no time left in the last year, so I could not continue with this discussion. However, I have been doing some additional research which I will hopefully be able to present here when it’s finished.

[Hrxn]

By the way, can QuickTime Player's behaviour be reproduced on another OS somehow, or is this issue strictly macOS only?

[Cpuroast]

The only other OS that actually had a QuickTime app was Windows, but that has since been abandoned.

[UliZappe]

QuickTime Player is macOS only. An mpv player with correct ICC color management would be the first video player to reproduce this behavior on other operating systems.

Just to avoid misunderstandings: When I wrote about color consistency between all applications, I did not mean between all video player applications (because then this would be a Mac only issue, als long as QuickTime Player is the only video player with this behavior), but really between all applications (with some kind of visual output, of course).

So this is an issue for all operating systems, it’s only that so far only QuickTime Player solves it, and thus only on macOS.

[UliZappe]

The only other OS that actually had a QuickTime app was Windows, but that has since been abandoned.

And that was the old version of QuickTime Player, which was not ICC color managed, either.

[UliZappe]

To elaborate for those who are not deeply into this discussion:

Basically, the issue at hand is the handling of color appearance phenomena (→ Wikipedia).

Color perception is always subjective (color only exists in our heads), but the CIE 1931 Standard Observer model (which ICC colorimetry is based upon) did a pretty good job in mapping the spectral power distribution of the light to human color perception. However, this model works only for standardized viewing conditions, e.g. a certain amount of surrounding light. If viewing conditions change much, the way the color appears to us starts to differ from that model.

For instance, if the surrounding light becomes very dim, we begin to see that the “black” colors on an LCD screen are still emitting light, i.e. they are actually gray, not black (which, BTW, means that the following will not apply to OLED screens …). This makes it seem as if the image has less contrast. To adjust for this appearance phenomenon, the image contrast must be enlarged in dim viewing environments.

How much it must be enlarged to preserve the appearance is more subjective than the basic colorimetry of the CIE 1931 Standard Observer model is, so it’s a matter of debate. (This vagueness also provided a certain amount of leeway for producers of TV sets to deliver an incorrectly high contrast under the disguise of a color appearance correction, as “high contrast sells”.)

But for the sake of the argument, let’s just assume a contrast enhancement is required for dim viewing environments (and CRT or LCD screens).

In the early days of television, video was basically the direct transferral from a live analog video signal to the TV sets of viewers. Since the video studio was bright, but the viewing environment around a TV set was assumed to be typically dim, a contrast enhancement was required. Since there was little video processing technology at the time, the easiest way to achieve this contrast enhancement was the “creative combination” of the physical equipment. Use a CRT with a bigger gamma value than the video camera has, and you get the desired contrast enhancement.

So when the analog TV workflow standardized, the contrast enhancement became “baked in” into the process flow. It didn’t matter much at which process stage exactly the contrast enhancement was performed as long as it was a standardized place and it was guaranteed the the TV set would reproduce the image with enhanced contrast.

Now let’s have a look at modern ICC color management on a computer. Here, the digital process chain is strictly modularized. Incoming image data are converted from the specific behavior of the physical input device to an abstracted, standardized color space (sRGB, Adobe RGG, ProPhoto RGB, Rec. 709, whatever …) and stay in that space until, at the very end of the process chain, they are converted to match the specific behavior of the physical output device.

Between the two conversions and the input and the output stage colors are let completely untouched (unless you want to do color editing, of course). This is absolutely crucial for a working (i.e. inter-application consistent) color management on a computer.

So, if we want to take color appearance phenomena into account on a computer, there is only one architecturally correct place to do this, and this is the conversion at the output stage (i.e. the ICC display profile). Because strictly speaking, if we want to take color appearance phenomena into account, the “physical output device” the ICC display profile describes is not just the monitor per se, but the monitor in a specific viewing environment, the complete physical reproduction system that starts with the light emitting device and ends in our heads.

So if we feel a contrast enhancement is required because of dim viewing conditions, we need a specific ICC display profile for this viewing condition. This profile will, of course, affect all ICC color managed applications on this computer exactly in the same way, which only makes sense – and assures that color remains consistent between these applications.

When ICC color management was introduced, computers weren’t fast enough for video color management. So video applications remained a “color island” on computers and still used the old ways of baking in a fixed, assumedly required contrast enhancement. So they stayed incompatible with ICC color managed applications. Additionally, the assumption of a required contrast enhancement makes little sense for computers because a dim viewing environment is certainly not the standard viewing environment of a computer.

This all changed when the ICC color managed QuickTime Player was introduced by Apple (2009, IIRC). It’s remarkable no-one followed suit, so far. Unfortunately, mpv in its current incarnation (last time I had time to look, that is) again follows the old, incorrect ways of baking in an assumedly required contrast enhancement. (What therefore puzzles me is that @fumoboy007 reports that mpv is delivering less contrast than QuickTime Player – last time I checked, it was more. But I’m currently on the road and cannot check. In any case, mpv seems to be incorrectly color managed currently.)

A psychological issue in this whole discussion might be that users have sticked with contrast enhancing video applications while moving to computers with brighter viewing environments, in effect becoming accustomed to a contrast that is too bright, while considering a correct contrast to light. (But again, this is obviously not the issue for @fumoboy007.)

[Akemi]

What therefore puzzles me is that @fumoboy007 reports that mpv is delivering less contrast than QuickTime Player

it's probably because @fumoboy007 doesn't use a ICC profile generated for his display by a colour management software but just the standard one provided by the OS, which doesn't include all the necessary info that mpv needs. just on a side note, for me it seems pointless to have colour management enabled if one just uses a standard profile that doesn't represent the characteristics of ones display anyway, but yeah that is a whole different problem. see this in his log.

[ 0.330][w][vo/opengl] ICC profile detected contrast very high (>100000), falling back to contrast 1000 for sanity. Set the icc-contrast option to silence this warning.

so it assumes a most likely wrong contrast value. can't expect it to look 'right' like this.

just to prevent any misunderstandings. i don't mean to say that what mpv does currently is right or wrong, since i don't have a clue. the right person to talk to for this (or the person to convince) is @haasn, but you probably know that already.

[Pacoup]

What therefore puzzles me is that @fumoboy007 reports that mpv is delivering less contrast than QuickTime Player

it's probably because @fumoboy007 doesn't use a ICC profile generated for his display by a colour management software but just the standard one provided by the OS, which doesn't include all the necessary info that mpv needs

I would say that this is correct. All my Macs are color calibrated with an X-Rite i1Display Pro and the color reproduction in QuickTime and mpv is identical. My understanding is that QuickTime makes similar assumptions to mpv according to certain heuristics or flags in the video file (https://mpv.io/manual/master/#video-filters-format).

Haven't tested fully color managed workflows such as with Final Cut Pro X, but I imagine they would work?

No idea about the slope limit thing. Haven't tested Windows either.

I do get the ICC profile detected contrast very high error with my X-Rite profiles though, but it doesn't seem to impact things.

I'm also using the icc-profile-auto option. I'm not sure whether this is required or enabled by default.

[haasn]

The difference between quicktime and mpv boils down to the question of how to handle the display's black point.

The approach used by most transfer curves designed for interoperation / computer usage is to keep the calculations the same regardless of the black point; in doing so essentially “squishing” the output response along the axis of the display's output. This has the advantage of being easily reversed and using identical math in all environments, but has the downside of crushing blacks on non-ideal displays. Slope limiting, like the type sRGB has built in (and quicktime implements for pure power curves as well) is a workaround to the black crush issue.

The approach used by conventional television/film, and mpv, is to keep the overall output curve shape the same and squish the input signal along this curve, thus also achieving an effective drop in contrast but without crushing the blacks. This conforms to the ITU-R recommendation BT.1886, which is why mpv uses it. The catch is that to perform the conversions correctly, mpv needs to know what the display's black point is. “Fake” profiles, “generic” profiles, “black-scaled” profiles and profiles which already incorporate stuff like slope limiting lack the required information, so mpv doesn't know how much to stretch the profile by - and these profiles usually already have a “contrast drop” built into them, so mpv will most likely end up double-compensating either way.

So the best solution is to use a real (colorimetric, 1:1) ICC profile that's measured for your device, instead of a “perceptual” pseudo-profile that tries to do contrat drop etc. in the profile already.

That said, it's possible we could do a better job of working around such profiles - for example, instead of assuming contrast 1000:1 and applying the contrast drop based on that, we could instead delegate black scaling to the profile, and simply perform the required slope limiting / gamma adjustment to approximate the BT.1886 shape under these conditions. The QTX values of 1.96 gamma + slope limiting are probably a good choice for a ~1000:1 display, so we could fall back to those values instead.

[UliZappe]

The approach used by most transfer curves designed for interoperation / computer usage is to keep the calculations the same regardless of the black point

Yep.

in doing so essentially “squishing” the output response along the axis of the display's output.

Only if the CMM does not incorporate slope limiting for matrix profiles.

The approach used by conventional television/film, and mpv, is to keep the overall output curve shape the same and squish the input signal along this curve,

Which is precisely the point where it becomes incompatible with ICC color management, for the architectural reason discussed above (no color appearance corrections whatsoever before the final display profile conversion – which then affects all applications identically).

This conforms to the ITU-R recommendation BT.1886

Which is aiming at conventional video workflows, not computers, and is architecturally incompatible with ICC color management.

which is why mpv uses it. The catch is that to perform the conversions correctly, mpv needs to know what the display's black point is.

The additional catch is that its color reproduction becomes incompatible with other ICC color managed applications.

So the best solution is to use a real (colorimetric, 1:1) ICC profile that's measured for your device, instead of a “perceptual” pseudo-profile that tries to do contrat drop etc. in the profile already.

But the display profile is the one and only place where perceptual/appearance phenomena should be dealt with in ICC color management. Nothing “pseudo” about that.

The QTX values of 1.96 gamma + slope limiting are probably a good choice for a ~1000:1 display, so we could fall back to those values instead.

It’s also the right choice for ICC compatibility with any display. (Well, without slope limiting in case of LUT display profiles.)

[fumoboy007]

@UliZappe @Akemi @Pacoup @haasn

First, let me clarify my situation.

• The video I am testing has its color profile tag set to Rec 709. Both players should recognize this.
• mpv produces a darker image compared to QuickTime Player. (I added screenshots above.)
• My display profile is the default display profile that Apple included in my operating system. It should not matter as the issue is the relative difference between QuickTime Player and mpv, which are both color-managed and thus trying to convert colors to this final display color space.

My understanding of the difference between the players is as follows.

• mpv uses a 2.4 gamma to convert the video pixels to the CIELAB color space (and subsequently to the display color space).
• The AVFoundation framework that QuickTime Player is built on uses a 1.961 gamma to convert the video pixels to the CIELAB color space.

Is this correct? Do we all agree on the reason? This is the first step.

[haasn]

The video I am testing has its color profile tag set to Rec 709. Both players should recognize this.

Yes, unfortunately this doesn't really tell us anything about the response curve except by implying that it was most likely mastered on a BT.1886-conformant device. So one way or another, BT.1886 is what the mastering engineers are most likely using and therefore the best way to watch this sort of content; and even apple's slope-limited gamma 1.96 more or less approximates the 1886 shape overall as well, so they clearly agree with this.

(Although IIRC, a better approximation would be gamma 2.20 and not gamma 1.96, the former being a far more widespread value. 2.2 vs 1.96 most likely has to do with the perceptual contrast drop issue that UliZappe mentioned earlier)

My display profile is the default display profile that Apple included in my operating system. It should not matter as the issue is the relative difference between QuickTime Player and mpv, which are both color-managed and thus trying to convert colors to this final display color space.

It does matter because QuickTime is built around the needs of this black-scaled pseudoprofile, while mpv is built around the needs of colorimetric (1:1) profiles. QuickTime's usage of slope limited 1.96 as the input curve assumes that this “error” will combine with the display profile's “error” to approximate the BT.1886 shape overall. mpv on the other hand assumes the display profile has no error and uses the exact BT.1886 shape as the input curve instead. Hope that makes sense.

mpv uses a 2.4 gamma to convert the video pixels to the CIELAB color space (and subsequently to the display color space).

It uses a 2.4 gamma shape, but squishes the signal range along the curve to prevent black crush. This is a bit more complicated than input ^ 2.4, but essentially boils down to scale * (input + offset) ^ 2.4.

[UliZappe]

@fumoboy007

The video I am testing has its color profile tag set to Rec 709. Both players should recognize this.

Well, both “recognize” it, but only QuickTime Player interprets it as an ICC profile for an ICC color managed video application. mpv in its current incarnation is not ICC color management compliant but tries to emulate conventional TV color processing; as @haasn wrote in his reply, Rec. 709 “doesn't really tell us anything about the response curve” (i.e. his POV does not take it seriously as an ICC profile) “except by implying that it was most likely mastered on a BT.1886-conformant device” (i.e. his POV is referring to BT.1886 instead, which is a spec which is only aimed at conventional TV color processing (by intentionally using different tone response curves for input and output devices (in order to achieve color appearance correction)), something completely at odds with the basic concept of ICC color management, as I tried to explain above).

From an ICC color management POV, the current mpv implementation makes as much sense as arguing This image is tagged with ProPhoto RGB; this doesn't really tell us anything about the response curve except by implying that it was most likely edited on an sRGB display. :smiling_imp:

BT.1886 cannot be applied to ICC color managed video on a computer, but @haasn keeps trying to do so.

mpv produces a darker image compared to QuickTime Player. (I added screenshots above.)

Ah, thanks for the added screenshots and the clarified wording! I took “dim” to mean less contrast, but you actually meant dark = more contrast. Yes, that’s completely in line with the expectation that because of its current color management implementation, mpv produces an image that is too dark.

My display profile is the default display profile that Apple included in my operating system. It should not matter as the issue is the relative difference between QuickTime Player and mpv, which are both color-managed and thus trying to convert colors to this final display color space.

Yes, but mpv is not ICC color management compliant as it additionally introduces a contrast enhancement by trying to emulate BT.1886, which is orthogonal to ICC color management.

mpv uses a 2.4 gamma to convert the video pixels to the CIELAB color space (and subsequently to the display color space). The AVFoundation framework that QuickTime Player is built on uses a 1.961 gamma

… which is indeed the simplified gamma of Rec. 709 …

to convert the video pixels to the CIELAB color space. Is this correct?

Yes.

Do we all agree on the reason? This is the first step.

We probably more or less do. The disagreement is about which one gets it right.

From my POV it’s (aesthetically) obvious again in your screenshots that QuickTime Player gets it right and mpv is too dark but @haasn seems to feel the other way round. What can be said objectively, however, is that mpv currently breaks the inter-application consistency aspect of ICC color management.

[UliZappe]

@haasn

So one way or another, BT.1886 is what the mastering engineers are most likely using

Only those who still use the conventional TV color processing workflow.

In any case, that’s completely irrelevant for watching video on an ICC color managed video player. The very idea of ICC color management is to abstract from specific hardware conditions. If I watch an image in ProPhoto RGB, I do not have to care at all about what equipment editors of this image used.

and therefore the best way to watch this sort of content;

No, that’s a non-sequitur. As I just said: ICC color management abstracts from this kind of thing.

and even apple's slope-limited gamma 1.96 more or less approximates the 1886 shape overall as well, so they clearly agree with this.

No, Apple says Rec. 709 means (simplified) gamma 1.961, period. Because that’s what the Rec. 709 ICC profile says.

Sometimes it seems to me that even tiny unicorns you’d find in the bit sequence of a video would be an unambiguous hint for you that this video is meant to be watched on a BT.1886 monitor. :smiling_imp:

[JCount]

ITU-R BT.709-6 does not actually define the electro-optical transfer function of the display, only the source OETF. It is meant to be used in conjunction with ITU-R BT.1886, where one of the considerations, to quote the recommendation, is:

j) that Recommendation ITU-R BT.709, provides specifications for the opto-electronic
transfer characteristics at the source, and a common electro-optical transfer function
should be employed to display signals mastered to this format,

ITU-R BT.709 actually has a notation on the opto-electronic conversion that states:

In typical production practice the encoding function of image sources is adjusted so that
the final picture has the desired look, as viewed on a reference monitor having the
reference decoding function of Recommendation ITU-R BT.1886, in the reference viewing
environment defined in Recommendation ITU-R BT.2035.

As a final note, in Appendix 2, ITU-R BT.1886 states:

While the image capture process of Recommendation ITU-R BT.709 had an optical to
electrical transfer function, there has never been an EOTF documented. This was due
in part to the fact that display devices until recently were all CRT devices which had
somewhat consistent characteristics device to device.

Essentially, BT.709 defines the OETF but does not provide a common EOTF, which is one of the primary goals of BT.1886.

Because that’s what the Rec. 709 ICC profile says

What is this Rec. 709 ICC profile you speak of? The standard itself does not have one. It seems that the ICC itself provides a Rec. 709 Reference Display profile based on ITU-R BT.709-5 from 2011 that uses a gamma of 2.398.

[fumoboy007]

OK cool, we all agree (more or less) that the difference between the players is the gamma value used for gamma-decoding the video pixels. Now let’s agree on the technical details. The following is my current understanding.

Gamma

• Luminance is not linear to human perception
  • We are more sensitive to relative differences between darker tones than between lighter ones
  • Luminance-perception relationship is a power function
• Digital representation (integer) is discrete and limited
  • We want our digital values to be linear to our human perception so that the discrete steps are evenly distributed perception-wise
  • Apply a power function to the luminance values to get the digital values
• An optical-electro transfer function (OETF) describes the luminance-to-digital encoding function
• An electro-optical transfer function (EOTF) describes the digital-to-luminance decoding function

Rec 709

• Specifies a standard OETF that video capture devices should use
• This OETF was designed to match the natural EOTF of CRTs (described in Rec 1886)

Rec 1886

• Describes the natural EOTF of CRTs (approximately L = V^2.4)
• Used by flat-panel reference displays to output Rec 709 video
• Intended for flat-panel reference display interoperability with CRT reference displays
• Intended to be employed together with Rec 2035
  • From Rec 709: “In typical production practice the encoding function of image sources is adjusted so that the final picture has the desired look, as viewed on a reference monitor having the reference decoding function of Recommendation ITU-R BT.1886, in the reference viewing environment defined in Recommendation ITU-R BT.2035.”
  • Room illumination is specified to be 10 lux (aka “dim surround”) to match the common viewing environment of the 1950s
• Rec 1886 and Rec 2035 together define a standard for viewing so that video is consistent throughout all phases of production

Personal Computers

• ICC color management facilitates conversion between source color profiles and destination color profiles (in this case, the destination is the display)
• Display profiles are intended to model both the display and the viewing environment such that source images are perceived by the viewer’s brain in the way that the author intended
  • Changes in the viewing environment should be reflected by changes in the display profile

Effect of Surround Luminance

• Surround luminance affects the perceived image contrast
• 3 classic surround environments: light, dim, dark
• Images viewed in dim surround and dark surround need a contrast enhancement to be perceived the same way as in light surround
• Dim surround needs a 1.25 gamma boost

Is this correct? Do we all agree on the technical details? Step two.

[UliZappe]

@JCount

ITU-R BT.709-6 does not actually define the electro-optical transfer function of the display, only the source OETF.

Yep, but ITU-R BT.709-6 per se is no ICC color management spec. OETF and EOTF and specifically the idea that different values could be used to adjust for color appearance phenomena are concepts from the conventional TV world that are incompatible with the ICC idea of keeping the color constant and adjust for color appearance phenomena in the input and output profiles only.

It is meant to be used in conjunction with ITU-R BT.1886

In the conventional video world, yes. This is not what we have to deal with if we want an ICC color managed video player on a computer.

ITU-R BT.709 actually has a notation on the opto-electronic conversion that states:

In typical production practice the encoding function of image sources is adjusted so that the final picture has the desired look, as viewed on a reference monitor having the reference decoding function of Recommendation ITU-R BT.1886

This quote should make it completely clear that this is an approach to color handling that’s incompatible with ICC color management.

What is this Rec. 709 ICC profile you speak of?

The ICC profile Apple has provided with macOS since it introduced ICC compatible video color management, or any other Rec. 709 ICC profile that is built with the Rec. 709 parameters (not hard to do).

The standard itself does not have one.

Of course. It does not deal with ICC color management.

It seems that the ICC itself provides a Rec. 709 Reference Display profile based on ITU-R BT.709-5 from 2011 that uses a gamma of 2.398.

We don’t need a Rec. 709 display profile, we need a Rec. 709 input profile for correct ICC video color management – because the video data is the input. The correct ICC display profile will always be a profile that exactly describes the physical behavior of the specific display it is made for. The idea that you have to use a display with a specific behavior is completely foreign to ICC color management; the very idea of ICC color management is to get rid of such requirements of the conventional workflow.

If you happen to have a computer display that by chance or intentionally has the exact specifications of an ideal ITU-R BT.1886 display (which, as you quoted yourself, is recommended in conjunction with ITU-R BT.709), then you can use the (maybe ill-named) ICC provided Rec. 709 display profile. Since this profile assumes a gamma of 2.398 for the display color space, it neutralizes the gamma 2.398 based contrast enhancement of the BT.1886 display (when converting from XYZ or Lab to the display color space) which is unwanted in ICC color management.

I can only repeat: Color processing in a conventional TV workflow, which architecturally still stems from the analog era, is very different from and incompatible with the ICC color management approach on computers which aims at inter-application consistent and metrologically correct colors, not assuming and “baking in” any kind of alleged “TV like” viewing condition with specific color appearance phenomena. Unfortunately, moving from one approach to the other seems to produce a lot of confusion.

[UliZappe]

@fumoboy007

Gamma

Luminance is not linear to human perception

We are more sensitive to relative differences between darker tones than between lighter ones

This is true, but the significance of this fact for our context is overrated and produces a lot of confusion. There is no direct connection between this fact and the technical gamma of video (and still imaging) reproduction.

In analog video, where there was no digital modelling of visual data and you had to deal with whatever physical properties your devices had, it was kind of a lucky coincidence that the perceptual nonlinearity of humans and the EOTF of CRTs are very close. That meant that twice the voltage = twice the brightness. Nice, but nothing more.

In 8 Bit digital color reproduction, it makes sense to use a similar nonlinearity to have more of the limited precision available in the area where the human eye is most sensitive for differences. It is not crucial that the nonlinearity used mirrors the human perception precisely; it’s just about a useful distribution of available bit values.

In 16 Bit (and more) digital color reproduction, it’s completely irrelevant, because enough bits are available. You might as well use no non-linearity at all.

So historical technical limitations aside, we may look at an image reproduction system as a black box. It doesn’t matter at all what internal representation is used, it only matters that output = input.

The only thing that’s relevant for our discussion is the relative difference of contrast required because of color appearance phenomena (i.e. output@surroundingBrightness2 = input@surroundingBrightness1 × appearanceCorrectionFactor), and where is the architecturally correct place to implement it.

Conventional video was an isolated system, and one that assumed a standardized viewing condition, so it was not very important where the appearance correction took place, but on the other hand, you had to deal with whatever devices you had. So the reasoning was:

1. TV is always being watched in a dim viewing environment
2. Source material is always recorded in a brighter environment
3. From 1 and 2 follows that we need a contrast enhancement for appearance correction
4. This is most easily achieved by combining a specific OETF curve with an EOTF curve with a higher gamma value.

None of these points are true for consistent color reproduction on a computer and ICC color management. In ICC color management, the reference values are always the absolute, unambiguous, gamma unrelated XYZ or Lab values of the PCS (profile connection space); gamma is a mere internal implementation detail of the various RGB and CMYK color spaces that should be considered to be completely opaque when it comes to implementing appearance correction.

We want our digital values to be linear to our human perception

No. In ICC color management, we want them to be correct and therefore unambiguous absolute XYZ or Lab values. (Lab, of course, was developed with the goal of being linear to human perception.) Linearity is nice when you have only 8 Bit color, otherwise it doesn’t matter (for viewing, that is – editing, of course, is a lot easier with perceptual linearity). What is crucial is unambiguous, absolute values.

OETF and EOTF are concepts from the conventional video world. For historical reasons, you’ll find these expressions in ICC color management, too, but basically, they’re only internals of the input and output profiles and the devices they describe. So, whether you have a gamma 1.8 display with a corresponding display profile or a gamma 2.4 display with a corresponding display profile, ideally does not matter at all in an ICC color managed environment. A specific XYZ or Lab value from the PCS should look exactly the same on both displays.

Rec 709

Specifies a standard OETF that video capture devices should use

Can use in ICC color management. They could use any other parameters as well, as long as there is a corresponding video profile that produces correct XYZ/Lab values in the PCS.

Of course, it is the official standard for HD video and currently the de facto standard for almost all video.

This OETF was designed to match the natural EOTF of CRTs (described in Rec 1886)

No. It was intentionally different, so that the combination with a Rec. 1886 display would produce the desired appearance correction for dim viewing environments.

Rec 1886

Describes the natural EOTF of CRTs (approximately L = V^2.4)

Possibly, but not crucial. What’s crucial is the intended contrast enhancement relative to the Rec. 709 TRC.

Used by flat-panel reference displays to output Rec 709 video

Only in a conventional, not ICC color managed video workflow.

Personal Computers

Display profiles are intended to model both the display and the viewing environment

Yes.

such that source images are perceived by the viewer’s brain in the way that the author intended

That sounds nice, but is hardly achievable. We cannot look inside the head of the author, we don’t know her/his equipment. What if the equipment was misconfigured?

The ICC profile connection space assumes a viewing environment with 500 lx. So the objective goal can only be:

Metrologically exact color reproduction of the XYZ/Lab values of the connection space for a viewing environment with 500 lx plus appearance correction for other viewing environments, if necessary. (As I said, how much correction is required is a matter of debate.)

Changes in the viewing environment should be reflected by changes in the display profile

Yes. This way, all imaging applications are affected in the same way, as it should be.

But there is a big problem: So far, Joe User has almost no way to get appearance corrected profiles for his display.

Effect of Surround Luminance

Surround luminance affects the perceived image contrast

True for CRTs and LCDs (extent is matter of debate). Remains to be seen for OLEDs (since with them, black does mean no light at all, not dark gray)

3 classic surround environments: light, dim, dark

With Laptops, tablets and smartphones you could easily add something like very bright, i.e. outside.

Interestingly, it is controversial if dark needs even more correction than dim, or, on the contrary, less.

Dim surround needs a 1.25 gamma boost

As I said, the exact amount a matter of debate, not least because “dim” is not actually a very precise term (or if it is – 10 lx –, it only covers are very specific situation), and of course, the specific display properties also play a role.

[haasn]

Essentially, BT.709 defines the OETF but does not provide a common EOTF, which is one of the primary goals of BT.1886.

More specifically, BT.1886 defines a EOTF that tries to emulate the appearance of a CRT response on an LCD, while preserving the overall image appearance - by reducing the contrast in the input space (logarithmic) in accordance with the human visual model, rather than the output space (linear).

Is this correct? Do we all agree on the technical details? Step two.

Everything you wrote seems correct to me. One thing I'd like to point out is that ICC distinguishes between colorimetric and perceptual profiles. As I understand it, colorimetric profiles should not include viewing environment adjustments, black scaling or anything of that nature - while perceptual profiles should incorporate all of the above.

It's possible that we simply need to start using a different input curve for perceptual and colorimetric profiles? I.e. use a pure power gamma 2.2 (or whatever) + BPC on for perceptual profiles, and BT.1886 + BPC off for colorimetric profiles.

[UliZappe]

One thing I'd like to point out is that ICC distinguishes between colorimetric and perceptual profiles. As I understand it, colorimetric profiles should not include viewing environment adjustments, black scaling or anything of that nature - while perceptual profiles should incorporate all of the above.

No, these orthogonal issues.

For the sake of easier argumentation, let’s for now limit the color appearance phenomena to the influence of the amount of surrounding light (as all the video specs do). Then, you can easily tell color appearance issues from other color management issues by simply assuming a situation with a 500 lx viewing environment, which would imply no output color appearance adjustment at all, as 500 lx is the reference environmental illuminance of the ICC profile connection space.

In this case, the issue that colorimetric vs. perceptual profiles try to address is still unchanged: What do we do if the source color space is larger than the display color space? Cut off out-of-gamut colors (colorimetric conversion) or reduce the intensity of all colors proportionally until even the most saturated colors are within the display color space (perceptual conversion).

Color appearance correction for viewing environments with an illuminance different from 500 lx is completely independent from that question.

Architecturally, the basic issue is as simple as this: In a correctly ICC color managed environment, color appearance correction affects all (imaging) applications exactly in the same way, and thus is an operating system/display profile task and outside the scope of any specific application. All mpv could and should do is provide metrologically correct Lab or XYZ data to the profile connection space and then simply perform a Lab/XYZ → Display RGB conversion strictly along the lines of the ICC display profile.

All color appearance correction, if required, would be included either in this display profile (which would imply several display profiles for several viewing environments) or in the operating system’s CMM handling of display profiles (which would imply that applications would have to use this CMM when performing color output conversion).

Unfortunately, in the real world it’s neither common to have several display profiles for different viewing environments nor to have a color appearance aware CMM. Apple seems to intend to develop the ColorSync CMM in this latter direction, which, if consistent with an acknowledged color appearance model such as CIECAM 2000, would be a huge step forward in correct computer color reproduction for all kinds of environments, but it’s not there yet, and it would again be Apple only, anyway.

So maybe a lot of the current confusion and inconsistencies stem from the fact that mpv understandably (given the limited real-world conditions) wants to perform its own color appearance correction when from an architectural POV, it shouldn’t.

[haasn]

mpv essentially just wants to replicate the output you'd get out of a BT.1886+BT.2035 mastering environment

[UliZappe]

mpv essentially just wants to replicate the output you'd get out of a BT.1886+BT.2035 mastering environment

Yep, but that’s just another way of saying that mpv wants to perform its own color appearance correction when from an architectural POV, it shouldn’t.

A BT.1886+BT.2035 mastering environment is the conventional TV approach that hardwires a specific viewing environment (the one which was considered standard in the 1950ies) and does not care about the ICC color management architecture.

It is simply not ICC color management compliant and as such inappropriate for a video player on a computer.

[fumoboy007]

Nice, so we mostly agree on the technical details of gamma, Rec 709/1886/2035, and ICC color profiles. Now let’s try to put all this information together to arrive at a sound solution.

Color Management

• The goal of color management is to reproduce colors according to the author’s intent regardless of the display characteristics.
• Conforming applications do this by converting their images to the ICC profile connection space (i.e. a universal color profile like CIEXYZ or CIELAB) and then to the display profile.

The process looks like this: source color → CIELAB color → display color.

Bringing ICC Color Management to Video

• Traditional video production is not ICC color managed.
• For Rec 709 content, the author decides their intent in a specific standard environment: using displays and viewing environments conforming to Rec 1886 and Rec 2035.

The process looks like this: source color → display color.

• Bringing ICC color management to video means decoupling the author’s intent from the characteristics of the display and the viewing environment.
• To bring ICC color management to video, we need to derive the intermediate conversion to the ICC profile connection space since it is not specified anywhere.
• That means we need to split the EOTF described in Rec 1886 into two functions: one to convert from the source color to the profile connection space, one to convert from the profile connection space to the display color.
  • A video application only needs to care about the first function because the second function is described by the display color profile and is applicable to all applications in the OS.

Deriving the Conversion From Source Color to PCS

Apple’s derivation:

• The natural EOTF of CRTs (described in Rec 1886) incorporates a contrast enhancement for “dim surround” viewing environments common in the 1950s (described in Rec 2035).
• The profile connection space does not assume a “dim surround” viewing environment; instead, it assumes a room illumination of 500 lux.
• Use the natural EOTF of CRTs without the contrast enhancement as the function to convert from source color to the profile connection space.
• CRT gamma / gamma boost ⇒ 2.45 / 1.25 = 1.96
  • 2.45 is in the middle of 2.4 and 2.5, the range of gamma values that CRTs exhibit.
  • 1.25 gamma boost is used to enhance the contrast for the classic “dim surround” viewing environment.

The process now looks like this: source color → CIELAB color → display color where the first conversion uses a gamma decoding value of 1.96.

• To emulate the viewing environment described in Rec 1886 and Rec 2035 using ICC color management, incorporate a gamma boost of 1.25 into the second conversion.
• Thus, we can achieve the same standard production viewing environment, but we can now support other viewing environments as well by changing the second conversion via the display profile.

My recommendation:

• It is clear that we should use the natural EOTF of CRTs without the gamma boost as Apple did.
• The exact gamma boost value is probably up for debate.
• Apple chose 1.25. Let’s assume that they did research and testing to arrive at this value.
• Use the same gamma boost value as Apple to be consistent with all other macOS video applications that use the AVFoundation framework (Safari, Chrome, Messages, iTunes, Photos, etc.)

In other words, I think we should change our gamma decoding value from 2.4 to 1.96.

Do you agree, @haasn and @UliZappe?

[UliZappe]

Do you agree, @haasn and @UliZappe?

Well, I certainly do, as this has – in effect – been my argument all along.

Just to be fair and to be precise academically:

A video application only needs to care about the first function because the second function is described by the display color profile and is applicable to all applications in the OS.

Strictly speaking, the video application need not “care” about the first function, either, because just as the display color space is defined in the display profile, the video source color space is defined in the video profile, in this case Rec. 709 – if we take the Rec. 709 color space as an “ICC profile”, as ICC color management always does.

The simplified gamma approximation of the Rec. 709 complex tone response curve is 1.961, so from an ICC POV this is the gamma value to use. It is certainly no coincidence that the Apple derivation you quoted resulted in this value and not, let’s say, in 1.95 or 1.97. I think it’s fair to assume that Apple “reverse-engineered” this derivation to demonstrate that even from a conventional video processing POV it’s OK and consistent to switch over to ICC video color management – if only you agree that in this day and age, and on a computer, it makes no sense at all to hardwire a color appearance correction for a typical 1950ies viewing environment.

It’s also important to recall that color appearance phenomena come with a high level of subjectivity, much higher than the CIE colorimetry for the standard colorimetric observer (see e.g. the already quoted Wikipedia article for the abundance of different color appearance models that all try to model color appearance phenomena correctly). There is no way to demonstrate with psychophysical experiments that Apple’s assumption of a factor 1.25 color appearance correction is wrong and it’s e.g. 1.23 or 1.27 instead. The statistical dispersion is simply too large for this kind of precision. So the suggested 1.961 gamma value might not be the correct value, but neither is it wrong, and it’s the value that makes video color processing consistent with ICC color management, so it’s the value of choice.

[fumoboy007]

The simplified gamma approximation of the Rec. 709 complex tone response curve is 1.961

@UliZappe This is something I don’t understand. The tone response curve function in HD 709.icc is f(x) = (0.91x + 0.09)^2.222. Through trial-and-error on a graph, I see the closest “simple” approximation to that is f(x) = x^2.09.

(The line on the right is the 1.961 curve; the two lines on the left are the actual curve and the 2.09 curve.)

I don’t think Apple used the inverse of the Rec 709 OETF. Instead, I think they “reverse-engineered” the Rec 1886 EOTF.

[haasn]

To emulate the viewing environment described in Rec 1886 and Rec 2035 using ICC color management, incorporate a gamma boost of 1.25 into the second conversion.

You're assuming this is a common practice. It doesn't seem to be. When I generated my ICC with argyllCMS, it just measured the display's response as-is and did not incorporate a “dim ambient contrast boost” into the curve, at least not as far as I can tell. For this to be a good default practice, it would be required for all profiles to actually exhibit this behavior, no? Also, isn't it up for debate whether or not ambient-sensitive contrast alterations are even required or not? I remember @UliZappe arguing quite vehemently against them.

By the way, you can experiment with this right now. If you want to cancel out the gamma boost of 1.25, you can use --opengl-gamma=1.25 to apply an additional gamma boost as part of the color management process. You might also want to set --icc-contrast or experiment with --vf=format=gamma=gamma2.2 to make mpv use a pure power for decoding.

I don’t think Apple used the inverse of the Rec 709 OETF. Instead, I think they “reverse-engineered” the Rec 1886 EOTF.

For sure. The inverse of the 709 OETF never makes sense. The EOTF is never the inverse of the OETF.

[UliZappe]

@fumoboy007

This is something I don’t understand. The tone response curve function in HD 709.icc is f(x) = (0.91x + 0.09)^2.222. Through trial-and-error on a graph, I see the closest “simple” approximation to that is f(x) = x^2.09.

Visual trial and error won’t get you anywhere in a question like this. If you use one of the well-known curve-fitting algorithms (least square etc.), you’ll find that mathematically, the closest approximation is 1.961.

Here is a visual representation of the complex Rec. 709 tone response curve (dots) and gamma 1.961 (line):

[UliZappe]

@haasn

You're assuming this is a common practice.

I don’t think @fumoboy007 meant to say it’s common practice. I think he meant this is what should be done to emulate conventional TV behavior in an ICC compliant way. If so, he is correct.

It doesn't seem to be.

Right. This is our problem if we want mpv to be ICC color management compliant and behave like conventional TV.

For this to be a good default practice, it would be required for all profiles to actually exhibit this behavior, no?

Well, it shouldn’t be the default practice, because the default viewing environment for a computer certainly isn’t a 10 lx environment.

But for special situations such as people wanting to use their computer as a TV set in a dim environment, there should be additional profiles for dim environments that they can switch to in this case.

Which is exactly the problem we have if we want to emulate conventional TV’s results in an ICC color management compliant way: To do this, we need display profiles with color appearance correction for a dim viewing environment (or a CMM which applies appearance correction to display profiles), and Joe User does not have them.

The EOTF is never the inverse of the OETF.

This is wrong, and only shows how much confusion the EOTF/OETF concept creates in the context of ICC color management. Again, it is a historical concept which made sense back when the only way to achieve desired contrast changes was by “creatively” combining equipment with different EOTFs/OETFs.

Of course, in an ICC color management context, you do have the task of converting optical into digital (= “electrical”) data and vice versa, too. But in ICC color management, this process is exactly, metrologically defined and therefore an “internal detail” you need not care about. If you create a precise ICC profile for physical input or output equipment, the “EOTFs” or “OETFs” depend solely on the physical transfer characteristics of the equipment such that the Lab/XYZ values stay the same when moving from the physical into the virtual world and vice versa. You need not even think about them – you can always start from the Lab/XYZ values of the profile connection space and be assured that these are correct.

So if, by chance, you happen to have an input device (scanner, camera, whatever) with an OETF of 2.81 and a display with an EOTF of 2.81, then you’ll have – by coincidence – an EOTF that’s the inverse of the OETF. Of course this can happen. But it’s irrelevant. What is relevant is that you stick to the input and output profiles for conversion to and from the profile connection space, and do not change the Lab/XYZ values in between.

So, in the case of mpv, this means:

video source in Rec. 709 → conversion to Lab/XYZ using the Rec. 709 TRC ≈ gamma 1.961→ keeping Lab/XYZ values constant → conversion to display RGB using the display profile TRC

And this is not what mpv currently does.

[fumoboy007]

Ah I see, @UliZappe. Interesting that Apple gave their reasoning as 2.45 / 1.25 = 1.96 instead of approximation of inverse = 1.96.

---

I did more research. The literature supports the foundation that our logical argument was based on. Here are some excerpts from A Technical Introduction to Digital Video by Charles Poynton to drive this discussion home.

CRT monitors have voltage inputs that reflect this power function. In practice, most CRTs have a numerical value of gamma very close to 2.5. […] The actual value of gamma for a particular CRT may range from about 2.3 to 2.6.

The surround effect has implications for the display of images in dark areas, such as projection of movies in a cinema, projection of 35 mm slides, or viewing of television in your living room. If an image is viewed in a dark or dim surround, and the intensity of the scene is reproduced with correct physical intensity, the image will appear lacking in contrast. Film systems are designed to compensate for viewing surround effects.

The dim surround condition is characteristic of television viewing. In video, the “stretching” is accomplished at the camera by slightly undercompensating the actual power function of the CRT to obtain an end-to-end power function with an exponent of 1.1 or 1.2. This achieves pictures that are more subjectively pleasing than would be produced by a mathematically correct linear system.

Rec. 709 specifies a power function exponent of 0.45. The product of the 0.45 exponent at the camera and the 2.5 exponent at the display produces the desired end-to-end exponent of about 1.13.

Poynton is saying that the Rec 709 OETF is the inverse of the natural CRT EOTF but with a contrast enhancement to help with “dim surround” viewing environments. Removing that contrast enhancement will get us back to the original picture for normal viewing environments.

[fumoboy007]

@haasn I tried --opengl-gamma=1.2239 (2.4 / 1.961 ≈ 1.2239), but now it has too little contrast compared to QuickTime Player!

Any ideas?

[UliZappe]

Ah I see, @UliZappe. Interesting that Apple gave their reasoning as 2.45 / 1.25 = 1.96 instead of approximation of inverse = 1.96.

For whatever reason, and in contrast to the still imaging community, the video community is very conservative technologically – just think of the initial reaction to Final Cut Pro X (the first ICC color managed NLE, BTW). So my best guess is that Apple tried to avoid the ICC color management concept (little known in this community) and the kind of lengthy discussion we had/have here on the GitHub mpv forum by providing an explanation within the conceptual boundaries of conventional TV.

[haasn]

Any ideas?

Try adding --icc-contrast=100000 or something

[fumoboy007]

@haasn Huzzah! Same contrast!

There is some noise in the guy’s jacket (on the right). Is that because of the issue that @UliZappe mentioned regarding LittleCMS and slope limiting?

[haasn]

Is that because of the issue that @UliZappe mentioned regarding LittleCMS and slope limiting?

Doubtful. If anything, lack of slope limiting would cause black crush. Could perhaps be debanding, you could try disabling that.

Another thing you could try doing to replicate QTX behavior is using --vf=format=gamma=gamma2.2 --opengl-gamma=1.1218765935747068

[fumoboy007]

Another thing you could try doing to replicate QTX behavior is using --vf=format=gamma=gamma2.2 --opengl-gamma=1.1218765935747068

@haasn Can you explain what that does and why it works?

[haasn]

@fumoboy007 Sure.

--vf=format overrides the detected video parameters with your own choice. Normally such video files get auto-detected as BT.1886 gamma, but with --vf=format=gamma=gamma2.2 you force mpv to pretend it's a gamma 2.2 file instead.

opengl-gamma is a sort of hacky option that lets you provide a raw exponent to apply on top of the decoded signal. (It's similar to --gamma but it uses raw numbers instead of “human-scaled” adjustment values from -100 to 100). Encoding with 2.2 and then applying an 1.1218765935747068 exponent on top is the same as encoding with 1.961 function, because [x^(1/2.2)]^1.1219 = x^[1/(2.2/1.129)] ≈ x^(1/1.961)

Or in less confusing notation, 1.961 * 1.12187... = 2.2. That's where the constant comes from, at any rate. The combination of the two options makes mpv treat the video as being pure power gamma 1.961. But since we don't have an actual --vf=format=gamma=gamma1.961 option, the best we can do is gamma2.2 + --opengl-gamma. (Note: --gamma would work just as well, assuming you could figure out what exact parameter maps to that constant)

[bodayw]

Sorry for jumping into the discussion without much prior knowledge on this matter.

I thought I more or less understood the conclusion in the original issue #534 that mpv now assumes the source to be gamma 1.961 instead of 2.2 (?), and this change was exactly to make mpv's output match the color we see in QuickTime Player. So I figured color management-enabled mpv should always match the result in QuickTime since then (assuming the icc profile is not broken and everything works as intended).

Do I understand this wrong? Or it's actually a different matter being discussed here?

[UliZappe]

@bodayw

I thought I more or less understood the conclusion in the original issue #534 that mpv now assumes the source to be gamma 1.961 instead of 2.2 (?), and this change was exactly to make mpv's output match the color we see in QuickTime Player.

It is correct that we started with QuickTime Player as a reference point, as it’s the only color managed video player software on a computer so far.

It is also correct that we were almost there in achieving this goal. The remaining problem was the black crush issue that turned out to be rooted in the differences between the ColorSync CMS (uses Slope Limiting) and LittleCMS (does not use Slope Limiting) which mpv uses, and the problem that the LittleCMS author does not want to implement Slope Limiting in LittleCMS.

So I figured color management-enabled mpv should always match the result in QuickTime since then (assuming the icc profile is not broken and everything works as intended).

The point is that somewhere down the line (I don’t remember exactly when and why) @haasn decided that QuickTime Player has it all wrong and tried to emulate “classic” stand-alone TV technology instead. This approach is conceptually incompatible with ICC color management on computers, but it’s the current state of mpv color reproduction. (I wouldn’t call it color management because on computers, this implies interoperability with other applications, which is not true for the current mpv.)

I still hope I’ll be able to provide additional evidence that Apple’s approach is the correct way to go, but I still need some time to complete my research and, unfortunately, have little time currently.

Do I understand this wrong? Or it's actually a different matter being discussed here?

No, it’s exactly the matter being discussed here (again), but as I tried to explain, mpv’s current approach does not use QuickTime Player as a reference point anymore.

[haasn]

Do I understand this wrong? Or it's actually a different matter being discussed here?

That thread is very old and no longer representative of current mpv behavior. As of today, mpv implements the function described by ITU-R BT.1886, which defines a contrast-dependent gamma curve. (To get the display's contrast value, we use the ICC profile's reverse tables to look up the black point)

[akhenig]

Is there any update on this? I would love to have an option that implements what @UliZappe is suggesting. I have no choice now but to use Quicktime if I want correct color which sucks...

[haasn]

If you want the output to be identical to QuickTime, then I recommend either using QuickTime or the hack listed above. I have no plans at this time to implement quicktime emulation in mpv.

[UliZappe]

If you want the output to be identical to QuickTime, then I recommend either using QuickTime or the hack listed above. I have no plans at this time to implement quicktime emulation in mpv.

Well, it’s not about „QuickTime emulation“. It’s about being ICC color management compliant, which mpv isn’t and QuickTime happens to be, and about reproducing colors correctly, which mpv does not and QuickTime happens to do …

[Hrxn]

BTW, since you seem to be somewhat versed when it comes to QuickTime: Do you eventually know if/how/when QuickTime makes use of the Metal API?

Asking because OpenGL has stalled on macOS, and this leads to issues, as can be seen with some cases here on the tracker.

[UliZappe]

BTW, since you seem to be somewhat versed when it comes to QuickTime: Do you eventually know if/how/when QuickTime makes use of the Metal API?

Due to being continuously bugged by time constraints, I’m currently not as up-to-date as I’d like to be.

That being said, there is some terminological confusion as QuickTime as an API is dead and it’s only the QuickTime Player software we’re talking about, which uses AVFoundation nowadays. AVFoundation can certainly be used in conjunction with Metal, but I have no idea whether the current implementation of QuickTime Player makes use of that fact.

[mohd-akram]

I came across mpv after trying IINA (which it uses) and VLC in the hopes of finding a video player for macOS with accurate colors. I'm not an expert, but I have definitely noticed that the output in these players is over-saturated and there is a loss in detail which is not the case for QuickTime.

[Akemi]

iina uses opengl-cb where icc-profile-auto=yes isn't supported. it also doesn't implement its own colour management or rather doesn't make use of mpv's icc profile related options (as far as i know). so you don't get any colour management with iina.

[mohd-akram]

The output seemed identical to me honestly. I used mpv 0.26.0 from MacPorts and IINA 0.0.12.

[UliZappe]

Well, the basic issue is that the current mpv color handling isn’t ICC color management compliant.

[pigoz]

@mohd-akram are you using icc-profile-auto=yes? Color management is not enabled by default because on platforms other than OSX it does not make sense to