Color saturation diagnostic tool for capture?

[ThumperStrauss]

Workflow: TRV66 - ES15 - DVK200 - AIW9600XT

Before capturing in VirtualDub1911, I follow the procedure of cropping out black side and bottom, and then viewing the histogram to ensure the incoming video is within the recommended range of 16 to 235 to ensure.

1. Is there a comparable software tool I can use (in VirtualDub or elsewhere) to check the color saturation levels from a bit if video before capturing? I don't trust my own eyes (or screen) in determining color saturation before capturing.

I recently increased the saturation with the Datavideo DVK-200 in order to mitigate the effects of the Panasonic ES-15. But I overdid it and had to desaturate in Hybrid. See attachment for example of how the over-saturation looked on a black screen. (The version with no extra saturation didn't have those colors.)

2. As a general rule, it is better to have raw video that is a bit oversaturated than undersaturated, assuming one will adjust the saturation later on?

[dpalomaki]

It will in part depend on the video content; proper saturation corresponding to the original scene is generally best. Over saturation can cause color bleed and may result in not-legal (for broadcast) levels and could result in baked in artifacts when digitized and in moving between color space/dcoding systems.. (Especially of the scene already has highly saturated content.) If under saturated it can usually be bumped up in post procession.

[themaster1]

you can use avisynth for that, the ones i use:

############ ANALYSE #######################
#ColorYUV(analyze=true)
#UtoY() # analysis U
#VtoY() # analysis V
#Histogram("levels")
#Histogram(mode="luma") # Luma mode (interesting for noise residue in Y or UV)
#HistogramRGBParade()
#HistogramRGBLevels
#HistogramCMYLevels(range=true) # To analyze secondary colors: cyan magenta yellow
#ConverttoYUY2(interlaced=true) # pour VIDEOSCOPE
#VideoScope("both", true, "Y") # for light levels
#VideoScope("side", true, "UV") # for color levels
#VideoScope("both",true, "U", "V", "UV")
# Analyse YUV:
#Y = GreyScale()
#U = UtoY()
#V = VtoY()
#StackHorizontal(Y, StackVertical(U,V))