Using Color Bars to Adjust Brightness and Color
on Analog Equipment
Broadcast video professionals use color bars to calibrate the output of analog video
devices such as:
 Playback VTRs used for capturing analog video into your editing system
 Your video editing system’s video interface analog output (for output to analog video)
 Playback VTRs used for dubbing tapes to VHS
Typically, 30 to 60 seconds of color bars is recorded at the beginning of each new
videotape shot in the field. Color bars from a professional camcorder are used to
calibrate the on-location video monitor used to watch what’s being shot, so that
adjustments for brightness or color temperature made to the camcorder are made
accurately. Later, the color bars recorded at the head of each source tape are used to
calibrate the clip settings in Final Cut Pro. If you don’t have color bars on your tape, see
“
Adjusting Capture Settings on Source Tapes Without Color Bars
” on page 539.
Each source tape should be individually calibrated because tapes from various
camcorders may have slightly different settings, and because even a single camcorder
may have fluctuated slightly over the course of the production.