I have simply loaded a file and taken a clip from it. I have done nothing to it (no color correction, etc.). Note the input screen looks like the original clip (purplish, hazy, and faded) while the output screen looks darker and clearer. When I EXPORT this the exported file looks like the original. Why does the export look like the original and not the output window? Why does the output window not look like the input window if I have done nothing to the clip?

The editor uses the hardware YUV overlay for video display in the monitor window whenever available. Due to the design of the hardware and Windows DirectDraw API, there can only be one window that uses the YUV overlay. This means that it will be either the Input or the Output monitor that uses the YUV overlay display at any time. In terms of visual appearance, the YUV overlay display uses the YUV video data as decoded from an MPEG file to directly control the video display hardware without going through the normal YUV to RGB color conversion, and the image color on the monitor window using the YUV overlay looks better than the one not using the YUV overlay.

Furthermore, there is one more additional hardware control called the YV12 pixel format, which some time causes a software compatibility problem for some video display controller. When this problem occurs, the monitor window that uses the YUV overlay may become black. In this case, you will need to turn the YUV overlay mode OFF via the option control at "Options...->Preview" to select the "RGB Only" mode.

One note about the selection of the YUV overlay for the two monitors: the editor will assign the YUV overlay to the two monitors on the basis of "first come first serve".

You may override this arbitrary assignment to only one monitor by changing the default selection in the Preview option page.