should i export 8-bit uncompressed from a DV project?

dual 2.5 g5, 7gb RAM, 500gb G-raid

Working on an SD DV project in FCP 6.01. People keep saying in different forums that final product will look better by exporting in uncompressed 8 or 10 bit? Is this true? I tried exporting my three minute piece and the text (Livetype based) looked worse on the 8 and 10 bit exports than on the regular DV NTSC export.

Should I just stick with the straight DV export or is there something I'm missing?

what is your delivery format?

Does anybody know the technical specifications of DV CAM and Digital betacam? In the UK digi beta has a resolution of 2 to 1 where as DV CAM is 5 to 1, however this is British terminology, I don't know if this applies to the United States. Phil UK

Better to post a new subject when you're asking a new question, Phil. As for the specs, 5:1 is the compression ratio of DVCAM. This is the same everywhere in the world. For more specs than you'll ever need on digital video, check out Adam Wilt's excellent resource here : Adam Wilt's Guide

Phil, the use of the word "resolution" to describe compression ratios is misleading. If that has become common usage in the UK since I left, then it should be stopped, now. Resolution has it's on distinct meaning in digital video and refers to the size of the pixel array that represents the image.

Graeme

Phil's not the only one...a lot of people use "resolution" to describe anything having to deal with sharpness, colour, image quality in general. Pixel count does have something to do with it, but it ain't the only factor.

Chris, in order to benefit from Uncompressed 8-bit or 10-bit's better handling of text, you first have to make a "generic" or "textless" version of your DV project. Put that into an Uncompressed SD timeline, then add the text within that timeline. Are you doing that? If not, if your text was added in the DV timeline, then it's already being damaged by the DV codec and you won't get any benefits from exporting to a different codec.


www.derekmok.com

My other pet annoyances with terminology are:

YUV instead of Y'CbCr, where YUV is a stage in the processing of analogue component to composite for broadcast, and Y'CbCr is the component transform used to store digital video.

"linear" is mean video gamma, rather than linear light.

"Colour space" referring to say 4:2:2, which is a chroma sampling notation, not a colour sapce. An example of a colour space would be REC709 or sRGB etc.

Graeme

Derek-

I created my titles as LiveType files, so I actually didn't create any text in FCP... Shane recommended that I simply copy my edit to a new 8-bit sequence... the text seems to look sharper this way... is this basically what you were saying also? The Livetype files as well as all the DV footage obviously needed to be re-rendered but it seems to have the same effect whether I add the titles in prior copying the footage or afterwards...

> Shane recommended that I simply copy my edit to a new 8-bit sequence... the text seems to
> look sharper this way... is this basically what you were saying also?

Yes, that should do it, theoretically. But there've also been three or four reports in the last month about LiveType titles looking bad. We haven't been able to nail down whether it's user error or a bug, but it's something to keep in mind. If the titles still look bad in an Uncompressed SD sequence, try exporting the LiveType project files into movie files (eg. Animation codec) and see if there's an improvement.


www.derekmok.com

Ok, so I've completed my re-rendering of my 3 minute piece and now much of my footage that was light enough in a DV codec is now too dark in the Uncompressed timeline... also I can't play it back on my NTSC monitor and honestly, though the titles look better on my computer screen, they don't look any better than the DV version on my NTSC...

what's happening?

again, what is your destination???
if you're only going to DV, forget it.. what;s.the point... there is none.
in fact all that re-compressing will probably make things worse

if your; going to DVD, then it might help.
but without an uncompressed monitoring solution....
hang on..
FCP is supposed to be able to play Uncompressed out FW.
doesn't matter, though, as it's turning it back into DV to do it.

so if DVD is your destination, burn some DVDs.

what's your destination?


nick

destination is actually DVD, web, and QT file... client wants all three...

much of my footage that was light enough in a DV codec is now too dark in the Uncompressed timeline

Now you color correct the footage and lighten it up. But, without a capture card to see the actual image play back in realtime, then you are stuck looking at still frames on your external monitor because...

I can't play it back on my NTSC monitor

Only DV will play back via firewire on that monitor looped thru your DV camera. Any other format and you need a capture card to see it (DVCPRO formats just require a DVCPRO device as well, however).

Never ever judge the quality on the monitor as THE quality of the image. The monitor quality is always a low res proxie image that is lo res so you get realtime playback.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

DV to AJA 525 uncompressed 8-bit through Kona 3 SDI-- done this twice for a client, for color correction, image troubleshooting, onlining, etc. The richer chroma sampling looks great, IF as Nick says your delivery warrants it. For ours we downconverted to DVCPro50 for museum presentation.

Titles generated in offline from FCP native title tool and from Boris Title3D have uprezzed fine, needing only color tweak. Haven't tested LiveType.

- Loren
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