HDV to ProRes422 Render Looks Crappy

>To sum it up, QT Conversion is indeed sketchy as it throws away 10 bit information irregardless of whether the sequence is 8 or 10 bit

Thats even noted in the manual by the way :-)

Quote

Export Using QuickTime Conversion always recompresses your media, even if you select the same codec, and in 8-bit only.

http://documentation.apple.com/en/finalcutpro/usermanual/index.html#chapter=103%26section=5%26tasks=true

Ah. I somehow missed that. I only remember it saying that it recompresses.



www.strypesinpost.com

Hang on ... Jeff ...

If what you say is true, Jeff, then I should NOT have seen any improvement. I am using method #1 in your post, as I understand it:

Shoot Canon 1080 24f HDV recorded onto a Firestore as QT movies.
Download to MacBrain.
Plunk this into a ProRes422 timeline. (No render necessary, obviously, but better to state this)
Cut film and render any effects and layers and whatnot within that Prores timeline.
Then go to Export - Quicktime (not through compressor or anything else).
Finito.

Master to tape and rake in loads of cash on delivery. Well, perhaps not loads. Actually the term "rake" is a little misleading too. Perhaps: "Give to distributor and beg for empty promise of cash sometime in the distant future."

The default which used to be set in my "sequence settings - compression" was HDV prior to this shattering advice, and I was getting a certain amount of blocking and general dirty stuff going on in dark areas.

I then changed: "sequence setting > compressor" to ProRes from HDV per advice and, on the next export, all the nasty stuff was gone. I repeat that this is still doing a normal export to Quicktime, not "export to compressor" or "export via Quicktime conversion", or whatever those other are called.

And I mean the result was really noticeably better mainly in dark or black areas. Consequently my life has taken on a new meaning. I feel younger and have taken up the accordion.

This result of mine doesn't conform to your analysis of where the "hit" is taken, as far as I can understand.

What annoys me is that I have been exporting the old way and thinking that my dark areas were muddy and blocky and dirty simply due to the HDV system. Years of work which passed QC too - and at Fotokem they would point out the blocking in dark areas and just give it a "2" and pass it, saying: "We see a lot of this".

So what's with that, Uncle Jeff?

All the best from my vibrant freshly decorated Polka lounge.

Harry.

What you said is the same as what I said, Harry. My theory is that Final Cut is passing your footage through the timeline compressor. If that's ProRes, you're fine, because ProRes is transparent across a reasonable (or even unreasonable, frankly) number of generations. If that's HDV, then you're boned.

But I reiterate that I'm too lazy to go find some HDV footage and test it for reals.

Oh. OK. My misunderstanding.

H.

>My theory is that Final Cut is passing your footage through the timeline compressor.

For some operations. This is probably what happens whenever I got an 8 bit result from an 8 bit timeline. The 8 bit timeline is set to render in float, but the values are rounded to 8 bits despite the source clip being 10 bits. The rounding off probably happened when the footage is compressed to the sequence codec (with the exception of QT conversion).

Note that for almost all forms of conversion from an 8 bit timeline (QT Export, QT conversion, Compressor), the result was 8 bits instead of 10. The only conversion from an 8 bit timeline that preserved the 10 bits from the source clip was the MM-recompress option.

Based on that, you will either convert HDV to ProRes before import (or on capture) or switch the timeline to ProRes and export a SCQT movie. Of course, the third option is to go through MM, but that's really pointless in this workflow, unless you're going to Color.



www.strypesinpost.com