8 bit or 32 bit pixels

[Carlton Rahmani]

Thanks for asking that question, because I want to know as well.

[Dave Foltz]

Actually 8 bit looks fine for hd. I was just trying to figure out a way to make dvds look better.

[John Rofrano]

This is one of those settings that “if you have to ask… you don’t need to know”. 😉 People get themselves in trouble all the time by setting it to 32 because, “32 must be better than 8 right?” but they don’t understand how it affects the color space and gamma the of video and some FX and things go down-hill from there.

It switches between 8 bit and 32 bit internal math for color processing which makes it more accurate (i.e., greater precision and less rounding errors). Most people never need it. If you are using FX and you see color banding you might want to switch this to 32 and see if the banding goes away. If it does then keep it at 32. Otherwise I would leave it at 8 bit.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
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