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A Nice Plus
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[Walter Soyka] “A truly universal lightly-compressed HD format would be huge.”
In the days of yore, codecs separated NLEs. Media100 had a great one for the time, and was compressed SD.
These days, a lot of people have 10+ bit 422 Iframe HD codecs in acquisition and post. It’s not that we would need a universal codec (Cineform is/was close) but access to encode/decode of codec and container for everyone would be nice, and then to have it work.
It’s a tall order as no one wants to surrender their IP for free.
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Can’t see anyone having mentioned it, but this is one of the better articles about the colour management in FCPX.
What is the secret to Final Cut Pro X’s color management?
https://www.philiphodgetts.com/2011/09/fcp-x-color-management-secret/ -
I found a great piece of software that lets you use your broadcast monitor to grade FCPX edits, it’s called Resolve, FCPX can send XML to it and apparently some professionals use it 🙂
“My Name is Steve and I’m an FCPX user”
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[Steve Connor] “I found a great piece of software that lets you use your broadcast monitor to grade FCPX edits, it’s called Resolve, FCPX can send XML to it and apparently some professionals use it :)”
It should be noted that it’s a piece of software that requires a specific piece of hardware to do that monitoring.
And it’s called Blackmagic. -
Nice post Jim. Are you using the built-in color tools in X or plug-ins or sending out for timing? I actually really like the new colot tools in X and find it so much more fun to use than 3-wheel style correctors. And no I’m not a consumer, been doing this for 25 years now… 🙂
Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Irvine, California -
[Walter Soyka] “Well, Smoke is an NLE (among other things), but this raises an interesting question: where does a modern NLE end, and a coloring, compositing, or effects app begin? FCPX does all of these things, too. “
I agree very much with most of what you say Walter, but in all those great applications that you mentioned there is a “node” or “filter” that allow you to work in YCbCr. This is one of the things that make them PRO.
Options for every one taste, please. Don’t give me what Apple thing is the best for me; let me chose.[Jeremy Garchow] “As the world (ever so slowly, some faster than others) moves to 444 RGB acquisition, 32bit RGB makes a lot of sense. “
That will keep reserved for the mega-bucks guys.
The video revolution has happen thanks to the streamlining of YCbCr codecs.
Possibilities for streamlining RGB stuff are much more limited.[Jeremy Garchow] “This level of X’s “simplification” of a complex task is very welcome.”
Simplification is not good when the goal is to avoid knowledge and skills shortcomings.
In a Pro environment, presets are acceptable when they not deny the options for customization.
Apple may think that filmmakers, as artists, shouldn’t care about the technology they are managing.
I do not agree. people is making all day long wrong choices when buying gear or when choosing export setting. Offering just high quality options to avoid those mistakes is not the way to go.
rafa -
[Rafael Amador] “That will keep reserved for the mega-bucks guys.
The video revolution has happen thanks to the streamlining of YCbCr codecs.
Possibilities for streamlining RGB stuff are much more limited.”Bandwidth being the most limiting factor. YCrCb itself, is an efficiency.
[Rafael Amador] “Simplification is not good when the goal is to avoid knowledge and skills shortcomings.”
How is X any worse than FCP7? I’d say it’s at the very least, better. Do you disagree? There are only certain aspects that we as users can control. We are hit with limits all over the place to keep things moving, otherwise everything would grind to halt due to processing and uncompressed bandwidth constraints. if FCPX operates in a “lossless” space, we can at least have a bit of freedom in our limits. Perhaps only one hand is tied behind our backs?
[Rafael Amador] “In a Pro environment, presets are acceptable when they not deny the options for customization. “
Meaning what exactly? Are you recording raw and converting to DPX files or something similar from your YUV images? It all starts with the source. If you start with 8bit YUV, there are certain things you can do to spruce, but there’s also a point of diminishing returns. Having a bunch of different processing modes in an application like FCPX would, in my opinion, not return much back to the user. Float will handle pretty much all the conversion you need. Do you disagree?
[Rafael Amador] “Offering just high quality options to avoid those mistakes is not the way to go.”
So, let’s say you are Apple, what is your alternative besides writing “don’t buy the wrong gear and don’t make the wrong choice!” in the manual? Are you saying they should give “lesser quality” options to teach a lesson? What is the way to go?
Jeremy
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I haven’t read the whole thread but we all know that QT does a YUV to RGB conversion all the time, right? It’s part of the program. 32bit RGB, in my little opinion is a logical move. It’s not reserved for megabucks.
Raw yuv images are not pretty. It’s an inherent efficiency and X voids the 8bit limitation.
I hope AVFoundation proves to be a step up.
Thanks for the link.
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[Rafael Amador] “I agree very much with most of what you say Walter, but in all those great applications that you mentioned there is a “node” or “filter” that allow you to work in YCbCr. This is one of the things that make them PRO. Options for every one taste, please. Don’t give me what Apple thing is the best for me; let me chose. “
I’m with you here — applying channel effects within an RGB-YUV / YUV-RGB effects sandwich (that’s a technical term) is a very powerful and flexible technique.
Unfortunately, you’re right that it doesn’t seem to be an option for effects in FCPX — Motion still doesn’t seem to have a native RGB/YUV transform filter, and the PHYX freebie surprisingly isn’t reversible.
Maybe Simon will happen upon this post and chime in if he knows another way.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
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