ChromaKeying Raggedness – Is it my LH Card?

[Tim Kolb]

I’m wondering if you might be accidentally capturing clips as DV or something similar?

Are the files significantly different size when you capture the files with other apps?

TimK,

Kolb Productions,
Creative Cow Host,
Author/Trainer
http://www.focalpress.com
http://www.classondemand.net

[Rededitor]

Thanks for your reply Tim….
No, all the files are similar sizes.. the other cards recording the file at around 20 Meg per second, and the XENA card actually recording more information at 26Meg/second. The properties dialogue box states that the file is 24 bit, so colour info seems OK.

Thought it may have been our Breakout Box, so disconnected that, and went into XENA direct, but makes no difference.
This one really has us stumped!

Regards
RED

[Red]

Anyone else having trouble with ChromaKey using PPro2?

[Tim Kolb]

Oh…are you keying WITHIN PPro?

Try using the same media and do the key in AE…unfortunately the PPro chroma keyer is not very good…

(…or am I misunderstanding the issue?)

TimK,

Kolb Productions,
Creative Cow Host,
Author/Trainer
http://www.focalpress.com
http://www.classondemand.net

[Rededitor]

Tim
No, the key is REALLY bad. I have heard PPro 2’s keyer is average, but I CAN key the same file OK in PPro2, captured by any of the other cards. The key looks acceptable… it’s just the XENA grabbed footage that is blocky at the edges.
Cheers
RED

[Tim Kolb]

REALLY bad?

Geeez…that is confusing.

So when you’ve captured into the other apps, has it also been through the Xena card?

I’m mentally going through the checklist…

Bit depth…if it’s not full color depth, the file sizes should have indicated a difference…what does PPro say in properties about a bad-keying PPro captured clip vs an outside clip that keys acceptably? Any file differences? How about the clip properties between good clips and bad in another application like Vegas…what does Vegas see?

Data rate…same. Should have been an obvious file size difference.

Wrong codec…also a possibility, but I would think the poor performance would be from having an over-compressed clip, again resulting in an obvious file size difference.

PAR-Pixel aspect…could make a difference if the file is being interpreted improperly, but I would think you’d have spotted the distortion visually.

Blame it on the monitoring…can’t do that as I suspect the clips that ARE working and the clips that aren’t are being viewed through the same monitor.

Frame size…theoretically I suppose the frame size could be incorrect, but I have no idea how you’d even make that happen…PPro won’t allow capturing in a different framesize, though you can import it.

I’m hoping those properties dialogues show us something as I’m at a loss at this point…

I’m left with Martians, El Nino…and sunspots. Can you check around your suite for short, green men, and then go outside and check wind direction?

🙂

TimK,

Kolb Productions,
Creative Cow Host,
Author/Trainer
http://www.focalpress.com
http://www.classondemand.net

[Rededitor]

Yes is it confusing.

Just with regard to you comment re other apps… I captured identical footage from the same DigiBeta machine through our DPS Reality card, then imported it onto the PC that houses the XENA card…. subsequently had NO problem keying that identical footage under Premier Pro 2.

I am working in the PAL world, so maybe there is a problem with the codec when capturing PAL…. I really don’t know. I am using the latest XENA and QT drivers.

As you say, possibly some sort of supernatural or alien intervention?

I gather from your responses that you don’t have a problem, with ChromaKeying XENA captured footage?

Regards
RED

[Tim Kolb]

…well I haven’t to this point…but I’m in NTSC/30i HD land. That could make a difference.

What do the properties of the clips tell you?

TimK,

Kolb Productions,
Creative Cow Host,
Author/Trainer
http://www.focalpress.com
http://www.classondemand.net

[Rededitor]

Clip properties don’t reveal much!

The XENA captured files show 24 bit colour depth, data rate of 27.1 Mb/sec, 25 frames/sec at 720×576 PAR 1.422 (which is correct PAL widescreen pixel aspect) Codec is AJA Quicktime YUV 4:2:2 v210

The DPS captured file (an AVI) shows 32 bit colour depth uncompressed, with a video track depth of 24 bit. data rate of 29.7 Mb/sec, 25 frames/sec at 720×576 PAR 1.422
Codec is uncompressed avi.

Incidentally, I have also tried XENA capturing avi, and also tried 4:3 aspect, but STILL have the same problem, so who knows?

Anyway, if you do manage to set up a Chroma Key under XENA, let me know if it was successful.

Thanks again for your interest.
RED

[Kevin Christopher]

I might have an idea about this. I need a clip to try a couple of things on. Can you capture a 1 sec clip and post it somewhere I can download it. I also need to know exactly what your playback settings for the xena are, as well as the PPro setups.

Kevin