Does FCP 5 render 10 bit RGB now?

[B.j. Ahlen]

Maybe next year.

https://www.hdforindies.com said from NAB this week:

Apple’s saying dual link 4:4:4 HD is a preview, doesn’t want to put their official stamp on it yet – got a BS answer from one lady about “we don’t know what all the issues might be”, got to a demo artist who said it’s because there is NO 10 bit RGB processing in FCP – if you render anything, even a cross dissolve, it gets bounced into 10 bit YUV, then rendered from YUV back to [8-bit] RGB. Yuck.

The suggested fix was to do EVERYTHING other than cuts only editing with Shake.

Who wants to do a cross dissolve in Shake? Then you can’t change your edit whilst effects run. You could do your FX & CC work in Shake, swap shots out, carefully managed if you had to. Once editorial was locked, THEN run the whole thing out to Shake. Do cross dissolves hand over to Shake? Do any FCP effects hand over? I doubt it. This workflow sounds barely viable at first but gets less and less so in a real production environment. Yuck. … So maybe next year.

At least the next version of FCP (FCP5) will work in the right color space for HD (ITU 709).

The current version of FCP HD only works in the Standard Definition color space (ITU 601).

[Jeremiah Black]

NO I think it just does internal propcessing at 10 or 32, but render is still to 8 bit. Hope I’m wrong but that’s what I got out of the NAB news.

jeremiah black
dual 2 gig G5
2.5 gigs of RAM
Decklink Extreme capture card

[Matthd]

That was the impression I got from NAB as well. I never got a real straight answer though.

Matt Smith
HdFilmout
Los Angeles CA

[Jeff Bernstein]

Here the deal.

FCP will do high-bit depth processing in YUV only. Furthermore, AE plug-ins used in FCP are dumbed down to 8-Bit RGB. Plug-in manufacturers have been begging Apple for an API or documentation for getting around this, but Apple has not been forthcoming. Apple plug-ins, however, can perform in YUV and higher bit depths. The only problem is that Apple doesn’t list which plug-in (effects) use which color bit-depth.

So, please write your Congressman or Apple to say this situation is just wrong.

Jeff Bernstein

Digital Desktop Consulting
Apple Pro Video VAR
XSAN Certified

323-653-7611

[Bj Ahlen]

“FCP will do high-bit depth processing in YUV only.”

Does that mean FCP can now do internal processing, say color correction, at a higher bit depth and then output without banding to a 10-bit YUV codec?

My understanding was that the output of any internal operation was always an 8-bit result.

I think we need to be very specific about what we are asking for, otherwise it will be totally ignored.

(In the meantime, let’s rejoice in Soundtrack Pro, they seem to have outdone themselves on this one.)

[Jason J rodriguez]

[B.J. Ahlen] “Does that mean FCP can now do internal processing, say color correction, at a higher bit depth and then output without banding to a 10-bit YUV codec? “

Yes. But only with the built-in 3-point color corrector, not third-party AE plug-ins. Also effects that are written for YUV with FXscript can take advantage of the 32-bit YUV rendering engine too. But again, anything using RGB effects, or from AE will be fed 8-bit data, even it it’s a 10-bit file, and it will render to an 8-bit RGB result and be converted over to YUV at either 8, 10, or 32-bits (depending on your settings).

Jason Rodriguez
Virginia Beach, VA