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DV TO 10 BIT Conversion Useful?
I have a 40 minute doc shot on DV that I am onlining. I have been told that transcoding my sequence–that is, setting my sequence to–10 bit uncompressed and re-rendering will help the quality of my graphics–there are lots of FX in the show–and color correction.
But when subclip a section of the show, and create DV and rendered 10 bit version, and then A/B it on my monitor, the 10 bit actually looks a little softer! And I don’t see that big a difference on my (only 19 inch) monitor.
The project is destined for DVD, and maybe later for broadcast.
Anybody have any thoughts on whether it’s worth transcoding to 10 bit?
And, for that matter, re-capturing as 10 bit?
Thanks
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15 Replies
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Your graphics will look awful with the DV Codec.
I pretty much do everything in 10-bit uncompressed regardless
of what format it is. Been doing it that way for 10 years now. -
You’ll see this comment all over here, 10 bit SD is hardly ever more useful that 8 bit, except in a few rare instances. 10 bit is a waste of drive space.
Yes, you will get better graphics when you render to 8 or 10 bit, why your footage is getting softer could be a scan line problem, 480 going to 486, you want 4 extra lines on the bottom and two on the top. Otherwise it could easily look softer.
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Do the final render in an 8bit uncompressed timeline. If you want to, take steps to improve the DV chroma quality at the same time.
10bit in FCP is buggy.Dupe your main timeline, just change the compressor to 8bit uncompressed. That’s it. Now render, and export your final movie. This will help a lot with going to DVD.
But remember this…. If your graphics look bad onteh DV codec, don’t use the uncompressed timeline as a “fixit” because what DVD does to the image and what broadcast TV compression do to the image are worse than the DV codec. If you can’t make your graphics look good on DV then they’re probably not fit for broadcast either.
Graeme
– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP
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Thanks for the comments!
I will go with an 8 Bit timeline
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As long as the PAL people can not use your NICER, which other filter would you recommend me to improve the chroma of the DV before going to 8b Unc? I get a bit confused between your Chroma Sharpening and Chroma Smoothing. And thanks for the info on the 10b Unc.
Cheers,
Rafael -
Yes, G Nicer is specific for NTSC DV. G Chroma Sharpen is non-specific and will work with anything. It has two stages. First stage is a simple interpolation to smooth the chroma out, so that there’s no blocks. That because the Apple codecs leave the chroma data in a blocky state.
Next step is to sharpen the chroma data. This is luma based, so that the chroma now conforms to the edges in the luma information, so it both sharpens the chroma, and up-rezzes it to match the detail in the luma.
There’s a version for interlace and one for progressive video. Use as appropriate. There’s even a version for Apple’s Final Touch (was Silicon Color) which works on the same principle, but is a little better quality.
Graeme
– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP
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if the content is worth watching, no one will ever tell the difference.
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[Graeme Nattress] “10bit in FCP is buggy.”
thats the 10-bit in 5.1.x right?
I’ve had no problems with 5.0.x
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And G Chroma Sharpen works very well for me, being in PALandia.
Regards,
Uli
Author of “DVDs gestalten und produzieren”, a book on professional DVD-authoring in German.
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It’s been buggy since it’s inception in FCP. There’s 10bit bugs in all versions of FCP.
Graeme
– http://www.nattress.com – Film Effects and Standards Conversion for FCP
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