H264 gives better results than ProRes 422(HQ) or Uncompressed?!

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Michael Gissing] “Interesting that the artifacting is on the 10 bit exports and not the H264 which is 8 bit.

Try an 8 bit uncompressed and see if that helps. It is clearly something to do with peak whites. Another left field idea is to drop the 3 way cc and bring the peak whites to 100 or just under and see if that helps with the 10 bit exports”

This is exactly where I was going to go with this. It used to happen long ago with scaled 10bit video. The trick at the time was to put am “empty” filter on it like saturation turned to zero and rerender/export.

In this case though, my thoughts are some sort of clipping issue when coming from RGB.

Adrian-

So the original ProRes HQ export straight from timeline, pre VFX still shows the artifacts? So how did you get the clean screen grab? Or are you saying your orig footage/export doesn’t show this?

To get around the 8bit QT limitation for image sequences, use motion, AE, even Compressor. In Compressor, make sure frame controls are on.

[Adrian Makai]

[So the original ProRes HQ export straight from timeline, pre VFX still shows the artifacts? So how did you get the clean screen grab? Or are you saying your orig footage/export doesn’t show this?]

Yes, pre VFX still shows artifacts.

Yes, clean grab was from orig footage transcode from AVCHD to ProRes 422 HQ. Without opening FCP, I just opened that particular clip in Quicktime Player and grabbed the clean frame.

And again, that very same clean clip plays fine within FCP as well. It’s only when exporting or sending to Compressor in either uncompressed or ProRes 422HQ that I get color smear.

Will try the 8-bit suggestions and see if that works.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Adrian Makai] “Yes, clean grab was from orig footage transcode from AVCHD to ProRes 422 HQ. Without opening FCP, I just opened that particular clip in Quicktime Player and grabbed the clean frame.”

Do you have a capture card and a broadcast monitor?

Have you looked at this on another computer/monitor?

And all you are doing is File > Export > QuickTime Movie @ current settings and self-contained checked (leaving recompress off)? What happens if you export a ref movie?

[Rafael Amador]

Crazy workflow.
For me those colors are typical when trying rendering 1080/10b stuff on a short GPU computer.
IMO, nothing related with Prores vs ProresHQ.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Adrian Makai]

Thanks Guys – problem solved!

Added a basic color correction and broadcast safe filter, adjusted down the highlights and chose a very conservative broadcast-safe setting and presto! Tested it every which way and it now exports properly.

I still find it interesting that H264 somehow auto-corrected for all that while the uncompressed and ProRes 422HQ exports did not. Oh well, not gonna sweat the why’s anymore. Back to editing.

[Michael Gissing]

[Adrian Makai] “I still find it interesting that H264 somehow auto-corrected”

I am not surprised as I suspected it was a 10 bit versus 8 bit issue and H264 @8 bit effectively clamps peak whites to 100.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Michael Gissing] “I am not surprised as I suspected it was a 10 bit versus 8 bit issue and H264 @8 bit effectively clamps peak whites to 100.”

Mmm. I might have to disagree here. It doesn’t have to do with 10 vs 8 as 8 bit video can carry “illegal” signals.

I would think it’s RGB vs YUV. I do think that most likely, the h264 was clamping the values to RGB and therefore the problem was solved.

Still love you though Mr Gissing!