Matrox MXO, ProRes 422(HQ), FCP v6.0.6

[Andy Mees]

I guess my feeling is that its a viable monitoring solution for when other monitoring solution are either unavailable or unaffordable, Jeremy.

I don’t personally use the device as a color critical monitoring solution, never have … but I would if I needed to and had no clearly better alternative. Yes, no qualms about it. Would I use an ACD with it? Again, if that was my best available option I would. Would any of this affect my eventual edit master? No, not at all, at least not unless I was actually going to output via the device at which point it would be constrained to 8 bit (assuming I’m not recording my master off the ACD). Would my edit master be better than had I put the whole thing together with no “proper” monitoring at all? You betcha.

Although I well understand that the low cost HD monitoring function is generally the big draw card for most of the MXO’s users, and certainly for those users who fall into the “other solutions unaffordable” camp, for me its always been a means to get a live playback of (mainly) XDCAM HD timelines (either to crash record to an F70 deck and so bypass the long conform times, or to feed out directly at a satellite feed point) … its just adding 8 bit video output spigots to my MBP.

Keeping the discussion in the context of the original question, I think until the OP more clearly details the source formats he’s working with, the type of work being done, and his mastering intentions, its hard to advise as to whether the MXO/ACD combo, with all its 10 bit>8 bit>6 bit constraints, is actually going to be a problem for him, or whether, as above, its remains his best available monitoring solution.

[Gary Adcock]

[Steve Oakley] “well ProRes can be either 8bit or 10bit. if you hand it a 8bit image from your digitizer, AE, whatever, it’ll happily compress it as 8bit. so no, prores does not mean its absolutely 10bit.”

No the codec itself is always handling content at 10bits of depth.

While the content being brought into ProRes may be at ANY bit depth, the container itself allows up to and including 10 bits of Luma per channel. After import EVERYTHING is treated as 10bit within the codec. No you do not miraculously gain additional bit depth, but from the point of ingest the material is handled as 10bit not as 8bit.

The ProRes 4444 codec handles this a little differently, as it handles the content at up to 12bits with a 10bit alpha channel if needed, but due to the VBR nature of the codec it will vary the bitdepth based on frame to frame motion interpolation.

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows

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[David Cape]

Dear Friends,

Thank you for your most interesting submissions. I have read them carefully.

In this project, I am documenting a cottage industry in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is the hand making of china and ceramics. There is a huge expo of these products in the Laurentian mountain town of Val David. We will explore the life of one of these artists.

It will be shot with a Canon 5D Mark II. The source format is H264. I will edit in FCP 6.0.6 and Color (Apple ProRes 422(HQ). I have done a lot of work Color. If it has to be output to tape I will have it done at a post production facility. When completed, I intend to submit the Doc for broadcast.

Comments.

I conclude from your inputs that I could probably manage with the MXO/ACD combo but it’s not great particularly as I do a lot of work in Color.

In view of what I have read I would like to upgrade. I am a small operator with financial constraints so I have to be careful in my choices.

Last question.

How to upgrade intelligently?

I thank you most sincerely for your replies to my queries,

David Cape