Noise Reduction (video)

[Petros Kolyvas]

Can you define:

[Mitch Ives] ” DOESN’T slow FCPX down badly?”

More clearly?

IE, do you mean it doesn’t require render time and create choppy playback… or simply having it installed slows down the app…

If it’s the former, noise reduction is very expensive, computationally speaking. Until three or four years ago, even audio noise reduction was a largely offline affair for the highest quality noise reduction algorithms.

Having said that, has anyone tried Photon Pro? Cursory research shows it’s as “slow” as neat video, but the results seem acceptable/good and it’s about 3/5ths the price with a much simpler interface.

—
There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger

[Mitch Ives]

[Petros Kolyvas] “IE, do you mean it doesn’t require render time and create choppy playback… or simply having it installed slows down the app…”

I want to avoid having something installed that slows X down. This seems to be a complaint with Neat.

I also realize that using a plugin is an intensive process, but I’d like to find something that takes advantage of the new MacPro. Neat seems to be written to work with everything. Often times this means it isn’t optimized for anything. I’m not saying thats the case with Neat, but it’s often the case…

Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.

“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” – Winston Churchill

[Bret Williams]

I’ve tried photon pro. It’s not as amazing as neat. I was trying it with some super8 footage with some decent results, but there seems to be a threshold. If your footage isn’t totally wacked, then it’s not going to do much, whereas with Neat you have more control and can really dial it in on even just the slightest noisy footage.

But, I didn’t do any major testing. For the price photon is worth a shot. In either case, you’re probably better off exporting the cleaned up footage as a quicktime and bringing it back in so you never have to worry about it coming unrendered and slowing things down.

[Mitch Ives]

[Bret Williams] “In either case, you’re probably better off exporting the cleaned up footage as a quicktime and bringing it back in so you never have to worry about it coming unrendered and slowing things down.”

Good advice Brett… thanks. In the end I’ll probably go with neat, but I’ll be watching it for performance issues…

Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.

“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” – Winston Churchill

[Rich Rubasch]

Do the Red Giant plugins not work in FCPX? I think you can buy Denoiser II as a standalone. Works great in AE and FCP7.

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media Inc.
Video Production, Post, Studio Sound Stage
Founder/President/Editor/Designer/Animator
https://www.tiltmedia.com

[Jeremy Garchow]

I have Neat and it doesn’t slow FCPX down when I am not using it.

You can download a demo and see for yourself.

Also, neat video works amazingly well on noisy footage, and sometimes it takes a bit of setting up, but the results are well worth it.

[Petros Kolyvas]

[Jeremy Garchow] “I have Neat and it doesn’t slow FCPX down when I am not using it.”

Same.

—
There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger

[Petros Kolyvas]

[Rich Rubasch] “Do the Red Giant plugins not work in FCPX? I think you can buy Denoiser II as a standalone. Works great in AE and FCP7.”

While Colorista III from the MB suite works in FCP X now, Denoiser II does not unfortunately.

—
There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger

[Tony West]

I try to just make Neat the last thing I do. I might do a couple of clips but then uncheck the box in the inspector until the timeline is as close to locked as possible.

[Mitch Ives]

That’s good news… I know Neat is considered the best. If it stays out of the way when I’m not using it, that’s good enough…

Mitch Ives
Insight Productions Corp.

“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.” – Winston Churchill