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Testing 5D footage codecs
Hello all,
I’ve been trying to find info on a 5D workflow and I’m now diving into it myself. Thought I’d let people know what I’m finding.
Just got back from Eugene, OR with a bunch of fantastic footage (thanks to Andy Cutraro, cutraro.com) and now the edit begins.
I’m finding that while most have suggested ProRes as the codec to use for editing, it seems to introduce some nasty banding. Nothing too harsh, but enough that it’s noticeable.I’ve tried XDCam on 2 clips and so far, I’m liking it. Much lower file size, no banding and only a very slight loss of saturation. I’m thinking that this one is going to hold up better once I start making some color moves.
Jonathan
I’ll try to keep updating my progress (or lack thereof).
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13 Replies
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You do what works for you. I’m staying away from Long GOP!
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
What’s Long GOP?
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Long “Group of Pictures.” Look it up. It’s discussed a lot in this forum.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
Converting H.26. To XDCAM? Oy, have fun. Glad it works, but Otis an odd codec choice. Especially since you don’t know about it. I haven’t seen the banding when converting my Canon footage.
How are you monitoring?
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Just looked up GOP. Time to exit this media business. Yet another layer of info to remember…
I’m just monitoring on an Apple monitor.
The banding isn’t terrible with ProRes, but it’s definitely there in certain areas. If anyone has another suggested codec, I’m all ears.I haven’t worked with XDCam much, am I going to have some kind of horrible issue later on down the line?? Right now, it looks good to me.
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Well, so far so good with XDCAM.
By-the-way I’m using Apple XDCAM HD422 1080p30 and the clips have already been transcoded to 29.97 via Cinema Tools.
This is only a 30 sec. spot, so maybe some of the GOP issues people have mentioned won’t be a problem for me.Right now my plan is to do the rough edit in FCP, output to ProRes (unless I’m still seeing banding, and then I’ll find something else) and do my post effects/color work in AE (Magic Bullet) and possibly Color.
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You need to see the final rendered output on a monitor other than your computer. You need hardware for that. AJA Kona 3/io Express, Matrox MXO 2, etc.
You’ll have problems. ProRes is what you want to work with.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
I’m going to get hooked up to a Panasonic monitor in a minute. Got a Kona setup. I’ll see how things look on that.
Can you expound on the problems that will come with the XDCAM codec? I haven’t run up against anything yet, but like I said this is my first time working with the codec.
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Well, I’ve looked at my ProRes and XDCAM movs on a Panasonic monitor via Kona Card. The differences between the XDCAM and ProRes (visually) are much more slight now that I’m seeing my stuff on an external monitor.
However, I can still see that banding in the ProRes sequence. You probably wouldn’t notice it if you hadn’t seen it on the computer monitor first, but it’s there.
I would rather work with the XDCAM footage as far as the look goes. It’s just a little better than the ProRes. Keep in mind that I still have to make color moves and so that banding in the ProRes is likely to get more pronounced.
My question is this. What exactly are the issues I’m going to encounter with XDCAM? If they’re extreme, then it isn’t worth the slightly better image quality. If they’re not extreme, I’m going to continue to work in XDCAM (because it just looks better) and then convert to something else for delivery.
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We’ve converted Canon 7D footage to ProResHQ (not plain ProRes). Colour corrected them in Color. Exported to DPX and printed on film. Film print in a theatre shows no banding.
What happens if you open the ProRes clip and the XDCam clip on the same monitor. Is there banding on the ProRes but not in the XDCam clip when paused at the exact same frame?
That would be interesting. I need to test this out too.
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Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India
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