Testing 5D footage codecs

[Jonathan Lutjens]

Thanks for the response, Neil.

Yes, when I open the clips together, you can see the banding on ProRes but not the XDCAM. Now, I’m not using ProRes HQ, but I was told that it wouldn’t make a difference on account of my base footage. I would need to have higher resolution original footage in order for the HQ to be effective. But maybe that isn’t entirely true. I should also reiterate that it isn’t very noticeable (banding). However, this is pre color grading and I’m just wary that the imperceptible banding is going to really show up once I start making some contrast/color moves.

I will say that the difference between the ProRes and XDCAM is less noticeable on an external monitor, but it’s still there. I haven’t had an issue with playback or anything like that and so I’m still trying to find out exactly what the problems are that I’ll be dealing with by using XDCAM. So far, it looks good and works well. Plus, it’s only slightly larger than the original H.264 as far as file size is concerned.

I’m not familiar with DPX, what is that?

I’m going to forge ahead with my process today. I’ll post any issues. Again, if someone could fill me in on the known problems I’ll have with XDCAM, I’d appreciate it.

[Jonathan Lutjens]

Ok, I may have found the problem that people were referring to concerning the XDCAM codec.
Someone mentioned having problems with playback in AE (although another post claimed smooth sailing with XDCAM in AE…). It seems that I’m getting that same issue. I’m only able to get about 15 fps with my RAM preview at 50% size and half resolution.

Any suggestions here? I may have found the reason to go back to ProRes, although I’m loathe to introduce that banding…

[Jonathan Lutjens]

Problem solved. It wasn’t an XDCAM issue, it was that I was previewing to an external monitor via the Kona card. Playback was still only 15 fps with ProRes footage and when I switched back to computer monitor only in the video preview options, the XDCAM (and ProRes) was fine.
I guess I’ll have to be ok with a half-speed playback for my final color tweaks regardless of the codec.

I’m back on XDCAM.