The color red, even in uncompressed 10-bit FCP.

[Christopher Karcher]

this is absolutley a problem- we did an entire series of political ads- all had red text and the only workaround was to render using the RGB AJA codec and lift the black levels.

We believe it is a problem with the apple uncompressed codec- I discussed this with an apple rep @ NAB and after much discussion, apple did admit a problem… but it was supposed to be fixed in FCP2.

If it has not been fixed- BAD on apple and bad on us for not pushing the issue.

this is absolutley a problem with quicktime and it would be great if AJA would support us and take it up with thier contacts at Apple. So far, nobody has really resolved it.

[Alexander Serpico]

thx christopher. i remember now that i once also switched to RGB in the past out of desperation…

[Alexander Serpico]

Is there another codec anyone could suggest?
If i were to use an RGB codec, what is the proper conversion/image adjustment that should be made?

[Alexander Serpico]

Anyone have experience with Sheer over Apple UC? I always hear nothing but good things about it.

[John Pale]

Never tried it with the Kona, but the Sheer Video codec is very good.
No RT with this codec though.

https://www.bitjazz.com/en/products/sheervideo/

You can download a fully functional trial version

[John Pale]

[alexander serpico] “Anyone have experience with Sheer over Apple UC? I always hear nothing but good things about it.
“

Hehehehe,

only limited experience with it. you get no realtime, as its not supported by RTxtreme. I’ve not used it since switching to the Kona card.

They claim to have superior color fidelity to other codecs. Definitely worth giving it a shot with a fully functional demo.

[Alexander Serpico]

Coincidentally I have a new spot im working on now with lots of colorful red graphics, which all look bad. This is what sparked my dash today to posting so many times….

I revisited Marco Solorio’s OneRiver Media codec site, where he explains Apple’s codec lacks a chroma filter “which makes things appear jaggie”.

So now with Sheer Y’CbCr 10bv 4:2:2 installed, it all looks like it should.
There is no brightness shift like with using RGB, but there is a shift that happens in the viewer/canvas, but it does not go out through the Kona.

I think im sold on the Sheer Codec.
Can anyone think of a reason, or have past experience which suggests this might is a bad idea?
(With a 30 second spot i dont care if i have to render, it just needs to look perfect.)

[John Pale]

[alexander serpico] “Can anyone think of a reason, or have past experience which suggests this might is a bad idea?”

If it does not go out thru the Kona, how will you output to tape? Or do you need to?

[John Pale]

[John Pale] “If it does not go out thru the Kona, how will you output to tape? Or do you need to?

“

Never mind…read you post wrong. Good luck with Sheer!

[Marco Solorio]

Just a note that Apple’s uncompressed codecs have never faired well with regard to chroma jaggies. This is due to the chroma filter (or lack thereof) that they employ. However, the upside to it is that it holds up incredibly well under numerous re-encoding generations.

I’ve pleaded for years with Apple to implement optional settings in their uncompressed codecs, or at the very least implement at better algorithm. At one point I thought things were going to happen when I was communicating directly with the Apple developers a few years back, but nothing came out of it and we still have the same anomalies to this day. At which point, I’ve given up all hopes of updates.

Definitely use Sheer if you don’t mind the RT hit.

Marco Solorio