Vegas 6 and Decklink working great!

[Dom Silverio]

Oops I meant 281 TRILLION.

[Bj Ahlen]

Adolfo: I still would like full certainty about FCP’s 10-bit internal processing.

Vegas has supported 10-bit output since many years, and uncompressed at least since Blackmagic released their 10-bit Windows codec. Unfortunately, Vegas will internally truncate the output of any effects or transitions to 8-bit. These must be handled in Combustion or equivalent and put back on the timeline in 10-bit, after which Vegas can render to any supported 10-bit codec without loss.

My concern is that having a 10-bit codec doesn’t guarantee that the internal effects and transitions output true 10-bit. It didn’t in Vegas.

I like the extra latitude in post that 10-bit gives me, even as the eventual rendering will be in 8-bit. It’s not that it gives me a “better picture” as much as it is giving me more freedom in color correction and other post processing.

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

Yes, BJ, you’re right that the existence of a 10 bit codec doesn’t guarantee anything. But this is practically a FCP specific codec developed when FCP got its’ new render engine, it’s a different story (although is totally compatible with BMD 10 bit codec). Remember that the low cost 10 bit revolution started with FCP/Kona in 2002 (Blackmagic wrote the drivers for it). At the time (FCP v3), FCP was at a simliar point to the one you discribe for Vegas – 10 bit capture, but no 10 bit processing. In V4 this changed and this was aknnowledged in so many places I wouldn’t know where to look at. If it helps, I can send you a screenshot of the video processing settings window, the one where you choose 8 bit RGB, 8 bit YUV, or high precision YUV (float) for 8 and 10 bit YUV sources. If I remeber correctly, some developers have pointed out that some effects seem to indeed truncate to 8 bit, but that’s not a limitation of the render engine itself. Still not sure? Do this simple test: Go to any FCP suite or demo system (including a Firewire DV one), generate a gradient with FCP’s gradient or highlight generators, turn high precision on and off and watch banding artifacts appear and disappear 🙂

Also FCP’s manual is quite good, and they write it assuming they already sold you the product, right?

Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires – Argentina
https://www.adolforozenfeld.com
adolfo@adolforozenfeld.com

[Adolfo Rozenfeld]

One more thing: Besides all the information I just wrote, I have no real proof that at some point FCP doesn’t do an 8 bit trick. It would be strange, but who knows? Apparently it doesn’t. But it’s not that important. What’s important is that when it’s performing the color correction or other effects, it is indeed working in a super wide color space. I have done convincing color correction with it (no curves though) and its’ amazing to watch it doing CC on 10 bit uncompressed or even HD in RT. The interface is deceivably simple. The fact that it’s now getting better (probably from Shake?) scaling/rotation algorithms removes the last black spot. Oh, the masking is awful. But usually good enough for color correction garbage mattes.

Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires – Argentina
https://www.adolforozenfeld.com
adolfo@adolforozenfeld.com

[Bob Cole]

[J Smith] “Are you aware that digitizing is not yet 100% frame accurate?”

I’m a prospective buyer of a Decklink, for PP.

Digitizing from an EDL is an important feature for me; are you saying that the Decklink is not capable of frame-accurate digitizing? Could you please describe the circumstances and details of deck control that aren’t working?

— Bob Cole