[Chris Tomberlin]

[Jeff Bernstein] “the boys from downunder forgot to post this development”

Kind of a major thing to forget isn’t it? Thanks for the heads up..

-Chris Tomberlin

Chris Tomberlin
Editor/Compositor/Owner
OutPost Pictures

[Chris Tomberlin]

I’m just using the good ‘ole component input card – SD and HD for about $300. It works great taking the component out from the Kona2 into the monitor. OHH, one HUGE thing I forgot to mention. On the Sony, it did NOT appear to switch color matrixes when switching from SD to HD and back. If you set the monitor up to bars (for instance) in SD, then switched to HD, HD bars would show up out of whack on the monitor. On the JVC, it switches automatically so bars look correct in both HD and SD.

-chris

Chris Tomberlin
Editor/Compositor/Owner
OutPost Pictures

[Chris Tomberlin]

Well, contrary to conventional wisdom, the JVC monitors are at least as good as (and in some cases better) than the Sony monitors. In fact, I have just replaced a Sony PVM L5 14″ with a JVC DT-V1710. The JVC looks better, and does not suffer from interference problems (mainly from the earth’s magnetic field) that I was getting with the Sony. At least with some things, Sony is not really the company it used to be.

-Chris

[Chris Tomberlin]

Joe,

Did you ever get this worked out? I’m using MainConcept and having the same problem. I’m trying to do the exact same thing you are and would really like to know if you found out the best way to do it.

Thanks
Chris

[Chris Tomberlin]

[lexerton] “Is the media manager really that bad?” YES!

[lexerton] “I still don’t quite understand why SDI reconform would be better than using the original firewire footage – after all its just cloning the DVCam, right?”

I’ve done many tests with this and can confidently say that you well get much better results loading stuff back in via SDI to 10-bit uncompressed than going from DV to uncompressed in the computer – ESPECIALLY in terms of color correction. I’ve done many short films for one client exactly this way. Footage originated on a DVX100 (24p miniDV). We offline at DV, but reload everything via SDI to 10bit uncompressed. I’ve compared the results, the SDI route is better. I think probably because the deck is doint a hardware “upres” versus doing it in software. You can do the test yourself. Load something via firewire, then load the same shot via SDI to 10bit. Blow up both shots if you need to, then A/B the two clips. The 10bit WILL look better, especially in the reds.

[lexerton] “If I uprez it to 10bit for effects and colour correction all the processing will be done in 10bit space but surely you can’t make DVCam footage better either way?”

Again, I think the difference here is hardware versus software conversions. Loading it in via SDI to uncompressed won’t make it better than it was originally, but it will definitely give you better results for color correction. Trust me on this one.

Chris Tomberlin
OutPost Pictures

[Chris Tomberlin]

[Jeff Bernstein] “I think Chris is trying to find relief from the Gamma issues that are currently present in the 5.x drivers for Blackmagic.”
You found me out. That’s exactly what I’m trying to do.

[Jeff Bernstein] “When they moved away from their codec and started relying on the Apple codec, that’s when things went wacky.”

Yep. But don’t AJA cards use the Apple codec? The problems I’m having are not in converting between 601 and 709 color space, but between 601 RGB and 601 YUV. All my problems have been in SD so far. Basically, I can’t get a consistent, linear gamma when moving between FCP and AE. There was also a problem with gamma from AE being output to the preview monitor one way and rendering another. A real problem for color correction.

So, am I hearing that none of these problems exist with the Kona2?

Thanks
Chris Tomberlin
OutPost Pictures

[Chris Tomberlin]

Felix,

Yeah got the same **!#$&##$ thing here. Looks like somebody at BMD maybe didn’t “get the memo” on some of the fixes done in 5.01r2. The crazy green lines are back when you take something from FCP into AE and put it into 16bit mode, AND there is no option for rendering to the old BMD 10-bit codec, just the screwy apple 10-bit codec. Almost makes you want to buy an Avid…

Chris Tomberlin
OutPost Pictures

[Chris Tomberlin]

If you could send me a single full resolution frame, or a link to a frame, I could run it through the same tests I’ve done with the ramp and see if the gamma changes at all on the scope…

FYI, AE was displaying gamma incorrectly with the original 5.0 BMD drivers. You would see a difference between the AE video preview and the FCP video out, but the render would be correct. That has been fixed in the 5.01 drivers.

Chris Tomberlin
OutPost Pictures
outpostpictures(at)mac.com

[Chris Tomberlin]

Florian,

Where did your DPX files originate? What system were they captured on?

Thanks
Chris Tomberlin
OutPost Pictures

[Chris Tomberlin]

Early on in this lengthy gamma trouble shooting process, I did a gamma test and included Motion into the mix. I’ll have to do the test again, but at one point, Motion handled the curves correctly too – at least to the video preview output. See this thread:

https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=124&postid=855644&theadid=855577&pview=t

Florian mentioned that only Shake “seems to know what to do”. If Motion handles it correctly as well, then we can be sure that Apple has made a change and expects developers to adapt. We’ll have to move all these threads over to the After Effects forum..

Chris Tomberlin
OutPost Pictures