[Jonathan Lutjens]

Aaaaand, too quick again.

I just pickwhipped the value for m to a slider control. Bam!

Thanks so much, Dan! Very elegant and cool.

If you have the time, I would still like to see how this thing works. I’d love to learn more.

Adios,

Jon

[Jonathan Lutjens]

I responded a bit quickly to that last one.

Apologies, I’m not able to discern how you would make the months cycle through (Jan-Feb-Mar) over time using the code you posted.

Mas info?

Thank you.

[Jonathan Lutjens]

Thanks for the quick response, Dan.

Would you have time to quickly explain that to me? I’d like to learn how it works if I can.

Thanks!

Jon

[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.

[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]

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]

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.

[Jonathan Lutjens]

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.

[Jonathan Lutjens]

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.

[Jonathan Lutjens]

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.