Kevin Cannon
Forum Replies Created
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[stig olsen] “Ok, but I think you can work full rang anyway because that way you can scale the full range file to legal levels in any mastering tool outside of DaVinci. That preserves the black levels made in “full range mode” without clipping.”
That’s exactly what you do inside of DaVinci when you select legally scaled data levels in the render window, or apply a scaling output LUT, or DaVinci will do this automatically when going to certain codecs. Davinci does the math in 0-1023 while grading, then scales it on the render as needed or specified.
KC
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I’m not saying you should monitor normally scaled – you should set it to the one that is correct for your display and configuration – if it creates problems then it’s probably not correct. You should send color bars to external scopes and the display to be sure that the signal is as expected, but once it is correctly set up, you should get consistent “what you see is what you get” results.
KC
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Hi Stig,
Here’s my understanding: resolve always works in full-range internally. In order to accommodate workflows that use monitoring, scopes, and tape decks that expect broadcast-legal levels, they put the button in the config > monitoring section (also one in config > deck playback) that allows you to scale just the monitoring/deck output from Resolve’s internal full-range and output broadcast levels via the Decklink card. So what I’m doing is nothing special – I’m just turning the monitoring switch to “normally scaled.”
This won’t affect renders – renders will be scaled if you add an output LUT that scales them, or change the data level in the render window. Often Resolve scales the levels based on the codec you are going to. There are other threads on those specifics.
When I say that your display would be set up to accept legal or full range, I mean in the actual settings and calibration of the display, which could read something like “range:64-940” “0-1023” “16-235” etc. I’m not familiar with the menus of the OLED or BT300 – and it’s possible that setting the OLED to “Rec. 709” already sets this range and there is no separate option.
You should see the same image on-screen with the monitor set to 64-940 and resolve set to legally scaled as you would with the monitor set to 0-1023 and resolve set to unscaled.
KC
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[stig olsen] “This is exactly why I dont understand why we should use this normal range button.”
Hi Stig,
That button (under config>monitoring, right?) only affects the monitoring output, and not the renders. So if your displays are set up to accept only broadcast legal levels, you would select that regardless of what you are delivering. A lot of displays can be set up to accept either full or legal. In my case, my external scopes function properly at legal levels, so I work internally in Resolve in full-range, and then monitor in legal with the displays set up for legal. But I still can choose to render full or scaled when I go to output…
If your displays and scopes are expecting full range and the folks trafficking the commercial work with full range… then I don’t think you would need to use that button.
KC
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I bought two of these (the standard) for a 58″ plasma:
https://www.cinemaquestinc.com/ideal_lumesb.htm
Might still have to use ND to be precise…
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Single-box win/mac solutions may never catch up to multi-box linux set-ups but I expect it won’t be long before single-box setups run 4K effectively and Linux will start to only distinguish itself only in 4K 3D, 48/60 FPS 4K features, and some specialty higher-than-4K DI situations. Which is probably reason enough for it to live on…
I think there will be a small explosion of new hardware configs being tested in the next couple months, with new processors, GPUs, and PCI 3.0 motherboards… I’m hoping that BM is testing these and gives us some good config updates as v9.0 comes around.
KC
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Agreed, but:
– The Decklink 4K still needs to actually ship… Since it’s been pushed back quarter after quarter I wonder if there is some kind of problem?
– For 4K projection, the options are more like Barco, Christie (NEC?). There wasn’t a single working 4K prototype of the Red Laser projector as of NAB and I think it’s more likely to fall into the home cinema market than to be useful for color grading… I didn’t see any claims about being DCI compliant and Red hasn’t been forthcoming on the underlying technology and how consistent it might be.
I’m not sure about the math here, perhaps one of our GPU experts can chime in, but it seems like 4K RGB images going out and back in from 3 GPUs will approach some limitation on the PCI bandwidth on some stations (like the current Mac Pro)… I imagine that as new systems become PCI 3.0 that we’ll see an improvement here. The Blackmagic system config guide for windows has one system that is certified for 4K, and I think the main difference is that each GPU (they recommend the 580) can have a dedicated 16x slot…
But I think the Decklink 4K is the only necessary component that you can’t currently buy.
KC
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PCI 3.0 if backwards compatible, so you can stick any PCI 3.0 card in a PCI 2.0 slot and it will run at PCI 2.0 speed… there’s just no Mac support for the 680 and 690…
…for now?
KC
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Hi Chris,
While Resolve connects clips in the timeline to the media pool based on just timecode (and reel name), I think the XML media import uses filenames and other info…
Have you tried bringing in the DPX media manually into a media pool folder, then do the XML import and deselecting media import? You could then reconform from folders (if necessary) and select your folder with the DPX.
Not totally sure but I occasionally have trouble with the XML import and find it faster to manually import a few folders…
KC
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I hope I’m following correctly – It’s quite possible that the picture data in the file is legally scaled (64-940 in 10-bit) but that Resolve is interpreting the file as if it were full-range. Because Resolve works internally in full range, it would NOT scale a file that it thinks is full-range, resulting in the flat look. When you change your monitoring, you are previewing what it would look like if it were scaled.
However, you don’t want to make this change in the monitoring section, since your monitor is set up to accept a full-range signal. Try right-clicking on the file in the media pool and changing the “data level.” It is probably set to “Auto” but you can manually change it to “legal” or “unscaled.” Perhaps one or the other will force Resolve to interpret it the correct way…
And then ensure that you are not clipping – this is assuming that your telecine isn’t giving you log or something like that and it’s just a levels issue…
KC