Khashyar Darvich
Forum Replies Created
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I do want to compliment AJA customer service and support that they will be sending me a new replacement unit to test whether there is a defect in the hardware.
I do appreciate their effort to solve and deal with the issue.
Producer-Director
Wakan Films
Hollywood, CA
http://www.wakan.com -
The AJA representative wrote me that they are processing and testing all of the information that they received about the issue.
He will get back to me regarding if they feel confident whether it is an AJA hardware issue.
In the meantime, they are sending me a replacement unit (which I appreciate, but I would like to know what their best assessment is regarding what has caused this issue.
Has anyone else receive a bad AJA unit that cause artifacts during upscaling?
Thank you for everyone’s feedback.
Producer-Director
Wakan Films
Hollywood, CA
http://www.wakan.com -
Just an update… I’ve been emailing back and forth with AJA, and the support representative thinks that I might have a defective unit… One one hand, I hope that the new unit results in no artifacts, but on the second hand, it would be a drag to have to re-upscale and re-apply all of the color correction filters. But, iTunes has its specs and rules.
Producer-Director
Wakan Films
Hollywood, CA
http://www.wakan.com -
Hi Everyone…
There is another HP branded color calibration device (which I saw on ebay today) which I am not sure works with the Dreamcolor.
But, it is worth investigating for Dreamcolor owners:
It is called the “HP Advanced Profiling Solution”
Perhaps someone who has experience with it can share their experience.
Producer-Director
Wakan Films
Hollywood, CA
http://www.wakan.com -
You’re welcome, Roei…
It’s hard to understand why HP sells such a popular high end monitor, and then discontinues the necessary calibration equipment for it.
I suppose they are not thinking of the needs of video editors, and assume that most users will calibrate via a Mac’s OS preferences with the generic calibration tool (which is cheaper than HP’s identical version).
In case I didn’t make it clear above, the HP Dreamcolor will NOT recognize the generic x-rite calibration tool from the monitor’s USB port as it does with it’s identical (but HP branded) model…
HP wanted you to buy their HP branded tool but now have strangely and inconveniently discontinued it.
Producer-Director
Wakan Films
Hollywood, CA
http://www.wakan.com -
Hi Roei (and Everyone)…
I’m enjoying and appreciating the Dreamcolor monitor now… I compare it to my crt monitor, and find that once it’s calibrated to a 709 color spec, that the white point is very close to the professional crt I am using.
One thing that I learned that I didn’t know before I bought the Dreamcolor Z27x is that you need the HP banded x-rite calibrating tool to calibrate the settings on the monitor itself (and cannot use the x-rite non-HP branded calibration device).
With the non-HP branded x-rite calibration tool (the “X-Rite i1Display Pro”), you can certainly calibrate the monitor and save the color settings within your Mac color profile settings, but if you connect a professional video breakout box (like the AJA io/xt) so that you can send a true video signal to the monitor, the monitor cannot read the color profile settings that reside on the MAC, and use its built in color and calibrated settings instead.
So. with the HP branded x-rite tool (https://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist.jsp&A=details&Q=&sku=1021209&is=REG&fromDisList=y), you can plug in into the USB port on the monitor itself and the monitor’s menu will guide you to calibrate the monitor (you don’t need your computer connected).
But, the problem is that this HP branded x-rite tool has been discontinued, so I had to buy one on Ebay…
With the non-HP branded x-rite, you cannot calibrate via the hardware of the monitor itself, so its essentially useless if you are editing using a video breakout box that sends an hdmi or other video signal to your monitor.
So,if you own a Dreamcolor, search for a used “HP DreamColor Color Calibration Solution” (which is made by x-rite) and buy it.
Producer-Director
Wakan Films
Hollywood, CA
http://www.wakan.com -
Hi Frank…
Much success and luck with your project.
I also will have one of those decades long film projects that we will be resume working on after we finish our current project.
Based on what I’ve been experiencing and research, here are some thoughts about your situation:
1) I have read that Sony DVCAM decks (with the upscaling card) do a pretty good job at upscaling. If it does a DVCAM to 1080 upscale, then definitely try that and bring it in via SDI into your AJA.
I just checked your model of AJA (lo Express), and as you probably know, it can down-convert but not upscale. In the ideal world, it would be interesting to see how the Sony 1800a upscale compares with the AJA upscale hardware.
2) If you have the choice to upscale to 720 or 1080, you should definitely upscale to 1080, since that is the standard delivery and consumer format (until 4k becomes more consumer friendly).
3) If you have tens or hundreds of hours of footage, and don’t have the hard drive capacity to store all of the upscaled DV footage to 1080, then I would recommend doing an offline edit in SD, then upscaling only the footage that will make the final cut and do an HD online edit.
Good luck.
Producer-Director
Wakan Films
Hollywood, CA
http://www.wakan.com -
For anyone who wants to upscale DV (or SD) footage to 1080, I would definitely recommend:
1) Using hardware over software. As I mentioned in my previous post, I did tests comparing DV to 1080i upscaled footage with After Effects (using the Red Giant Instant HD plugin) and a hardware upscale using the AJA io xt, and the AJA had less noise, more detail and more color depth than the upscaled footage using AE/RG. The prices of hardware are coming down, and we bought our AJA io xt from BHPhoto for $1295 a couple of weeks ago.
2) going SDI out of your DV or SD tape deck and SDI into the AJA… I have read that the Sony DVCAM tape decks (that have SDI out) do a very good job of converting the DV codec into a larger color space so that the AJA has more depth to work with as it upscales. We recently purchased a clean used Sony DSR-1500a (with SDI out) and with low hours on ebay for $250. We took some time waiting and watching items coming up for auction, but there are good similar decks for $350 or less.
Producer-Director
Wakan Films
Hollywood, CA
http://www.wakan.com -
I just did a test upscaling DV footage from our Sony DSR 1500A (SDI out) to the AJA io xt (SDI in), and using the AJA upscale feature to go from 525i 29.97 to 1080i 29.97 (Apple ProRes 422 HQ: which is the only codec that the AJA software uses for 1080)…
I compared scenes from the AJA upconversion to the 1080 upscale I did with After Effects (using the Red Giant Instant HD plugin)…
…and the Red Giant software upconversion appears to have more artifacts in its footage than the AJA upscaled footage does.
More specifically, the AE/RG footage had:
1) more visible jagged edges (than did the AJA footage)
2) less detail (The AJA footage seemed to interpolate detail better…. On some of the AE/RG footage that had lots of details, there were more artifacts in the detail)
3) the color depth seems to be better in the AJA upscaled footage. Some of this might be because the AJA footage is ProRes 422 HQ
This is what I’ve noticed so far.
Producer-Director
Wakan Films
Hollywood, CA
http://www.wakan.com -
Hi Frank,
I’m in the process of running tests now…
I purchased a used Sony DSR-1500A (with SDI out), and I am trying to run SDI out from the 1500a into the AJA io xt….
I’m using the FCP 7 “log and capture” window, and am getting audio, but the video was there for a minute, then I am getting a black screen…
I will let you know how the quality of the AJA hardware upscale compares with the After Effects/Instant HD software upconvert once I can get the AJA to upscale.
Producer-Director
Wakan Films
Hollywood, CA
http://www.wakan.com