[Nick Dupont]

Hi all,

thx for replies! Well Andrew, I was ahead of you 🙂 I tried it in motion setting the project to 32-bit float, but still same problem there, but i guess that is just because it uses the same plugin as final cut (I have version 7 by the way). I really believe it has something to do with the blur method used by final cut is not that good.

Hey Rafael, I also thought of that posibility, but then the effect that I wanted to create is not going to be like what I had in mind, but let’s give it a shot. OK, so I did a little quick test, I changed the blur radius to 6. The banding is still there. Now I am quickly switching the guasian blur on and off. Yes, when it is turned of the banding disappears. Ok, let’s try another blur. Directional blur, set amount to 6…banding is there, but not that obvious..set amount to max 32… banding is visibly present. Let’s do colorcorrection, set mid tones level to 171, lets set saturation to 187. … I can’t see any color banding (just h264 some compression artifacts from the source material).. even though I gained the image alot, if there was banding in the footage it should be visible right away now… right?
Well, I can only conclude from this that the blur effects in final cut don’t really do a good job. Any advice for me? Hey! Why don’t you guys try it too? the h264 source file can be downloaded here (prores was too big, will have to transcode yourself, is used prores 442 HQ 1920×1080 30P): https://www.kitara.be/temp/MVI_0268.MOV

Kind Regards!
Nick

It’s not the software that matters, it’s the editor that does the magic.

[Nick Dupont]

Hi Rafael,

thx for the reply, I am at the office and just went upstairs to try it out on a broadcast monitor through SDI. So, i created a new project (prores 422 HQ 1920×1080 30p), set sequence render settings to 10-bit for all material, put the prores file on the timeline, applied the guassian blur effect (radius 100), turned my broadcast monitor on, we have a blackmagic Decklink HD Extreme. Set the output to BlackMagic PAL 10-bit, All Frames. aaaand… I still see banding on the broadcast monitor (doublechecked all settings again…). In the meanwhile a colleage opened up Vegas 9 on his win station, set his project to 32-bit float, loaded up the original h264 from camera in timeline, applied a blur effect (don’t know what blur, suppose this is also guassian) and on his broadcast monitor the image is smooth and fine…. this is a shocker! (I also tried working with the original h264 in final cut, after render on 10-bit timeline, same result, color banding!!)

It’s not the software that matters, it’s the editor that does the magic.

[Nick Dupont]

Hi Rafael,

Well, at first I thought that was the problem, since i was on a MacbookPro early 2008 model (which have the crappy 6-bit screens), but then I went to a Mac Pro with two Cinema HD displays, and the banding was twice as obvious on those. So Unless the Cinema HD monitors are 8-bit, I don’t think it’s a screen issue.

Kind Regards,
Nick

It’s not the software that matters, it’s the editor that does the magic.