Thomas Schöbinger
Forum Replies Created
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Okay, at least now I know. Thank you all a lot for the help.
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Yeah, so that’s the conclusion: Always AMA-link and transcode.
What’s the deal with that? If Avid has a newer method of converting the footage, which preserves more quality, doesn’t mess with the gamma (as you can see in the waveform-picture I posted) and even goes a lot faster, why is there still the import option, or, why don’t they change the import option so that it is as good as AMA-linking and transcoding? If you are not familiar with those facts it seems much more convenient to always click on import when you are planning to transcode the footage anyway.
Or is this some particular issue only occuring with h.264/DSLR footage?
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The color levels also aren’t the issue. It’s DSLR footage, import settings are RGB. If I select Rec709 when importing, the blacks are crushed but besides that the image looks just as bad, with heavy blocking. Transcoding via AMA is also a lot faster. Retranscoding my whole footage wasn’t really a big deal.
There seems to be another difference between import and Ama-link-transcode:
The Image shows the RGB-Parade of a black to white gradient I created in AE. As you can see, importing changes the gamma, while transcoding keeps everything as is. The gradient is RGB, thus 0-255. Why is it that the AMA-linked clip is still displayed as 16-235?
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Okay, apparently the issue goes away if I do not import the footage, but transcode the AMA-linked clips. Looks way better. What exactly is the difference between these two methods of ingest? They both convert the footage to DNxHD, don’t they?
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No, I’m on a PC so I guess importing ProRes won’t work. Still, I tried importing as XDCAM HD which looks somewhat different. More noisy, therefore less banding.
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No, the transcoding while export surely isn’t the issue. I just tried exporting both the transcoded frame and the AmA-linked one separately and it looks exactly the same. The difference is already visible inside Avid, the export doesn’t really change anything.
I’m not saying that the transcoding itself makes the footage look as horrible as in the picture. The difference only really becomes visible when color correction or other effects like keying are applied. Both frames that I posted where at some point transcoded to DNxHD, since I exported them from Avid, the only difference is that in the above picture it happened after making the picture black and white and modifying the luma curve.
