Archive for the ‘DNxHD’ Category

RAW CinemaDNG (from BMCC) to CIneformRAW for DaVinci Resolve via RAW4Pro+CIneform

Saturday, March 22nd, 2014

Suppose you have some RAW footage, in CinemaDNG format (a number-sequenced set of [.dng] files), for example shot on a Blackmagic Cinema Camera (BMCC).  Compared to “visually lossless” say ProRes or DNxHD (let alone H264 etc.), CinemaDNG occupies an awful lot of disk space, primarily because it is mathematically lossless.  The GoPro-CineformRAW encoding format offers significant reductions in file size (and hence data rate) at the cost of a practically negligible loss of visual information (and a purchase price).  This codec can be purchased as part of the GoPro Studio Premium product.  A comparison-grid of the various GoPro Studio products is here.

CineformRAW is an attractive compression-format, but unless care is applied to some very technical-level encoding options/settings, compatibility problems can arise when importing to DaVinci Resolve.  The latter is in widespread use but is especially relevant to BMCC owners because it is supplied as free software with that camera.  I experienced such problems myself: one version of Resolve (v.10.0) interpreted CineformRAW clips as green-tinted, while another (v.10.1) just gave black frames.

Happily, a simple solution existed: RAW4Pro, which is essentially a front-end to CineformRAW (and also to DNxHD, useful e.g. if you want HD proxies).

Summary:

  • Install
    • A product incorporating the GoPro-Cineform RAW codec.
    • The RAW4Pro utility
      • Essentially a front-end to generate CineformRAW and also to generate HD (e.g. as proxies) as DNxHD, in each case in either MOV or AVI container-formats.
  • Run RAW4Pro
    • Select (Browse-to) input-folder, output folder.
    • Select:
      • Sound: Audio-Merge
        • Initially, extract audio from source file to a WAV file, then merge this audio in with the generated file.  The WAV file remains, regardless.
        • The alternative (if not enabled) is no audio in the generated file (and no WAV file).
      • Processing: Convert-Only
      • Quality: Fine
        • Clicking the [?] button reveals that this creates 10-bit Log (colour-channel resolution).
      • Video Format:
        • Cineform RAW (encoding format)
        • MOV (container format)
        • LUT: NoneClick the [Process Clip] button.
  • Result:
    • A movie file with name prefixed by :R4P_” and suffixed by “_sound”, incorporating both video (10-bit Log) and audio tracks.
    • An audio WAV file, similarly prefixed,  generated as a “side effect”, may or may not be useful to you, can be deleted.

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Cineform and Alpha Channels

Friday, August 31st, 2012

The full (paid) version of GoPro-Cineform Neo (as I have) does support alpha channels.

(A colleague initially thought otherwise – but that impression turned out to be based on info from old forum threads)

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Video with 10-Bit Channels

Thursday, July 5th, 2012

If I had a 10-bit video recording such as from the PIX 240, would I know what to do with it, in order to make full use of the 10-bit information?  This question is important, because it cannot be assumed that this is simply a case of inputting it into any arbitrary nonlinear editing system (NLE) – not all NLEs preserve the extra information – and even for those that do, the workflow and configuration must be set up appropriately.  And even having got that right, how can we verify all is working as expected?  Can the NLE’s own effects and waveform monitors etc. be trusted to preserve the extra bits?

Having discovered some sample 10-bit footage at http://www.sounddevices.com/products/pix240/sample_files/ (as reported at http://blog.davidesp.com/archives/570), I was prompted to do some experiments in a few NLEs.   I based the experiments on the following two DNxHD files, as recorded by a PIX 240, both 1920x1080p29.97 and around half a minute in duration.

  • dnxhd220mb_8_29.97.mov = 8-bit
  • dnxhd220mb_10_29.97.mov = 10-bit

The comparison was based on an area of sky at the top-left of frame (in each case), with its (limited) levels-range mapped to full video range, so as to make 8-bit quantization-banding appear.

Conclusions (as far as I can tell from experiments):

  • Adobe Premiere:
    • Propagates the 10-bit footage’s information, achieving better image quality than for the 8-bit footage.
      • However this only happens when correctly configured and then only for certain effects.
    • The Fast Color Corrector levels-mapping appears to introduce some kind of dithering.
      • Hence while the expected banding is visible for 8-bit footage, it is slightly “blurred” on the Waveform Monitor and the resulting image looks more ragged than banded.
      • Nevertheless, the 10-bit footage through this same process has no such banding at all, and resulting the image looks obviously better.
      • None of the cases at http://blogs.adobe.com/VideoRoad/2010/06/understanding_color_processing.html apply here since no blur effect was used.
    • The result of Fast Color Corrector levels-mapping on 10-bit footage result also looks slightly brighter than that on 8-bit footage – presumably a mapping-inconsistency in Premiere?
    • Some other non-obvious pitfalls exist when making such comparisons:
  • Sony Vegas 10
    • Ignores the extra information in the 10-bit footage, evem for Project Settings of 32-bit.
  • Avid Symphony 6
    • AMA appears to truncate to 8-bit, at least it seems so based on what appears in Avid’s Waveform monitor.
    • Import of the given DNxHD-220 to Avid-Import-DNxHD-220 appears to give same result.
    • I assume I am missing something here, some knowledge and/or step and/or monitoring method…

The configurations I used within each application:

  • Sony Vegas 10:
    • Project Properties
      • 1920x1080p29.97. Not automatically readable by Vegas from the DNxHD format.
      • Pixel Format: 32-bit floating point (video levels)
    • Waveform Monitor via: Video Scopes > Waveform
    • Sky-range mapped to full range via: Sony Levels FX
  • Adobe Premiere CS 5.5:
    • Computer had a non Mercury Engine compatible GPU hence software-only graphics / effects processing.
    • Waveform Monitor via: Reference Monitor > YC Waveform
    • Sky-range mapped to full range via: Fast Color Corrector > Input Levels
      • (Prior to that tried various “Levels” effects but they did not work properly in this context)
    • Sequence Setting: Maximum Bit Depth (else levels-resolution was truncated to 8-bit)
  • Avid Symphony (hence presumably also Media Composer) 6

Migrating Media (and Projects) from FCP to Avid

Saturday, September 24th, 2011

Migrating Media (and Projects) from FCP to Avid:

NLE Handling of 10-Bit Recordings

Friday, September 23rd, 2011

There exist various HD-SDI device to record 10-Bit 422 video data.  10 bits is useful for shallow gradients especially when expanded (steeper contrast curve) by grading, while 422 gives better detail, that can matter when pixels are big (e.g. when close to a big screen or when digital zoom employed in post).  In any case, such recorders tend to compress less than on-board camera systems, or in some cases not at all, improving the quality.  But to what extent can the various NLEs cope with this?  From my web searches it seems that the answer is “sometimes”.  For example some NLEs will accept 10-bit only in their own favourite formats, otherwise they discard two bits, interpreting the footage as 8-bit.  One might (naively) have thought the way to be sure was to experiment – but there is plenty of room for confusion when doing experiments, for example Avid’s color correction tool allegedly only displays to 8-bit resolution even when it is importing/processing/exporting at 10-bit.  Other “loopholes” may exist, like it seems (if I understand it correctly) that if you AMA or import 10-bit ProRes then Avid only sees 8-bit, implying one needs instead to transcode ProRes->DNxHD externally (e.g. via MPEG StreamClip?) and import that.  But even that might not be possible, as one post suggested DNxHD 10-bit encoding could only work from Avid, not external apps.   Furthermore, whereas all ProRes formats handle 10-bit, for DNxHD, only formats with an “x” suffix do; the only one I know of is DNxHD 220x.  There exist further subtleties/loopholes/pitfalls, hence more research to be done on this… and I’ll tread very carefully…

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Avid MC: Bundled Tools & Apps: Their Purpose

Thursday, September 8th, 2011

When you purchase Avid Media Composer, you also get a set of other applications, whose purpose (at least to the newbie) is not immediately obvious.  So I did some investigation and produced a summary of them, as below.  I have no experience of actually using them, I just trawled ReadMe files and (mostly) the web.  Here are my (interim) conclusions:

  • Avid TransferManager – Is e.g. for uploading to a Playback Server [http://blog.davidesp.com/archives/274]
  • AMA – the camera-specific AMA Plugins (e.g. for Sony XDCAM) are no longer bundled with MC, you have to download and install them separately. [http://blog.davidesp.com/archives/316]
  • Avid MetaSync automates the inclusion of metadata (expressed in suitable XML formats) into Avid editing systems, including synchronisation with video and audio. The metadata can be anything from subtitles / closed captioning to synchronized entertainments such as lightshows or simulator rides.   [http://blog.davidesp.com/archives/334]
  • Avid MetaFuze’s primary, if not only purpose is to prep files for Media Composer use – an “outboard importer”.  Avid’s article at http://www.avid.com/US/industries/workflow/MetaFuze summarises it nicely.  Though bundled with Media Composer, it is also available free. That means for example that preprocessing work (e.g. generation of burnt-timecode proxies and online files) can be generated (e.g. in DNxHD) by anyone whether or not they have an Avid system.  Potentially then a great option for breaking up work into collaborative / parallel workflows. [http://blog.davidesp.com/archives/335]
  • Sorenson Squeeze – a well-known compressor/encoder, bundled as part of Avid Media Composer (MC) but also an independent product in its own right. Avid MC5.5 specifies version v6.04 but further updates are available from Sorenson itself.  There is a free-to-Avid-users update from v6.x to v6.5.  The latest version is v7.0 (with CUDA).  Presumably these later versions are officially unsupported by Avid (but how much does that matter in practice?). [http://blog.davidesp.com/archives/337]
  • Avid EDL Manager imports and exports EDL (in various flavours) – from/to a bin (e.g. thumbnails storyboard layout?) (or a Sequence or MXF file?).  It can be run stand-alone or from within Avid.  EDLs are somewhat of a hangover from the past, so it’s unlikely to be of much use in my case, but worth knowing about as an option, and as such still features in other people’s current workflows. [http://blog.davidesp.com/archives/350]
  • Avid Film Scribe generates Cut Lists and Change Lists (used in transfer from video edit to film edit) in more contemporary formats than EDL, e.g. XML formats involved in VFX / DPX workflows (? I am on very unfamiliar ground here ?).  It can generate such formats from a Sequence and also it can be used to translate between some formats.[http://blog.davidesp.com/archives/352]
  • Avid Log Exchange (ALE) is an Avid log file format that has become a de facto standard in the post industry. It is a text-based metadata exchange format used in applications from telecine to standalone logging applications, and is supported by many NLEs.  The ALE format is based on a Comma or Tab -delimited file format. [http://blog.davidesp.com/archives/353]
  • Avid After Effects EMP is (not a disruptive elctronic weapon but) an Avid-supplied plugin for Adobe After Effects allowing that application to use a DNA family video output box such as Mojo (“ordinaire”) or Nitris to provide External Monitor Preview (EMP) on a monitor.  Helpful in order to make use of that Avid box for the Adobe After Effects application, both for convenience and consistency.  Unfortunately it does not work with the more recent DX family, such as the Mojo DX box. [http://blog.davidesp.com/archives/354]
  • The Avid DNA Diags application is for diagnostics on DNA family e.g. Mojo “ordinaire” (not DX) [http://blog.davidesp.com/archives/355]
  • The Avid Quicktime Codecs extend QuickTime for encoding and decoding to/from Avid codecs such as DNxHD.  Essentially they add such formats to QuickTime on your system.  The LE codecs are “Light Edition” – only needed on systems where Avid is not already installed.   [http://blog.davidesp.com/archives/356]
  • Avid Media Log is a standalone app supplied with Avid systems enabling assistants on non-Avid machines to select and log raw (as opposed to RAW) footage in a manner that can easily be transferred into an Avid session/system elsewhere, where the result appears as an Avid Project.  Apparently, Media Log is much like the digitize tool on Media Composer.  But I’ve never used that either… It can output e.g. to ALE (explained below) and hence e.g to other NLEs.  [http://blog.davidesp.com/archives/357]
  • Misc “Avid Downloads” (?) Looking at  my Avid Downloads page, there is a much larger list of items than I expected, and suspect that many of them are not relevant.  For example, what is Avid Deko?  It’s listed on my Avid Downloads page, though I don’t know if I would be able to activate it, or whether it would be worth the trouble.  It’s listed as Deko 2200.  So I googled and YouTubed about it…  Impression: that version (2200) is very obsolete. [http://blog.davidesp.com/archives/332]
  • On my web “travels”, I discovered a great article entitled “The Avid Ecosystem” at [http://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/the-avid-ecosystem/], listing many of the resources for the Avid world: links, tutorials, filters, applications, training…
  • It’s helpful to see some of the above items in the context of illustrative workflows, e.g.:

Sony XDCAM-EX Hard Disk Recorder

Thursday, September 1st, 2011

I am interested in a new PHU-60 hard disk for my Sony XDCAM-EX video camera.  So what’s around, and what’s the cost?  While I’m at it, what other options are there, e.g. for recording off HD-SDI ?  From my web-research today, the answers seem to be:

  • PHU-60 is no longer supplied or supported by Sony, or hence their authorised service centres.
  • PHU-120 is however available, at just under £1K.
  • At that price I’m willing to consider alternatives… Depending on price and capacity of course.
    • Mend it?
    • Record to a standard hard disk?
    • Go instead for SxS etc., e.g. the cheaper alternatives.
    • Think bigger – go for a HD-SDI recorder, get better quality and more gradeable recordings!  But at what price?
  • (To be completed)

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Avid MC 5: Standalone Transcoders to Avid Formats

Sunday, August 21st, 2011

These are standalone tools I have seen (on web) others using to transcode from various formats into Avid formats such as DNxHD.  Of course, that’s also achievable from within Media Composer (e.g. by its Consolidate/Transcode feature), but a stand-alone tool encourages parallel, and hence possibly collaborative, workflows in post-production.

Avid Workflows with Cineform

Sunday, August 21st, 2011

Possibilities:

  • My presumption (yet to be tried):
    • Edit in Avid with AMA link to Cineform files and FirstLight open (simultaneously).  Do the primary grading in FirstLight, possibly via a parallel/collaborative workflow.
    • Later, Avid-import as Avid controlled media, at which point the Cineform files get transcoded to DNxHD or whatever and the primary grading gets baked-in (but can of course still be further tweaked in Avid).  For resilience and flexibility, retain the Cineform files (or at least the ability to regenerate them) and the FirstLight project file (which stores the grading data).

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Avid QuickTime Codecs

Monday, August 15th, 2011

The Avid Quicktime Codecs extend QuickTime for encoding and decoding to/from Avid codecs such as DNxHD.  Essentially they add such formats to QuickTime on your system.  The LE codecs are “Light Edition” – only needed on systems where Avid is not already installed.

Sony Vegas: Compression Formats for Digital Intermediates

Monday, August 8th, 2011

Compression formats for Digital Intermediates when using Sony Vegas:

  • http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=770173
    • Cineform for highest quality (smart-renderable)
      • Cineform (is great for transfer) between After Effects and Vegas.
    • MXF for almost the same quality at a fraction of the size.
      • MXF previews beautifully off small bus-powered USB 2 drives.
    • Quicktime .mov with png compression for anything with a transparent alpha layer.
    • Quicktime .mov with Avid DNxHD codec for Handbrake encoding intermediary and for working with the FCP world.

Details (again from the above link) about use of MXF:

  • The big thing with MXF is to make sure that you use it interlaced even (if) you are using progressive footage.  …set it using one of the interlaced templates but set the deinterlace method to none.
    • The reason this is important is that Vegas will only smart-render .mxf footage flagged as interlaced. If you set the MXF render properties to progressive, it won’t smart-render. If you set the properties to interlaced and select either blend fields or interpolate, it will screw up resizes and renders to other formats.
  • MXF with a smart-render is very cool. The format looks wonderful and no damage is done as you smart-render sections into a final piece.
    • MXF without a smart-render isn’t really good enough. MXF will not hold up to successive rerenders like Cineform or a lossless codec.

DNxHD update

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

DNxHD update http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=758767

  •  Previously applications utilizing the DNxHD codec on Westmere MacPro 12 core systems would crash. This has been fixed.
  • You can encode 720p50 DV100 in the DV100 QuickTime codec

Download from:

DNxHD for 1080p60

Monday, May 23rd, 2011
  •  DNxHD 440 is the 1080p 59.97 version of DNxHD

DNxHD: Non-standard framerate workaround (?)

Monday, May 2nd, 2011

What if one wants to encode a non-supported format in DNxHD?  For example double-framerate HD at 1080p 50 fps?  I typically produce such material by double-framerate deinterlacing from HD footage.  Some cameras are also starting to appear that record directly at 1080p 60 fps.  DNxHD config panel doesn’t give options for this – but there appears to be a workaround:

  • <<Because there was not a 59.94 fps Progressive option in the DNxHD config, I thought it was not allowed. I chose the 1080p 25fps option in the DNxHD config & 59.94 fps in the “Quicktime 7” panel – and it worked like a champ! All the way thru a HandBrake Render @ 59.94 fps.>
  • I have not yet confirmed this by experiment.

DNxHD vs Cineform for Non-Standard Format in Sony Vegas 9.0e (64-bit)

Sunday, May 1st, 2011

Summary:

  • Cineform copes nicely with non-standard formats but DNxHD does not.

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DNxHD vs Cineform for 1080-50i in Sony Vegas 9.0e (64-bit)

Sunday, May 1st, 2011

Summary of my conclusions from my own limited experiments based around Sony Vegas (9.0e 64-bit):

  • For HD 1080-50i, in its corresponding mode, DNxHD works as well as or better than Cineform.
  • However for non-standard formats (like Vimeo SD-Wide 853×480), DNxHD does not work well while Cineform does.
    • Confirmed by separate experiment, reported separately.
  • For my experiments (Sony Vegas 9.0e-64) the following DNxHD settings made no difference:
    • LevelSpace: RGB/709
    • Quality: 50% (default) or 100%

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DNxHD & 1080p50

Thursday, December 23rd, 2010

Avid DS allegedly supports it:

ffmpeg to transcode XDCAM-EX [.mp4] files to QT-DNxHD

Thursday, December 23rd, 2010

It is possible to use the open-source ffmpeg to transcode XDCAM-EX files to other formats, such as DNxHD.Information from http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-xdcam-ex-cinealta/112018-mfx-details-compatibility-what-about-ffmpeg.html as of 2010-12-23:

  •  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vcodec dnxhd -b 60Mb -acodec copy output.mov
    • 60Mbit is a 720p bitrate.
  • This is a good ffmpeg for pro users help site:
  • This is the command line I got from Baptiste who is developing the DNxHD stuff in ffmpeg.
    • Progressive:
      • fmpeg -i inputfile.mp4 -vcodec dnxhd -b 185Mb -acodec pcm_s16le outputfile.mov
    • Interlaced: (The difference is the -flags +ildct)
      • ffmpeg -i inputfile.mp4 -vcodec dnxhd -b 185Mb -flags +ildct -acodec pcm_s16le outputfile.mov
  • And this is a link to a DNxHD white paper:
  • We are thinking of using 36Mbit DNxHD but all people we talk to say to use 185Mbit or maybe 120Mbit and that 36Mbit is for offline.
  • But if you don’t have a problem using allot of GB on disc then go for Max Mbit for the specific resolution and framerate you use:
    • 1080p/25 DNxHD 185 1920 x 1080 8bit 25fps = -b 185Mb
    • 720p/50 DNxHD 175 1280 x 720 8bit 50fps = -b 90Mb
    • 1080i/50 DNxHD 185 1920 x 1080 8bit 25fps = -b 185Mb
  • More settings for other framerates:
    • http://www.itbroadcastanddigitalcine…#Encoding_VC-3
      • Had many commandlines and DNxHD settings, though sadly none for 1080p50 (as I require).
      • …and link is dead – as of 2016-08-18

Information from http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=130781

  •  FFmpeg is now providing Avid DNxHD (SMPTE VC-3) encoding and decoding features

DNxHD Tips

Saturday, November 20th, 2010

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=736849&Replies=34

  • Avid updated/fixed the DNxHD Codec Configuration Window with their Oct (2010) release…
  • http://avid.custkb.com/avid/app/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=372311
  • The Avid codec can only exist in a .mov Quicktime wrapper. A big deal on a lower powered computer like my Core2Duo but pretty much a non-issue on any quad core.
    • Not true. However, the FREE version only exists inside an .MOV. And yes, this is a problem for Vegas.
    • (For) a Quicktime codec … you need QT installed.
  • I noticed there is no 1080p in 29.97 frame rate with DNxHD. Damn.
    • Sure there is 1080/30p. The things on the list for you to select are SUGGESTIONS. Use 1080/24p. It will work just fine, and won’t change your video to 24p.
  • If you need a tool to convert to DNxHD you can tryout Avid’s Metafuze
  • Is there a primer of which of the CODEC selections are which? There are 6 formats and each has slightly different setting available.

Reading Avid DNxHS into FCP

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

I installed the (free) LE version of Avid’s DNxHD onto bothWindows and Mac, in order to round-trip between Sony Vegas and FCP.  Having received no responses to my threads on forums for Sony Vegas and for FCP, I tried Avid’s forums.

  • The “Avid on Windows” Forum:
    • PC MediaComposer to MAC FCP http://community.avid.com/forums/p/74442/416691.aspx#416691
      • Thread from August 2009.  Might well be out of date now.
      • If you export DVCProHD from your PC Avid you’ll want to check the “Use AvidDV Codec” box.  This will encode the file as AvidDV100 (which is Avid’s DVCProHD codec).  With the Avid codecs installed on your FCP system you’ll be able to read them.
      • Why don’t they mention DNxHD ?
  • The “Avid on Mac” Forum:
    • Search on [fcp dnxhd]
      • http://community.avid.com/forums/p/84564/477328.aspx#477328
        • Error while loading DNxHD QT .mov into FCP
        • Someone with same issue as me: they rendered from Sony Vegas to DNxHD to import to FCP, and the media wasn’t recognized.
        • Thus far, that thread is inconclusive, with suspicions focussing on the precise format settings etc. and the fact that the media was rendered from Sony Vegas (as I guess the latter is relatively “unknown territory” to the Avid/DNxHD folks).
        • I copied this info (& thread link) to the Sony Vegas forum http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=720994&Replies=11.  Useful replies:
          • …a smalll but critical point; the codec DNxHD does all the encoding of the video stream, vegas does not touch the encoding process. At most, vegas may update the file headers and starting meta data as it closes the file. If Sony has an issue it will be there, but I would question FCP file handling when it opening the file.
        • ?

DNxHD & Windows/Mac Issues

Saturday, July 24th, 2010

Gamma-shift issue:

  •  http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/1028870
    • “QuickTime movie, created with Avid on a PC, using the DNxHD codec. When I open it in QuickTime Player on a PC, the colours are fine, but when I import it into Final Cut on a Mac, the colours are a lot brighter- gamma shift”.
    • I have ProRes and DNxHD clips of the same thing on the timeline. When I switch from a frame in one clip to the same frame in the other clip, there is a very visible difference between the two. The DNxHD version is brighter and ‘milky’.  I’ve tried exporting DNxHD from Final Cut and it has the same problem as the DNxHD sourced from the Avid.”
    • “It’s the codec. DNxHD reports RGB values to FCP not Y’CbCr. Therefore FCP applies its internal RGB interpretation which causes the gamma shift you see.”
    • “Any non native codecs to final cut pro should be transcoded first through compressor; best way to check if the gamma has shifted is take an image with tonal ranges which vary over a gradient e.g. sky; look at the scopes in avid for the dnx file; look at the scopes in final cut pro for the dnx file; no guess work”
  • x

PC Windows <--> Mac OS X RoundTrip (Round-Trip)

Monday, July 19th, 2010

Problem:

  • In Windows I export from Sony Vegas to AVI (CineForm).  In OS X I read the file into FCP and apply the SmoothCam effect, then export to ProRes.  In Windows, Sony Vegas, I replace the original file with the smoothed one.  The levels/gamma are wrong.

Solution (Search):

  • Sony Vegas forum http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=718371
    • Use DNxHD
      •  Couple of tips re DNxHD:  709 color level assumes 16-235, and RGB assumes 0-255.
    • Force it back again: www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/gamma_mac_pc.html
      • But this presumably implies getting re-quantized twice (the roundtrip issue and the forcing), which for 8-bit footage I imagine could reduce the quality (banding).
  • Uncertainties
    • Where and how does this gamma get applied?  In FCP I didn’t (knowingly) alter the levels (eg until it looked right), I just applied the SmoothCam filter.  So I guess it would look wrong on the (pre-SnowLeopard) Mac but I wouldn’t care.  Wouldn’t FCP then export back whatever it got but smoothed?  This one is really confusing.    Experiments needed (when I get time…) I guess.

DNxHD Settings (revisited)

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

Some further tips found online:

  • [http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=704856]
    • You have more than a dozen choices in the DNxHD codec…  (but you might not see them) because of the little display bug. When you select the Avid DNxHD codec, a window pops up. At the bottom of that window is just a little sliver of a pulldown menu. Click that and all should become clear.
  • [http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=701760]
    • DNxHD is a broadcast codec. And types that are not broadcast standards are not included.
    • …in the “Custom Settings” you can … set the Frame rate and the Field order to suit your … footage.
  • [http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=712102&Replies=1]
    • Settings for HD interlaced:
      • Color levels should be RGB
      • Size should be 1920×1080
      • Pixel aspect 1:1
      • Field order Upper
      • DNxHD-TR 175 8-bit template
      • Be sure to click OK (the dialog may fail to display it)
    • Variation for HDV:
      • Thin Raster is supposed to be better for stretched pixels like 1440×1080
  • [http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=710761]
    • You will be able to preserve aspect and gamma with DNxHD. Be sure to select the right bit depth and color levels for your originals. (For a) 1440×1080 source, (i.e.) HDV, … you will want 8-bit, 4:2:0 RGB output to match the originals.
    • One user’s experience (not mine):
      • Here’s the file settings for … m2t files (as provided by MediaInfo):
        • 25Mbps, 1440×1080 (16:9), at 29.97fps, MPEG video component version 2,(Main (high @1440)) BVOP
      • Here’s what it reports for the .mov generated by DNxHD:
        • 220Mbps, 1920×1080 (4:3) at 29.97fps, VC-3, DNxHD
      • I’m not sure where it got the 1920×1080 frame setting from, though. In the frame size box, I had custom frame settings of 1440 x 1080 with a PAR of 1.333.
      • Reply:
        • 1440 X 1.333 = 1919.52 which rounds up to 1920.
        • Your render frame size should be set to 1920×1080 to preserve the aspect. As gets mentioned a lot in these forums, MOV does not respect PAR.
  • [http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=709379]
    • Best way to export timeline to FCP for CC:
      • Change your color space to RGB. Click the little pulldown window at the bottom, select 1080i/59.94 DNxHD 220x. And when you say OK to this window, change the slider from the current 50% quality to 100%. Then render out. The file will be slightly less than 2 minutes per gig.
      • Avid 1:1 is an uncompressed codec designed for SD video. DNxHD is an HD codec and the only one Avid uses.

DNxHD Settings

Thursday, December 24th, 2009

When to use each kind of DNxHD format?

Codecs for Mac/PC/linux & FCP/Avid transfer

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

Eugenia recommended ([http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2008/09/15/prores-for-windows/] as of September 2008) DNxHD and ProRes, among other codecs, for transfer between PC and Mac.   She also advises Lagarith for transfer to/from linux, though it sounds slightly tricky.According to BobRusso (Applications Specialist at Avid) [http://community.avid.com/forums/p/62217/407573.aspx#407573]:<<< 

You can install the ProRes decoder on a system without FCP:

 

Make sure you have the latest version of the Avid codecs. They can be downloaded here:

I suggest using MPEG Streamclip to convert the files: http://www.squared5.com

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