Color Settings in Mainconcept for HDV to SD

TCProdStudio wrote on 8/10/2010, 2:02 PM

Hello,
Since version 10 of VMS, we have access to the advanced settings of the Mainconcept encoder. I have an HDV project that I need to output to PAL-DVD. If I choose "DVD-A PAL widescreen video stream" as template, what color settings should I use to produce correct colors on DVD out of my HDV sources?
The defaults are:
Color primaries: ITU-R Rec. 624-4 System B,G
Transfer: ITU-R Rec. 624-4 System B,G
Matrix coefficients: ITU-R Rec. 624-4 System B,G

I thought I had to make a color space conversion Rec.709 to Rec.601 when going from HD to SD, but Rec.601 is not offered in any of the three settings.
Thanks!

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 8/10/2010, 4:56 PM

IIRC, I "think" that REC 624 is 601/709 over HDMI. But you'll have to dig deeper to find out for sure.

In any event, the template defaults are correct, and should not be changed.

TCProdStudio wrote on 8/11/2010, 12:31 AM

Thanks for your answer.
I think the rendering templates' defaults are constant and do not change with the source material or project properties: the "DVD-Architect..." template will have the same default color settings regardless of the source. But HDV is special, it has Rec. 709 as color space, this needs to be converted to Rec.601 for SD-DVD output. If I use an external encoder to create an SD-MPEG2 file from the HDV timeline, I usually can add a 709->601 color space conversion filter to the source, resulting in accurate colors on the DVD.
Before VMS10, I couldn't access the advanced video settings of the Mainconcept templates, so I didn't bother, but the colors on the SD output did not match the source. As we now have access to those settings, I'd like to find out how to configure the integrated Mainconcept encoder to ensure this conversion is performed when using only VMS. The three relevant settings are Color primaries, Transfer and Matrix coefficients.

musicvid10 wrote on 8/11/2010, 8:37 AM

You're talking about applying a 709->601 conversion between the source and the render? I didn't think that was usually done.

Our resident guru has some thoughts on the subject. Maybe you could drop him a line or post your question on the Pro forum, where he checks in from time to time.

http://www.glennchan.info/articles/technical/hd-versus-sd-color-space/hd-versus-sd-color-space.htm