DV Codecs and 16-235

joelaff wrote on 6/16/2004, 7:27 AM

I have observed that the default Sony DV codec in Vegas 5 does not appear to scale video to 16-235 on output. Is this to prevent re-scaling of already digitzed video?

I work mainly with 3D renders and other source which covers the full 0-255 spectrum. When I use the MS codec, or the Main Concept codec with the 16-235 turned on I see my colors/values properly. With the default Sony codec I do not because they are outside the 16-235 range.

So my questions are:

How do other deal with this? Do you run a OutputFX to fix the colors? Do you use one of the other codecs? In my tests the Sony codec looks a lot better than the Microsoft one. The MainConcept codec looks even better. However, though I can use MainConcept to make my pre-renders, I do not seem to be able to choose the codec that is used for interactive playback.

Is there anyway to choose which DV codec is used for interactive viewing (i.e. which codec is used to render non-pre-rendered content from the timeline)?

Or is there a way to tell the Sony codec to do the 16-235 conversion? I only found references to the 16-235 settings for the waveform monitors in the manual. (And these just change the way the monitor displays so it will match an analog one prperly, AFAIK).

Thanks!

Comments

SonyEPM wrote on 6/16/2004, 8:12 AM

You could uncheck "ignore 3rd party DV codecs" under general prefs and then MC files will be read by the MC reader.

A better idea is to not use DV of any type as a transport codec- render from your other apps to uncompressed .avi or quicktime and compress to your chosen delivery formats only at the end of the job.

joelaff wrote on 6/16/2004, 8:19 AM

Thanks for the reply.

I actually render to OpenEXR floating point format. Then I edit in float in Digital Fusion. Finally I render out to either TGAs or lossless AVI / QT from Fusion (into 8 bit).

So my files are not already compressed.

I was hoping for a way to choose the codec that is used when scrubbing trhough the timeline. I have the ignore 3rd party codec unchecked. If I choose use MS codec than Vegas appears to use the MS codec for preview from the timeline. However, I would rather use the Main Concept codec. (Or the Sony codec if I could get it to convert the video to 16-235.) I think these two codec look a lot better than the MS one.

How does anyone else deal with this? I suppose I could set the 16-235 in Digital Fusion before I even import into Vegas. This might be the best solution, since I could do it still in floating point before the 8 bit conversion...

So I guess I am making a feature request to let the user select the coded for use when displaying from the timeline.

Thanks!

HPV wrote on 6/16/2004, 10:07 AM

The Broadcast Colors filter will clamp the video to 16-235.

Craig H.

VIDEOGRAM wrote on 6/16/2004, 1:25 PM

Hi Joelaff,

I apply the color corrector filter preset computer rgb to studio rgb at the output. It doesn't clip blacks and whites, but instead "compresses" values into the 16-235 range. Needs rendering though.