Gearshift proxy quality

Laurence wrote on 1/16/2006, 6:22 PM
I just rendered some widescreen DV footage from the Vegas timeline to compare to the quality of the DV proxy render done by Gearshift. The direct render was quite a bit better looking. I know that it is just a proxy file, but I would love to have the option to select a higher quality for the proxies. It would let me do a much quicker SD renders to DVD at the end, especially at the proofing stage of a project when often you render a number of slight variations of a DVD.

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 1/16/2006, 6:28 PM
That makes no sense. The DV Widescreen presets in GearShift are using the DV Widescreen presets in Vegas. In other words, they're exactly the same. The only thing Gearshift does to the proxy different than what Vegas is doing, is that GearShift applies a color matrix so that the colors are accurate to the ITU 709 color spec, whereas using the straight DV Widescreen template in Vegas does not. This only affects the color, not resolution.
If you turn off the color processing in GearShift, you're using the Sony-created, DV Widescreen template, only you see it in GearShift vs seeing it in your Batch Render options. It's just DV at that point. The same DV as if you took your HDV media and rendered it straight to DV, instead of using GearShift.
Laurence wrote on 1/16/2006, 6:51 PM
The difference is mainly in the color so it must be that color matrix thing you are talking about. I see an option "adjust color space" and "pre" and "post" options but they seem to be greyed out and I can't deselect "adjust color space" or the "post" option. Is this the way it should be?
JohnnyRoy wrote on 1/17/2006, 5:08 AM
> The difference is mainly in the color so it must be that color matrix thing you are talking about.

No. That can’t be it. If Adjust Color Space is grayed then you must be using Vegas 6 because it is not need (and it is not applied) Vegas 6 handles this correctly. The color space correction is only if you are using Vegas 5. So this is not the difference you are seeing.

If you download the new GearShift Users Guide from the VASST site (it's a link on that page) it will explain this as well as explain how to make GearShift recognize new templates so you can crank the quality up as high as you’d like. As Spot said, GearShift is using the standard Sony NTSC DV Widescreen template. If you are using a different template than that is why there is a difference.

~jr
Laurence wrote on 1/17/2006, 6:42 AM
I just saved the SD Widescreen template with the "GSP" prefix and rendered a test proxy. It looks great. I believe the only difference between the original widescreen template and the one that I use is that I set the rendering quality to "best". In any case, the quality of my proxies is where I want it now. Thank you both for your standard quick and useful replies.

mark-woollard wrote on 5/6/2006, 3:59 AM
Used Gearshift for the first time yesterday. Created DV proxies from m2t files (no HD). The first batch of files came out very washed out--desaturated and low contrast. The second batch look closer to the original. I don't recall changing any settings. I'm using Vegas 6d.

The color and contrast of the proxies of the first batch is clearly not "real enough" to do color correction/MB film effects.

Any more thoughts on why the I'm getting washed out proxies?

Thanks
Mark