Is vegas ever going to go to 10 bit? or higher?

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 12/22/2004, 6:55 PM
just wondering if anyone knows if Sony ever plans to upgrade the bitrate of Vegas.

I realize that there aren't really any cameras in the consumer range that it would make much diff. with, but Vegas is "Pro" as far as I'm told, and I'm just curious about whether they're going to increase the bitrate of the editor so that in post you can maintian a more dynamic range?

Just curious if anyone out there has heard anthing from some little bird and is able to say so. (like thet'd happen)

Thanx,
Dave

Comments

farss wrote on 12/22/2004, 11:08 PM
There's hardly be much market for it if they did from what I know. There's probaby only a few dozen cameras on the planet that shoot more than 8 bit, if you can afford them you'd sure not be thinking about Vegas.
Bob.
Spot|DSE wrote on 12/22/2004, 11:15 PM
Ahh hell, Farss, Didn't you read that Thomson raised the price of the Viper because of the new delivery/storage system? Everyone's got a spare 180k plus glass laying around. And it's now got fibre. or is that fiber? Viper fibre?

Seriously, it's not that big a deal. And your computer couldn't process it without hardware anyway.
Don't confuse the cameras that are advertising 10 bit processing with being a 10bit sample. For instance, the Z1 HDV cam is a 14bit process in A to D, but it's an 8 bit camera.
farss wrote on 12/22/2004, 11:25 PM
I bumped into one of friends in the business at IBC last year, he was about to shell out for a Viper but was trying to find something that'd handle it in post, I think just the cost of a grading system put him off somewhat. You'd think he'd have learned, he's got a few HDCAMs that very few can afford to hire. His Arrie 16s by comparison make a good return, make you think.
Bob.
rmack350 wrote on 12/22/2004, 11:48 PM
Arri 16s is pretty old and I'd hope that he would have made a good return 30 or 40 years ago. I'll bet you mean a 16SR. Very different and very much the 16mm workhorse. You can build a nice carreer with that camera. At least I think you still can.

Re 10bit, my employer is working on a 10bit 844 system and loves it. I get the impression that 10bit color is useful with many composite layers and FX. No banding on top of banding on top of banding. It's hardware bound and pricey but it does composites and FX in nearly real time. The down side is that so much complex hardware can have some pretty complex hardware problems. You can lose years off your life.

BTW, he originates on DV25.

If Vegas were to use 10 bit then it'd need some sort of intermediate format that could scale easily back to DV25 for 1394 playback. And presumably it'd need some hardware muscle at least to do the basic processing.
Rob Mack
MSchell wrote on 12/23/2004, 3:52 PM
Well, when we introduce the uncompressed over 1394 feature with our SD-Connect box next year you will be able to capture video in 8-bit or 10-bit mode. The rendered video may be in 8 or 10-bit mode depending on any changes to the Vegas code, but the un-rendered video can be 10-bit quality. Internally, the SD-Connect box processes all video in 10-bits.

Mike Schell
Mike@convergent-design.com
www.convergent-design.com