Comments

Chienworks wrote on 12/9/2001, 1:49 PM
From the descriptions i've seen the Sonic Foundry techs post on here, it
looks like the improvements are to the "coding" part of the codec (eg.
it reads the same DV files that other codecs have written, and creates
files that are compatible with other readers.) If this is true, then you'll
be using it when you render to DV .avi files. It shouldn't make any
difference opening existing files.

Maybe SF can clarify or correct me?
Sonic_Curt wrote on 12/9/2001, 2:22 PM
For the most part, you are correct (I'll explain a difference below). To be clear, here are the advantages of the new Sonic Foundry DV Codec:

1. Quality of recompressed video is dramatically improved (especially after multiple recompressions)
2. No scaling of the luminance on decompressed frames(see below)
3. Significant speed improvements on multiprocessor computers

On reading existing DV files (and those that you recapture), you will notice a difference in the 'brightness' of the video when displayed on the computer screen compared to Vegas Video 2.0 (which used the Microsoft DV codec).

Microsoft's codec 'scales' the luminance of the decoded video frames to make them appear brighter on the computer screen. Sonic Foundry's DV codec does _not_ change the luminance and will therefore appear darker on the computer screen.

The reason we don't scale things like Microsoft is it screws up recompressing and processing of the original video. Remember that NTSC and PAL video have different color gamuts (and display gamma) than your computer screen.

For 'editing' purposes, Sonic Foundry's codec is behaving exactly as it should. And it should be noted that if you are editing for playback on NTSC or PAL, you really should 'monitor' your effects and color changes on an NTSC or PAL video display (output to external monitor is your friend). But as long as you are aware of this difference, you can accomplish a lot without the extra gear... just be careful about 'compensating' for color/brightness without checking things on an NTSC/PAL monitor

For simple playback of DV clips on a computer screen, Microsoft chose to scale the luminance to be more pleasing to the average viewer... that is, brightening the video when displayed on a computer screen.. So you will also notice that clips will look brighter when played in Windows Media Player as apposed to played back in Vegas Video 3.0

Hopefully this helps a little...

-curt.
SonyEPM wrote on 12/10/2001, 9:05 AM
No need to change anything- Vegas reads and writes with the SFDV codec by default. The Video Capture tool just moves data, and the codec does not come into play at all.

SonyEPM wrote on 12/10/2001, 4:07 PM
In some cases faster, in every case better.