OT: Canon's newly developed MPEG-2 4:2:2 codec

ritsmer wrote on 3/3/2015, 12:57 AM

It seems that it now is possible to record 4:2:2 directly to in-camera memory cards.

Having no experience with 4:2:2 - could somebody tell me:

- does it make a visible difference i.e. watched on a 65" full HD TV-screen played on any available consumer player like the WD player, the Dune player etc ?

- how is full HD recorded 4:2:2 at, say 50 Mbps, compared to 4K recorded 4:2:0 at the 100 Mbps now available for the new consumer Sony AX33? - I mean if you use it for input for editing in Vegas for a final delivery format like the now existing MainConcept mpeg2 at, say, full HD, 25 Fps, at, say, 30 Mbps ? (I mean: will the internal decoding in Vegas and the following rendering encoding simply make any extra input quality more-or-less unnoticeable)?

-Any other comments on 4:2:2 in an amateur/consumer/prosumer world ??

Comments

megabit wrote on 3/3/2015, 3:05 AM

I have no experience with Canon's format, but I can confirm that on a large screen like this, the difference in color resolution between 4:2:0 and 4:2:2 is clearly visible (basing on my nanoFlash recording with both versions of Sony HD codec).

Piotr

farss wrote on 3/3/2015, 3:36 AM

Agree with Piotr,
almost all OTA down here is still SD and most people cannot tell the difference between it and OTA HD and I'm 99% certain that's because it's 4:2:2. If I play any of my SD DVDs into the same TV via HDMI they look nowhere near as good because of the 4:2:0 chroma sampling. The few BD disks I've made look about the same as the OTA SD.

Bob.

videoITguy wrote on 3/3/2015, 7:47 AM

4.2.2 gets discussed endlessly over the years - the best way to research the answer you are looking to get with more info - is to search green screen wherever you go.

Here's why, the only real workflow and production difference that you are going to notice is when producing green screen studio shots. And only if you can master green screen lighting, shooting, and software manipulation. Now VegasPro plug-ins do give you the ability to do this (did I say Boris?).

But note this issue in using VegasPro - almost every edit and workflow that you can create in-side the timeline will be subverted (even if you use a lossless codec like MagicYUV as a DI. This is not to discourage you from using 4.2.2. for all your sources - you should. But this is an answer to your burning question - will it make a difference?