Questions related to 8 vs.10bit color and VP8

Cliff Etzel wrote on 10/20/2007, 1:54 PM

Not being as tech savvy as some of the other forum members, I wanted to ask some questions regarding 8 versus 10 bit color space as it applies to shooting and editing.

My main type of work typically doesn't entail a massive amount of color correction and I utilize straight cuts and dissolves 99% time.

Having said that - how does the 32bit float mode actually benefit me - or does it?

I'm getting settled on my choice of HDV camera to work with underwater and wanted to know what Vegas Pro 8's 32bit float mode for editing brings to the table - if anything.

Also - can HDV footage shot on a consumer camera be brought in uncompressed with Vegas and if so - how is that done? Can the same thing be done with standard def minidv cameras like my TRV950's?

I hear terms like HDMI and Decklink cards being bantered about but this is a whole new realm for me and any experience others are willing to share would be greatly appreciated.

Cliff Etzel
bluprojekt

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 10/20/2007, 2:40 PM

"dissolves" ... that's the answer right there; 32 bit will definitely help you. Any operation you do that will alter the color value of the pixels will benefit from 32 bit calculations. You get smoother fades with less banding.

GlennChan wrote on 10/20/2007, 2:57 PM

32-bit processing might help you with:

A- Certain causes of banding artifacts. Usually you don't see it since noise tends to hide them. But you can have banding artifacts if you have multiple FX and if you have large noise-free gradients.

B- Allows you to do linear light processing. For cross dissolves in linear light you don't need V8.
http://glennchan.info/articles/vegas/linlight/linlight.htm

This IMO is the biggest advantage of 32-bit.

2- Levels conversions in Vegas are different in 32-bit. (And also between 2.222 and 1.000 compositing gamma.)
http://glennchan.info/articles/vegas/v8color/v8color.htm

Cliff Etzel wrote on 10/21/2007, 10:25 AM

Glenn - your site seems to be offline - been trying since yesterday to read the article you mentioned. Keep getting a timeout error.

Also - I'm still looking for info about whether miniDV footage shot on my TRV950's can be brought in as uncompressed footage for editing. I see this topic discussed here on the forums and only here about how it applies to HDV, yet I seem to remember reading that it can be done with standard def - or is it a result of the acquisition format of miniDV that this is not possible???

Cliff Etzel
bluprojekt

GlennChan wrote on 10/21/2007, 11:46 AM

1- Hmm I'm not sure why my website is down for you. It could be because it is on dynamic DNS and your DNS service isn't giving you the latest IP address.

Maybe try
http://glennchan.dyndns.org/
and
http://99.226.255.3

?

2- If you record onto tape, the signal is uncompressed. You can have the VTR decompress it (to SDI or component analog) and that would be uncompressed.... you can then ingest that SDI or analog signal.

There would be a difference in the signal processing (the signal goes down a different image processing path, and uses the VTR's decompressor instead of your NLE's) and in 720x486 raster versus 720x480.