Accurate preview. Please help

A

arrestthisman

Well-known member
Hello all.

Put it simply: I shoot on the HVX, and offload to a windows laptop via PCMCIA. I use P2 Viewer to check the footage before copying to an external RAID and then ingest to FCP on Mac.

Here's the problem. P2 VIEWER sucks. (actually it's OK but...) I want to be able to view an accurate pixel for pixel image. P2 Viewer seems to show the worst macroblocks and everything. My LCD is calibrated. I assure you this is not a PEBKAC. One it goes to FCP and is converted to quicktime the footage looks much better.... IN QUICKTIME. Even in FCP it exhibits aliasing and macroblocking.

That's not so much of a problem, because for editing it doesn't need to be perfect.

I did some searching but could not find a solution to this problem.

All I want is to be able to view my MXFs on my windows laptop at full quality so I can see if I need to re-shoot for noise or artifacting.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Please no negativity. I did my homework. (It's been abundant on the boards lately, er.... forever.)

Thanks again.
 
The new program P2 FORGE looks pretty damn good, it might do what you're after.
 
Hey, thanks a bunch. I'm going to try that out right now.

But does anyone have a reference to, or knows of the "ladder of quality" so to speak?

In other words, P2 viewer sucks, Full screen FCP is OKAY (lots of aliasing and macroblocks even at high quality), Quicktime on Mac (high quality) seems to be the only "true" way to see your footage. That and shake.

That just messes up my workflow so much. I feel like this info HAS to be out there as this cam has been out for over two years; but I can't find it.

What in the world on Windows And/Or Mac displays DVCPRO HD in MXF properly pixel for pixel?
 
Go into P2 Viewer's options and choose "full resolution for full-screen display" (or whatever it's called) and it'll look better.

But, understand: P2 Viewer is designed for SPEED, not QUALITY. It will never look as good in P2 Viewer as it can from Raylight or EDIUS or FCP. People judging their footage in P2 Viewer are selling themselves and their footage short. P2 Viewer is a preview, it's not a final-quality tool.
 
Thank you so much barry. But I've already put it at full rez in P2 viewer. (Btw, I read a post you made months ago on the mpeg-2 and DVCPRO HD relationship in hardware acceleration in P2 viewer. Is there anything you don't know?)

What I'm looking for is just something to judge the picture accurately, even if it's just one still at a time. I'd just like to see the full data.

Is there anything out there for this purpose?


P.S. I've read your book cover to cover, and I hate gushing, but you're a genius, and I hope to meet you one day.
 
arrestthisman said:
Is there anything you don't know?)
Click to expand...
Untold volumes. But I try to fill in the gaps by asking questions; I learned that that info about the MPEG coefficients from asking Marcus of DVFilm (who is a certified genius).

What I'm looking for is just something to judge the picture accurately, even if it's just one still at a time. I'd just like to see the full data.
Click to expand...
Raylight in blue quality, in Vegas on best/full, would do it. I don't know what it takes on a mac to do it.

P.S. I've read your book cover to cover, and I hate gushing, but you're a genius, and I hope to meet you one day.
Click to expand...
Well, you're very kind to say such things! :)
 
Thanks again Barry. I'm going to try Raylight and/or Vegas. (I used to edit in Vegas and LOVED IT!)

On Mac I know that Quicktime in high quality gets all of it (It looks like). So does Shake. Everyone Says FCP does too, but I have yet to see it work in full quality despite setting RT extreme to various settings, and all other settings to BEST quality. There is still Aliasing and blocking in the full screen preview. It's PLENTY good for editing, but not for finishing. Color is good, and so is shake. Even Motion is more accurate. Maybe next release FCP will display full quality.

In the meantime, as I said, thanks again: I'm going to VEGAS! I just hope that what happens in vegas... (bad joke)

Otherwise, I may go dueladapter for mac to view it in quicktime.

Thanks again Barry!
 
Am I missing something here? Aren't you using a decent HD monitor on set when you shoot?

On the Mac, it's the same, all of the utilities, P2CMS, P2 Log Pro, they are look crappy. FCP looks marginally better but still not great on a computer screen. The only way to see what you really have shot is with at least a semi-accurate HD monitor like the Panasonc BT-LH80 or BT-LH1700.

When I first bought the HVX, I tried out my Dell 2405 as a field monitor, it looked hideous. Now I use a Sony HD monitor and I can see what I am doing.

Dan
 
Unfortunately I don't have the cash for a proper monitor.

On my last film, I shot blind, and waited until it was projected in a theater setting. (This was with a DVX) It looked fine, but during editing in Avid it looked like **** even with my NTSC monitor. (It wasn't very good.)

I just figure there HAS to be a way to see the footage on a laptop without all of the crap. Even just STILLS. I can deal with just stills fine, but I'm constantly witnessing compression artifacts that I know shouldn't be there.

This is not an HDV camera with lots of motion. This is DVCPRO HD; I'm seeing compression artifacts on tripod shots without movement. I shoot a lot in low light. Noise/grain doesn't bother me, but compression and macro-blocks do.

I'm just looking for a quick way to take a look. OR as long as I'm assured that the footage is better than it looks in FCP, I'm cool with that too.

BTW, thanks for any help on this. Like I said, all I need is a way to see my footage clean at total full quality, even just one frame at a time.
 
Hi:

You are looking at television signal on an RGB computer screen. It will never be close to what it really looks like.

I would scrape together $500.00 and at least buy a cheap HD consumer monitor. At least you will see video signal vs. RGB screen.

Dan
 
puredrifting said:
...The only way to see what you really have shot is with at least a semi-accurate HD monitor like the Panasonc BT-LH80 or BT-LH1700.

Now I use a Sony HD monitor and I can see what I am doing.
Click to expand...

Hi Dan,

I'm a beginner and didn't go to school. Can you or anybody please tell me why BT-LH80 is only semi-accurate? Is there a way to calibrate it to make it full-accurate?

Which Sony HD monitor are you using now?

Is there a good article or website to learn about the technical basics about this CRT monitor for television broadcast. I guess my main concern is-> Is the quality you see(color/contrast/brightness) on CRT monitor, is exactly what you will see when they air it on TV? But the TV station in my country is still not HD Broadcast, would the HD image(color/contrast) be different when it is on air?

Sorry for my poor English and my silly questions. I hope to learn from you. :dankk2:

Ahmad
 
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