AVC Intra 50 or DVC PRO HD
- Thread starter ryaninoz
- Start date
PerroneFord
Deals in Lead
I'd say AVCIntra 50 will give quite a bit higher quality than DVCProHD.
Barry_Green
Moderator
Not in my experience. AVCI-100, definitely, blows it away. But AVCI-50... it's great on bandwidth, but not so primo in image. I prefer the look of DV100 over AVCI-50.
PerroneFord
Deals in Lead
Interesting. Even the full raster doesn't help it? Do you think it's bandwidth starved?
Barry_Green
Moderator
AVCI-50 isn't full raster. AVCI-100 is, but 50 uses 960x720 and 1440x1080. And it's 4:2:0 instead of 4:2:2.
AVCI-50 isn't bad, but it's not DV100. DV100 is accepted for unlimited acquisition, editing, and mastering by DiscoveryHD. AVCI-50, in my opinion, was designed primarily around that 50mbit pipe, so they crammed whatever they could into 50 megabits, but I don't think it was designed to deliver the ultimate quality image, it was designed to do the best they could given a 50-megabit pipe cap.
I think AVCI-100 blows it away. And I think DVCPRO-HD is better. Not night and day, but better. AVCI-50 does have one advantage over DV100 (well, besides data rate): it's 10-bit instead of 8-bit. Well, actually, there's another advantage, in that it can do 1080pN without pulldown, but that's pretty much a non-event, since all editors understand pulldown removal from 1080/24pA DV100 anyway. But in 1080pN you can get the data rate down to 40 megabits, which is pretty good.
I guess the question really is: how does 720pN DV100 compare against 1080pN AVCI-50, since they're both at the same data rate... maybe in that comparison I might prefer AVCI-50.
But just 1080p to 1080p, DV100 looks better to me.
AVCI-50 isn't bad, but it's not DV100. DV100 is accepted for unlimited acquisition, editing, and mastering by DiscoveryHD. AVCI-50, in my opinion, was designed primarily around that 50mbit pipe, so they crammed whatever they could into 50 megabits, but I don't think it was designed to deliver the ultimate quality image, it was designed to do the best they could given a 50-megabit pipe cap.
I think AVCI-100 blows it away. And I think DVCPRO-HD is better. Not night and day, but better. AVCI-50 does have one advantage over DV100 (well, besides data rate): it's 10-bit instead of 8-bit. Well, actually, there's another advantage, in that it can do 1080pN without pulldown, but that's pretty much a non-event, since all editors understand pulldown removal from 1080/24pA DV100 anyway. But in 1080pN you can get the data rate down to 40 megabits, which is pretty good.
I guess the question really is: how does 720pN DV100 compare against 1080pN AVCI-50, since they're both at the same data rate... maybe in that comparison I might prefer AVCI-50.
But just 1080p to 1080p, DV100 looks better to me.
Barry_Green
Moderator
If you have the option to shoot Intra100, by all means do. It's the premiere codec available in any camcorder.
10-bit means that it has the ability to render/resolve 1,023 shades of gray (or color tones). 8-bit means 256 shades. So you can get smoother gradients, skies with no banding, etc. in 10-bit. And 10-bit holds up much much better than 8-bit in post grading.
10-bit means that it has the ability to render/resolve 1,023 shades of gray (or color tones). 8-bit means 256 shades. So you can get smoother gradients, skies with no banding, etc. in 10-bit. And 10-bit holds up much much better than 8-bit in post grading.