Colossal PIX240 issue with ProRes 422

T

truelife

Well-known member
Just got done with a large project with F3 and a PIX240. Shot mostly interviews that were recorded to SxS and PIX. Outputted via SDI/A to PIX at 1080p/23.98 ProRes 422. Each night I dumped footage and skimmed through the 2-3 hours of footage. Everything I watched looked crisp and sounded clean. Upon confirmation of good PIX files, I would write over my SxS. On our last day I started going through the PIX files a bit more carefully and discovered much to my dismay that there is serious macroblocking and other shmegma in the blacks. Not only that, but when someone moves there arms to emphasize a point there's these crazy lines- it looks like the codec is trying catch up to the action. I have shot numerous times with the PIX both at 24p and 30p and never had these issues. To my knowledge the PIX was never dropped or mishandled. Luckily some of the PIX footage is salvageable and I had a 5D for CUs which may save me, but I can't use the thing if it does this type of craziness. Since recompressing and uploading to Vimeo won't show the issue, I will try to pull some stills and post them soon.

I know there was an issue with the Avid codec, but has anyone seen anything like this with ProRes? I swapped between AC power, on-board battery, and Anton Bauer tap. I also swapped BNCs and tried recording to CF card instead of SSD. All my media is recommended by Sound Devices. No difference. Gonna call Sound Devices to see what they think....
 
I'm confused... you looked at the footage every day and it was fine, but now isn't? The same files? Viewed with the same software?
 
I said I skimmed it- just to make sure it was all there and what I saw looked good. However, upon closer inspection, I noticed the blacks had big issues along with the other issues previously mentioned. Viewed it via PIX direct to FSI monitor and also in Quicktime on Macbook Pro.
 
Here's a still pull from one of my shots. I blacked out faces for client. You can see the terrible blocking in the blacks. I can't get a good example of the lines and choppiness error, but it's like the FCP bad tv pluginUntitled-1.jpg
 
Haven't seen that before in ProRes. Definitely worth contacting Sound Devices tech support. Would be very interested in what they have to say.

Ned Soltz
 
Ive just tried to recreate that in ProRes 422 and it looks clean to me. Just to check - you can see the blocking on playback with a monitor connected directly to the PIX240? I too would be very interested to hear what Sound Devices support say... found them to be extremely helpful in the past.
 
Which output were you using? If you were coming off of the SDI out and not the A SDI then check your menu settings. Go to Input Source Select and make sure Video Out Display is set to OFF. It looks similar to what I have seen on monitors when that menu setting was on.
 
Viddovation said:
Wasn't there an issue with the early firmware where if you didn't have a menu setting for display turned off, then it would have a fine black mesh on one of the SDI outputs?
Click to expand...

As far as I know none of the firmware upgrades addressed the fine black mesh and edging with display turned on directly. With the exception of allowing the A SDI output to output a "clean signal" without being able to have menu items come down that SDI stream. That is why I always use the SDI A out for external recorders and use the SDI out for monitoring.
 
dtwdit said:
As far as I know none of the firmware upgrades addressed the fine black mesh and edging with display turned on directly. With the exception of allowing the A SDI output to output a "clean signal" without being able to have menu items come down that SDI stream. That is why I always use the SDI A out for external recorders and use the SDI out for monitoring.
Click to expand...
Again using latest firmware out of output A so none of these sound viable.
 
I'll throw something else into the equation. Have you tried switching SDI cables? Is your SDI cable from the A port of the camera secure?

A bad or intermittent cable could cause a problem.

And the A-B ports are so deeply recessed that I find that I can only get a secure connection using large barrel Canare connectors. Sony is aware of this design issue.

Ned
 
Yeah, the shorter barrel SDI cable's are a PITA to get in and out of the A/B ports. Very bad design indeed..
 
nsoltz said:
I'll throw something else into the equation. Have you tried switching SDI cables? Is your SDI cable from the A port of the camera secure?A bad or intermittent cable could cause a problem.And the A-B ports are so deeply recessed that I find that I can only get a secure connection using large barrel Canare connectors. Sony is aware of this design issue.Ned
Click to expand...
I switched out all cables, tried different power sources, and tried recording to CF card as well as hard drive. I think it has to be a faulty unit- it seems unlikely that the connection to camera could be bad every time over 8 days...
 
PaulReam said:
Ive just tried to recreate that in ProRes 422 and it looks clean to me. Just to check - you can see the blocking on playback with a monitor connected directly to the PIX240? I too would be very interested to hear what Sound Devices support say... found them to be extremely helpful in the past.
Click to expand...

I did see this with my FSI 17" connected to the PIX. The only place I haven't checked is in FCP, but I can't imagine it would magically change it... also I wondered if switching the pulldown to straight 23.98 PsF output would help, but no dice. Still trying to upload a clip to show the issue.
 
Just tested using EX3 set at 24p and PIX doing pulldown internally to 23.98- same issue occurred. In discussions with Sound Devices on what the issue might be...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top