How to maintain DVCPRO 4:2:2 colour?

B

benandaim

Well-known member
Hi

I'm editing with Vegas 7/Raylight and one thing i want to know is if i bring a DVCPRO 50 mxf onto the timeline and edit it, render out using MAXTROX's DVCPRO50 codec, take it into AE7, render out uncompressed and use Sorenson Squeeze to make and MPEG2 file for DVD delivery, have i maintained the 4:2:2 colour space?

When do you lose the 4:2:2 colour space or how can you?

I'm not sure if i understand fully how 4:2:2 properties are maintained or destroyed.

Could someone please explain this.

:dankk2:
Ben
 
Colorspace is determined by your codec. Mpeg2 for DVD has a colorspace of 4:2:0...you can't do anything about that. You go to DVD, you lose the 4:2:2. Remember, once you lose it, you don't get it back.
 
Hiya,

the point of DVCPRO 50 is to have a Standard Definition master comparible to DIGITBETA, with twice the quality and colourspace of Mini DV or DV25. DIGITBETA is also 4:2:2 and any TV programmes shot with it that are then also distributed on DVD get converted to 4:2:0.

Remember that if you edit in DVCPRO HD, DVCPRO 50 or Uncompressed you'll have a high quality master in 4:2:2 with which to make any other format or delivery.

DVD or MPEG gives good looking SD playback but its highly compressed as a final delivery to a specific end user. You don't use it to then make other formats or files as it is already heavily compressed.

When distributors decide to buy your film they won't want the DVD you made, they'll want the hi-res master. The DVD is just to play it in a convenient format.

If you keep your DVCPRO 50, HD or uncompressed master, you could then later make a HD DVD, or Blueray disc, you could blow up to film print or whatever.

Also a picture from 4:2:2 colourspace converted to 4:2:0 colourspace will probably look better than one from 4:2:0 or 4:1:1 converted to 4:2:0. Maybe not dramatically noticeable, but it will be better as it has more colour to play with for the conversion.

Its like film or HD images turned into SD have more picture data to play with so the final looks more detailed even in SD compared to a SD camera shooting the same shot. Scaling higher res images down retains a lot more details than you'd expect.

enjoy !

Majomorgan
 
Awesome explanation. Thanks.

I wondered if compressing my DVCPRO 50 to mpeg2 would give me a better looking DVD than compressing MINI DV to mpeg 2 for DVD.

Sounds like it will

Cheers,

Ben
 
David S. said:
You are starting out with 75% more color information before encoding.
Click to expand...

[begin pedantry]
Actually, it's 100% more color info. DV uses 4:1:1, which is one color sample for every four pixels; DVCPRO50's 4:2:2 uses one color sample for every two pixels. 100% more color.
[/pedantry] :)
 
not just the color, but the higher bitrate too. miniDV is very compressed with either little to high artifacts depending on the scene you are shooting. DVCPRO50 is much higher quality with a higher bitrate so you'll get a much cleaner imagine.
 
Got 1 more question.

If DVCPRO50 relys on the codec you chose to render it with...then if i render out DVCPR050 from Vegas uncompressed as opposed to using the MATROX DVCPRO50 codec will it still be DVCPRO50?
 
If you render or export as uncompressed you'll have an uncompressed file with 4:2:2 worth of color information, no codec information will be attached to it anymore, it's uncompressed...However this does not mean you get more.... However it very useful in some occasionS to work in an uncompressed format especially in compositing, AE work etc. because that way there isn't any additional generation loss due to the codec.

The emergence of intermediate codecs like Apple's proRes 422, Avid's DnxHD, Cineform etc came to address the gap between Uncompressed and the lossy nature of most acquisition formats.
 
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