ProRes SD - Are there benefits?

L

lipslide

Active member
Hey there,

I just exported some SD footage from Colour into the ProRes format, my thinking being that I heard it was 4:2:2 colour space and DV only 4:0:0.

Is this right? Is it better to export to a more capable format? Is my camera the limiting factor when it comes to capturing and storing the colour information or is it the DV codec?

If anybody could shed some light on this it sure would be swell.
 
Saving to a different format will not magically create more colors or pixels. It will be stored in a format with increased capabilities but it will still have the resolution and colour information of the initial stream (here: DV). Yes, the limiting factor is your camera, that is made for the DV format.

Hope this helps
 
The camera will be the limiting factor on the raw footage of course. You can't invent pixels and quality after the fact. What you shoot is what you get.

However, when doing color correction, vfx, titling, and the like, at that stage, moving up to 4:2:2 can be advantageous. The materials you are adding at that point can better preserve their quality in the higher color space. Your footage again will still be the same really, but the elements you're adding to it, will hold up a bit better.

And DV is 4:1:1. HDV is 4:2:0. I've never seen a 4:0:0 camera myself, if one exists that's news to me (and I'd be kind of curious about how that chroma sampling math works exactly). Oh and I think HDCam (not SR) samples at 3:1:1 (why Sony, why?).

cheers.
 
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