Raylight And Mpeg2

[danny d]

First off, let me just say that the parallel processing in Raylight is a blessing.
It is one of those little plugins you should have if you own an HVX. Sure you can edit native mxf files no problem with your expensive NLE and hardware. But to edit in proxy and render just once is the real strength of Raylight.
Raylight AVI files are high quality. I am no expert on codecs, but in my personal experience everything I have shot so far has come out very sharp after editing and rendering with Raylight. There are a few issues though :
you cannot render out to MPEG2 for DVD with Raylight, the quality loss is really heavy. You have to render back to Raylight and re-render using the codec of your choice. That is a real downer. Because as you know re- rendering anything is a no no in video.

I hope the makers of Raylight would make a super high quality software based MPEG2 compressor, because frankly all the mid priced ones and the free one supplied in NLEs fall short
Also if the was an option for Raylight AVI’s that is Raylight blue , to be uprezzed from dvcproHD to a 4:2:2 10 bit digi beta -like codec that would make it whole easier to color correct and use all the transitions natively in your NLE. I know cineform has their great 2k product, but its no Raylight it still puts a heavy strain on your CPU. I know most film transfer houses are converting S16mm footage to cineform 2k for their clients, parallel processing beats native processing anytime, especially with proxies like Raylight green.
Being a DV to film transfer house DVFilm will be the first to benefit from a versatile codec
I guess I want too much, but I know those guys at Dvfilm can work magic.
These products can be sold separately and moderately, it would be really great.

 

[mvb]

First off, let me just say that the parallel processing in Raylight is a blessing.
It is one of those little plugins you should have if you own an HVX. Sure you can edit native mxf files no problem with your expensive NLE and hardware. But to edit in proxy and render just once is the real strength of Raylight.
Raylight AVI files are high quality. I am no expert on codecs, but in my personal experience everything I have shot so far has come out very sharp after editing and rendering with Raylight. There are a few issues though :
you cannot render out to MPEG2 for DVD with Raylight, the quality loss is really heavy. You have to render back to Raylight and re-render using the codec of your choice. That is a real downer. Because as you know re- rendering anything is a no no in video.

I hope the makers of Raylight would make a super high quality software based MPEG2 compressor, because frankly all the mid priced ones and the free one supplied in NLEs fall short
Also if the was an option for Raylight AVI’s that is Raylight blue , to be uprezzed from dvcproHD to a 4:2:2 10 bit digi beta -like codec that would make it whole easier to color correct and use all the transitions natively in your NLE. I know cineform has their great 2k product, but its no Raylight it still puts a heavy strain on your CPU. I know most film transfer houses are converting S16mm footage to cineform 2k for their clients, parallel processing beats native processing anytime, especially with proxies like Raylight green.
Being a DV to film transfer house DVFilm will be the first to benefit from a versatile codec
I guess I want too much, but I know those guys at Dvfilm can work magic.
These products can be sold separately and moderately, it would be really great.

I think you can do it with off-the-shelf products.

Did you shoot and edit at 23.976?

First of all, try rendering one scene, a 23.976 Microsoft AVI, uncompressed miilions of colors, at 720 x 480 fullscreen anamorphic. Does it look degraded (other than lower resolution of course)?

 

[PhantomVideo]

easier to color correct and use all the transitions natively in your NLE.

i might just be dumb here but is there limitations to you NLE when you are using raylight, are there only certian things you can do ? (im looking at getting a couple of licences)

 

[danny d]

MVB, YES I DID EDIT @ 23.976 AND FINALLY EXPORTED TO UNCOMPRESSED AVI, THAT WORKED FINE AND THAT IS ACTUALLY HOW I GOT AROUND THE LIMITATION.
THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH RAYLIGHT! I HOPE I WAS NOT MISUNDERSTOOD. I ACTUAllY JUST READ TODAY THAT PPRO CS3 HAS BETTER OUT-PUT FROM HD TO MPEG2. I WILL HAVE TO TRY IT OUT.

I JUST THINK THE CONVERSION FROM MXF FILE SHOULD BE TO A 10 BIT CODEC. SINCE WE ARE WORKING IN PROXY AND ADDIND EFFECTS ONLINE THAT WILL BE GREAT. I DO USE COLORISTA FOR COLORING IN 32 BIT DEPTH, BUT HAVE NEVER USED ANY TRANSITION OR EFFECT IN PPROCS2, I HAVE TO MOVE IT ALL TO AE.

PHANTOM VIDEO THERE ARE NO LIMITATIONS TO USING RAYLIGHT. YOU ACTUALLY GET BETTER RESULTS WITH YOUR FINAL RENDER. YOU WORK JUST LIKE YOU WOULD REGULARLY. A TIP IS TO PUT ALL YOU CONTENT ON AN eSATA raid DRIVE for some added speed

 

[mvb]

MVB, YES I DID EDIT @ 23.976 AND FINALLY EXPORTED TO UNCOMPRESSED AVI, THAT WORKED FINE AND THAT IS ACTUALLY HOW I GOT AROUND THE LIMITATION.
THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH RAYLIGHT! I HOPE I WAS NOT MISUNDERSTOOD. I ACTUAllY JUST READ TODAY THAT PPRO CS3 HAS BETTER OUT-PUT FROM HD TO MPEG2. I WILL HAVE TO TRY IT OUT.

The problem then might be the Premiere mpeg2 encoder. I would take the NTSC-sized AVI into TMPGenc (free demo at tmpgenc.net) and encode a 23.976 widescreen progressive with 3:2 pulldown flags. See TMPGenc setting here
http://dvfilm.com/maker/24Pdvd.htm

I JUST THINK THE CONVERSION FROM MXF FILE SHOULD BE TO A 10 BIT CODEC.

Dvcprohd encoding and quantization (which is in the camera) is 8 bits or less and I have no control over that. Also the sensor noise of the HVX200 is far higher than 1/256. So putting out 10 bits for this camera would be a waste. However you can still use it with higher depths in processing.

 

[TwistedLincoln]

The problem then might be the Premiere mpeg2 encoder. I would take the NTSC-sized AVI into TMPGenc (free demo at tmpgenc.net) and encode a 23.976 widescreen progressive with 3:2 pulldown flags. See TMPGenc setting here
http://dvfilm.com/maker/24Pdvd.htm

That's almost exactly what I do. I use TmpegEnc Plus 2.5, and it produces quality results. It has many, many options, though, so it does take some time to learn all of it's features to get the look you want. But all in all, it's a great program.

And the nice thing about it is that it will handle HD resolutions -- so you can edit the Raylight AVI's in full res. high-def, and then encode to standard def Mpeg2 for your DVD using TmpegEnc. That way you will still have a fully-edited master in HD, should you need it later.

I'd shy away from any of the newer versions, however, as they all use Periodic License Validation, which has caused people many problems... Stay with 2.5 and you'll be all set -- the encoder really hasn't changed in the larger products, they simply have more authoring features for DVD.

 

[danny d]

OH THANKS A LOT TONY, I WILL DEFINETLY CHECK IT OUT.

MVB THANKS FOR CLEARING THAT UP FOR ME. I WAS CURIOUS BECAUSE i HAVE NOTICED THAT MOST PEOPLE USE CINEFORM TO MINIMISE COLOR LOSS, i AM NO SURE IF THIS WORKS OR NOT. DAVE BASULTO HAS AN ARTICLE ON DIGITALMEDIANET.COM ON THIS VERY TOPIC USIND HDV.