4K Finishing Folly

[Jim Arthurs]

As far as I know, 2K Cineform Prospect HD intermediates edit perfectly on today's systems.

Even two (or maybe three) NAB's ago CineForm was demoing realtime 2K playback inside of Premiere... so I suspect the last couple years have done nothing but improve on that...

Here's hoping that REDCODE will perform in a similar fashion. But, if it doesn't, I doubt the initial copy over to CineForm would be all that damaging in terms of generation loss... certainly coming down from 4K camera source would make amazing CineForm 2K...

 

[Michael Brennan]

Beginning of the end of letterbox aspect ratios?

Beginning of the end of letterbox aspect ratios?

According to the calculator here, you apparently have to sit less than about 9' from a 12' image to actually see 4K resolution. You have to sit less than four feet from a 60" screen.

The upshot is, in plausible viewing situations, you simply will not see pixels with 4K. There isn't likely to ever be much demand to go above 4K for presentation, until people start getting cybernetic eye upgrades or something.

I know we are stuck with the legacy of the limitations of film projection which isnt going to go away overnight.

Soon we need to take another step forward and build bigger screens in new cinemas that can cope with the new digital cameras and digital projectors.

Think multiplex imax. Maybe even think the beginning of the end of letterbox aspect ratios....


Mike

 

[Barend Onneweer]

I think I am one of the few who was ever asked to do 4K graphics.

You'd be surprised how many visual effects shots are put through AE every year. Loads of animated mattes at 8k, and even fx shots for IMAX, starting at 4k and beyond.

It's not the most sexy tool, but it's been one of the most stable desktop compositors over the last decade, and as such is still in use at nearly all facilities.

 

[Chris Kenny]

I know we are stuck with the legacy of the limitations of film projection which isnt going to go away overnight.

Soon we need to take another step forward and build bigger screens in new cinemas that can cope with the new digital cameras and digital projectors.

Think multiplex imax. Maybe even think the beginning of the end of letterbox aspect ratios....

I don't know about that. It's important to remember that movies are art, that the goal is not necessarily to reproduce the experience of viewing something directly. Selective framing (like selective focus, the reason everyone wants shallow DoF) is one of the tools a filmmaker uses to tell a story.

The IMAX thing, where the screen practically fills your field of vision, and shots are framed appropriately for that, is a neat experience and has benefits with some subject matter, but is very possibly not the right approach for most narrative work.

 

[Bruce Allen]

You'd be surprised how many visual effects shots are put through AE every year. Loads of animated mattes at 8k, and even fx shots for IMAX, starting at 4k and beyond.

Very true! Sorry, I was meaning 4K trailer graphics specifically - 4K is still very rare in the trailer world.

Bruce

 

[Bruce Allen]

Okay, Anandtech gave us some more info on the Intel roadmap today. I think it has a definite bearing on the whole 4K thing...
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel/showdoc.aspx?i=2955&p=1

I know computers are always getting faster, but this is just so... solid.

Summary:

late this year:
- quad-core chips hit $250-$300

early next year - "Penryn" (45nm Core 2)
- quad-core hits 3.2 - 3.6 ghz
- new instruction set that accelerates some video tasks
- if some cores are waiting for others, the cores that ARE working can be dynamically overclocked
- better virtualization
- more cache

late next year: - "Nehalem" (45nm successor)
- faster architecture
- 8 core-per-chip desktop
- 4 core-per-chip laptop?
- integrated memory controller (lower latency, maybe better bandwidth)

I'd peg Nehalem with a nVidia 9 or 10 series as our first chance for desktop 4K editing that doesn't suck. Or HD editing and effects that rocks at a sublime level.

Until then, follow the 2K / HD flame!

Bruce

 

[Hrvoje Simic]

Thanks Bruce, very interesting.

I like the your comment at the end:

...HD editing and effects that rocks at a sublime level.

heheh nice