AARRGGHHH! Please for the love of god Help!

[James Page]

Ok folks, I'm really really getting tired of this now.

I've posted a couple of times about the issues I'm having viewing and exporting ProRes files from FCP.

these threads are here:

http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=51186
http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=44298

The kind people who've replied to these threads have made suggestions, all of which I've tried, and i'm STILL stuck with the problem.


In a nutshell: when played in quickview, prores files rendered from R3Ds play fine. When played in and exported from FCP, there is banding, and really bad digital noise.

Its got to the point now where i won't shoot anything on RED because of the Post problems. I've got projects in the balance because i don't know what to do.

I know this message board is REDs attempt at a support system but as yet it hasn't solved my problem.

Please, please. Can anyone help?

 

[Gunleik Groven]

From all the posts I've read in your threads, I haven't managed to figure out how you're monitoring your image, as when you're monitoring 444 that is not totally irrelevant.

If you're viewing it on your laptops LCD, you have a lot of stuff happening which doesn't neccesarilly affect your image, but def affects your preview.

A couple of 1:1 crops from the "good" and "bad" images would help, too
+ an r3d frame (make r3d snapshot in RCX) for us to play with.

The general: It sucks! statement, doesn't give many hunches, and is a bit bewildering, as many of us don't have these issues with our footage...

Cheers!

Gunleik

 

[James Page]

Hi Gunleik, i appreciate your reply. All the information you need can be found in the previous two threads, which is why i linked to them, rather than just repeating it.

Thanks

 

[Johnny Friday]

definitely: FCP settings; your RCX settings--doing full debayer? what monitoring on RCX are you using, then via FCP what monitoring? and what RT settings and setup in FCP??

Then there are a lot of things you can do to make sure you are actually using the latest color science with RCX....I had to go back and manually delete, then re-add FCP suite 3 plugin from RED. Those are posted on another thread. But bottom line if you have everything setup properly, there should not be banding unless you are viewing in FCP at some low res setting or possibly did not transcode with proper settings. WEll...could be a hundred things. But your system; system settings, and software settings are pertinent.

 

[Martin Melnick]

Maybe it's because pro res is evil. I don't care who disagrees here, but it is such a restrictive compression type specially when considering cross platform workflows (which are not always necessary, but certainly a plus when working with various participants in post). Try a different compression type to render out. If pro res doesn't look good, it could be a problem with your installed codecs or merely with your system specs. Try out putting to something like H264 (I realize this is highly compressed) and gauging whether or not the degradation is noticeable. In my opinion apple pro res is just a really picky compression.

 

[Johnny Friday]

after looking at your other thread....and you say you have done everything. At this point, i'd try on a completely new system....not buy one, but use someone else's system. Possibly someone setup with one and try then and see what results you get to eliminate the obvious--your system or camera. Then, go back and reinstall EVERYTHING--i've had to do this on a few occassions. ALSO, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Digital Rebellion's FCS maintenace pack when FCP begins acting up. HERE: http://www.digitalrebellion.com/fcs_maintenance.htm
i think they have a free download, it helped me so many times when FCP was scrwing up i bought the entire suite. WELL worth it.

 

[conrad gaunt]

I would suggest outputting the proress from RCX and then editing the new files (assuming they don't exhibit the same noise you speak of). If your monitoring is "iffy", pay special attention to the histogram in RCX to make sure you have the lattitude/brightness you'll need later in the edit and to give Prores something to bite into, and also to avoid falling into one of Apples "Gamma" traps

I'd recommend making sure your QT preferences "Gamma" is set to something above 1.8 like 2 or 2.2.

hope this helps some

 

[Gunleik Groven]

Hi Gunleik, i appreciate your reply. All the information you need can be found in the previous two threads, which is why i linked to them, rather than just repeating it.

Thanks

Ok, THX. Dug a bit further...

I'd suggest you tried to look at 10 bit material with something else than a glossy MacBookPro screen, before making any judgements...

The preview in FCP is exactly that, when you surpass your computers capacity...

Dual SDI to a calibrated screen, may make a difference...

 

[James Page]

Ok, THX. Dug a bit further...

I'd suggest you tried to look at 10 bit material with something else than a glossy MacBookPro screen, before making any judgements...

The preview in FCP is exactly that, when you surpass your computers capacity...

Dual SDI to a calibrated screen, may make a difference...

Hi
I dont have access to a dual SDI equipped machine.

But my issue seems to be a software one, because it HAS looked fine. Around Christmas of last year it was fine. Then i downloaded the most recent updates and things hit the shit.

 

[Frank Cueto]

James, bring the offending image to either PShop or after effects, use the info window and move your mouse over the offending area of banding. If the numbers change (the rgb values) and you perceive it visually to be one band, then its a display issue. BUT if the numbers stay the same, then you have banding. Be sure to open the file in an appropriate bit depth comp/project.

 

[James Page]

James, bring the offending image to either PShop or after effects, use the info window and move your mouse over the offending area of banding. If the numbers change (the rgb values) and you perceive it visually to be one band, then its a display issue. BUT if the numbers stay the same, then you have banding. Be sure to open the file in an appropriate bit depth comp/project.

Hi, tried it, and the numbers stayed the same, so it IS banding!

How do I fix it?