The latest issue of TV Technology has an article on Discovery channel's new standards for HD programming. They are accepting shows produced in D-5, HDCAM, HDCAM SR, DVCPRO HD. However...."one HD format that was unacceptable for HD production for Discovery was the new semipro 19Mbps system used by the JVC JY-HD10U. Derby explained that this format created too much noise and has too many artifacts when upconverted to the final 1080i master and subsequently broadcast."

I think they should take a look at some of the artifacts in their current HD shows they are broadcasting. Some of the Moire effects I see during panning in footage shot on the Varicam and CineAlta are worse than I've ever seen on the HD1OU.

I did not notice any luma noise with HD10.

Chroma noise, indeed, is horrific.

On the bright side: use this camera's B&W Effect, and shoot black and white footage.

No noise (no color!), high resolution, looks fantastic.

Try it!

Many movies are in B&W, including recent indie success Pi.

<<<-- Originally posted by Alex Raskin : Many movies are in B&W, including recent indie success Pi. -->>>

Recent? If five years ago is recent... ;-)

Hey, one of my films is half B&W/half color, the other is totally B&W. Orson Welles once said B&W can save a performance (or in my case, a film...HA HA, just kidding!).

heath

Well, apparently Discovery is trying to get their act together following a rocky introduction to the world of HD. The article starts out by saying "In an effort to promote more and better high-definition content, Discovery Channel is holding seminars..." It goes on to say that no show can contain more than 25% of SD footage and only a minutes' duration for any given segment. So I guess they're just trying to raise the bar and eliminate the artifacts that people have been seeing up til now.

That reminds me of the broadcaster's response to the introduction of miniDV... Some people where able to fool them anyway so I would not bother...

Reading the story it seems they are concerned about the transcoding to 1080i.

One wonders how they did it?

What would happen if the scaleing to 1080i were done in software using uncompressed video.

Chroma noise, indeed, is horrific.

Alex,

Can you expound on that a little more specifically? What criteria are you using other just visual verification? What type of equipment is used in testing or otherwise?

Thanks, more of a justification on my part than anything.

Troy

Troy, here is goes:

http://fancyflix.com/hd10.htm

First of all you need to determine, is the chroma noise I see ALL in my orignal footage or is it being enhanced by my playback equipment?
While there is most definately significant chroma noise in the original footage shot on the HD10U, I have found that the software and hardware you play back through may enhance that chroma noise a great deal and give a very distorted impression of just how much chroma noise there actually is.
Worst are the software playback players like Elecard and VLAN. Next is NOT playing back on an HDTV (not a computer monitor) that is capable of 720p native format. There are very few HDTV's that are actually capable of this, most do upconverts to 1o80i or downconverts to 480i, on the fly, so I would say that MOST people are probably getting quite a distorted impression of how much chroma noise is actually there.
Though I am by no means reccomending a Monivision monitor to anyone, the amount of chroma noise I see in flat areas of color (where it is most obvious) is far less when viewed directly from the camera, or after transfer to D_VHS, on this 720p capable monitor.

I hope this helps.

This looks like the same kind of noise I get on my Digital 8 cam under low light conditions.

some examples here from bealecorner:

http://www.bealecorner.com/trv900/d8/index.html
http://www.bealecorner.com/trv900/d8/trv110b.jpg

It looks like gain-up on SD cams. How about more fill light and a stronger ND filter?
Ken