Tim, Great!!

Hey Tim,

Just to make sure I'm getting this all correctly, do you think you could write up a quick step by step summary of all your exporting process... ie:

1. Capture HDVLink
2. Covert mpeg to quicktime .mov in tmpeg
3. Edit .mov in PP2.0
4. Export from PP using Adobe Media Encoder (what format?)
etc, etc?

I am so desperate to figure out why my H.264's are coming out soo washed out. You seem to have a similar setup but are correcting the problem somehow. Thanks for any help.

Hi Deke - sorry for the delay posting, too much work!

I actually converted all the movs into DV format (SD) for the edit, then compiled all the footage manually in 720p in After Effects from the SD edit, as I couldn't edit HDV in the Premiere Pro version I have. But out of After Effects I exported a photo Jpeg set to I think 90%, then opened that with Quicktime Pro and exported it at about 70% quality h.264 - the export settings were:

Adjustments - Alpha Gain: Bottom Pin 0 / Top Pin 255 / Gain 1.0 / Offset 0
Brighness 0 / Contrast 0
HSL / RGB balance all 0
Blur set to least
In Filters, everything set to either thinnest, least or 0.
Sharpen set to least
All effects off

I get the washed out look if I export h.264 direct from After Effects, but it's fine if I export Photo Jpeg. Also exporting h.264 direct from AE produces much larger files than exporting at the same data rate from Quicktime Pro, which is pretty weird!

New link (the other one died again): http://www.eyecatcherfilms.com/Debt_..._720p_h264.mov

Hope this helps!!

AAAAArrrrhhh!!!! Link tinkered with again by outside forces - here it is AGAIN!!

www.eyecatcherfilms.com/DC_720p_h264.mov

Hi Tim,

great work - I've just bought an XH-A1, (mainly to match CG with) so I'm trawling the forums for tips.

Is there any chance of posting a still frame of the unretouched footage?
I'm having a little problem with grain, but your movie looks extremely smooth.

I've turned off the AGC, and tried your settings but my footage does seem a lot grainier than other samples I've seen.

Thanks,

Steve

Steve, here are some caps from the raw HDV footage:

www.eyecatcherfilms.com/Beach_raw.jpg
www.eyecatcherfilms.com/City_raw.jpg
www.eyecatcherfilms.com/Office_close_raw.jpg
www.eyecatcherfilms.com/Office_wide_raw.jpg
www.eyecatcherfilms.com/Park_close_raw.jpg
www.eyecatcherfilms.com/Park_wide_raw.jpg

Notice the blue bias and underexposure in most shots - it didn't look like that on the monitor we used! Also I'm using Grain Surgery on this to reduce the noise - it was shot at -3db but it was still too noisy, especially after grading.

If you haven't bought this camera yet, I'd seriously consider the HVX. I say that as an A1 owner, who has just spent £2.5k on it, so I'd love to be able to say it's the best camera in the world, but to be completely honest I think it has major faults. The main pros and cons for me are:

Pros: High resolution, cheap production costs (i.e., mini DV tapes), good HDV quality (noticably better than previous HDV cameras).

Cons: Undersaturated colour (even at max setting), visible stepping in Frame mode, video-looking flat gamma response (gets worse not better with the Cine settings).

I don't think either camera has the edge noise-wise, from what I've read the HVX is just as noisy. I think that's just what you have to accept in this price range.

For me the HVX was simply too expensive once I'd have bought the P2 cards and storage, etc, so the A1 was the only real option I had. But the visible stepping and lack of colour is a real pain. In all honesty I really think Canon could have done a lot better with this camera.

Thanks Tim,

I'd already bought it when you'd posted, although to be honest I mainly bought it as a (very) expensive toy, that I could use to source footage with. and the Panasonic was a bit too much to justify.

Toy's probably being a bit harsh though, my main work is producing CG, and I've started to have some client interest in matching CG with existing footage, not just locked off shots, but moving shots.

I've been tinkering with a programme called Syntheyes for ages, which reconstructs the camera move from points in the real footage, but DV was quite hard work, hence the Canon to create footage I can cut my teeth on.

To be honest, most of the cons don't worry me that much, as I do a lot of colour correction on my shots, since they usually have CG elements comped in anyway.

I did shoot some footage today with your settings, although since I was moving, the NR1 setting produced noticeable trails (I guess since most of your shots were locked off, it didn't really show on the commercial)

My Gain is set to 0 at the moment, so it's still a little grainy, but not as bad as it was. I'll try taking it down to -3db and see how it looks. Combustion has grain removal tools, but I'm not sure how they compare to Grain Surgery.

Thanks,

Steve