Hello,

Has anyone been able to get a successful chroma key shooting DVCProHD? And if so, how did you do it and is there any way to see it?

Someone I know did a test on a Nitris and it didn't chroma key well at all. I don't know what was done, but that doesn't make sense to me. Is there any reason anyone knows of why you'd be able to chroma key well with old Betacam but not with DVCProHD?

I'm thinking maybe they went in with firewire and it doesn't work unless you go in HDSDI. But I haven't been able to find anyone who has done this with this format, or HDV that I can see, so I'm trying to find out if this is possible and what the problems truly are (or aren't).

Info appreciated!

Thanks,

Rachael

Capture method and format will have a lot to do with this.
As well, of course, as the setup on set. (screen & foreground lighting, etc.)

I haven't keyed DVCPro HD, but have done lots of 4:2:2 HD from CineAlta cameras. The resolution of the CineAlta is larger, but, when captured at 10bit 4:2:2, the image quality and key-ability should be about the same from a data-spec standpoint.

It should key quite well if the shot was setup properly in the first place.

Which camera was used?
How was the data captured?

If you capture via SDI, it may have a slight advantage in that the deck applies chroma smoothing when you capture via SDI (but not firewire). This is the case with standard definition formats, I don't know what happens with HD.

If you capture firewire, your system may have a chroma smoothing/interpolation filter available to get a cleaner key.

2- Some keying software is better than others.

3- With some chroma keyers, it is better to light the screen dark so you have less spill on the subject. Other chroma keyers with spill suppression options work better with a brightly lit screen (the documentation should say if this is the case).