Hoping for pro-res on the hyperdeck soon

[Tony Partamian]

After announcing the BMD cinema camera which has the same recorder as hyperdeck and includes pro-res, i see a firmware upgrade soon giving the hyperdeck the same codec.

edit: it's been added on the studio version only...hoping the shuttle can handle that too.

[Paul Kapp]

Black Magic Cinema Camera looks sensational.
Personally I can take or leave ProRes.
DNxHD will do me.

[Jay Bloomfield]

Having ProRes makes the unit more valuable to many users, but I probably wouldn't use it either, except that there are a few Windows-based programs that will work properly with ProRes and won't with DNxHD. Also, we'll have to see if the DNxHD color range issue (cRGB vs sRGB) has been addressed in the new Hyperdeck 3.0 software.

[Paul Kapp]

Jay: "Having ProRes makes the unit more valuable to many users."

True, but at least it is no longer compulsory to work with ProRes.

[Tony Partamian]

But if you are using FCP, the gamma shift on DNxHD is scary.
What is happening to our footage?
It is still not safe to use it until someone explains the issue.

[Jay Bloomfield]

I think that I covered it somewhere else previously. But the gist of of the color issue with the shuttle DNxHD files is that the metadata in the files indicate that the the video stream is 10 bit and sRGB (no super blacks and whites), even though the stream is supposedly 10 bit and cRGB. I used a program to display the metadata and then I edited the metadata with a hex editor to change to it from studio (64-940) to full color range (0-1023). Original metadata snippet:

CIEssenceDescriptor InstanceUID = {daa94d91-6dd8-fae0-e4a2-739abd196d03}
ContainerDuration = 1377
SampledWidth = 1920
SampledHeight = 1080
StoredWidth = 1920
StoredHeight = 1080
DisplayWidth = 1920
DisplayHeight = 1080
SampleRate = 30000/1001
ComponentDepth = 10
PictureEssenceCoding = [060e2b34.0401.010a.04010202.71070000]
ColorRange = 897
WhiteReflevel = 940
BlackRefLevel = 64
ColorSiting = 4
VerticalSubsampling = 1
HorizontalSubsampling = 2
ImageAlignmentOffset = 8192
AspectRatio = 16/9
VideoLineMap
VideoLineMapEntry = 26
VideoLineMapEntry =
FrameLayout = 0
DisplayYOffset = 0
DisplayXOffset = 0
SampledYOffset = 0
SampledXOffset = 0
EssenceContainer = [060e2b34.0101.01ff.4b464141.000d4d4f]

As you can see, the range is from 64-940, not 0-1023.

Some software reads the files correctly and some doesn't, depending on whether it uses the metadata or ignores it entirely. It's possible that the version 3.0 of the firmware has fixed this, but I haven't shot anything using the Shuttle, since I did the upgrade yesterday.

[Tony Partamian]

I tried 3.0 and the gamma shift is still there.

Is there any way to open these DNxHD files in after effects? it's not importing the files with an error.

[Jay Bloomfield]

If you disable importing audio, the file will open with AE CS5, but I haven't tried that yet with 3.0 and AE CS5.5. This has been a known issue with both AE CS5, PPro CS5 and AE CS5.5. PPro CS5.5 has a updated Quicktime Importer that will import the Shuttle files.

The problem is supposedly that the Shuttle files have 16 audio tracks. You can also get around this by rewriting the file with ffmbc to another MOV with only two audio channels. The process is fast, since you are just copying one video stream and two audio streams within a new wrapper and there is no encoding. I've done this workaround successfully.

[Tony Partamian]

Thanks Jay for your help.

Do you know of a similar software on the mac to automate the removal of audio?
Also we need a script to re-write the metadata to fix the gamma thing.

[Jay Bloomfield]

Using QT Player Pro, if you disable the audio track under "Movie Properties", AE CS5.5 will open the file. I'm not familiar with the Mac enough to suggest a demuxing program for OSX. Try the QT Player first and see if that works for you.

[Jay Bloomfield]

Originally Posted by Tony Partamian

Thanks Jay for your help.

Do you know of a similar software on the mac to automate the removal of audio?
Also we need a script to re-write the metadata to fix the gamma thing.

I'm somewhat confident that just fooling with the metadata won't help. It really depends on how the software that reads the file uses the Avid DNxHD codec. Avid software works correctly (so people say, as I don't use MC), as does BMD Resolve. The Calibrated{Q} MXF Importer also works properly with DNxHD MOV files and their website has a good explanation of what they think is happening.

Probably for some more cash, CS6 will work correctly also.

[Jonathan Bird]

I too have been hoping for ProRes on the Hyperdeck and have sent several e-mails to the engineering staff on the importance of this format. I would like to think they listened--because here it is.

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