CAMERAS: A New Chart for Film-Style Production—The DSC OneShot

CAMERAS: A New Chart for Film-Style Production—The DSC OneShot:

In the old days of video, what we saw was what we got. Now, with log and raw, the possibilities are infinite. Only one of those possibilities, though, is what YOU want. Here’s how to make sure your vision is the one everyone else sees.

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Next-Generation Ethernet to Support 1Tb/s Speeds by 2015 - X-bit labs

Next-Generation Ethernet to Support 1Tb/s Speeds by 2015 - X-bit labs:
IEEE, the world's largest technology standard setting organization, has announced formation of the IEEE 802.3 industry connections higher speed Ethernet consensus group, to build consensus toward the development of the next speed of Ethernet. IEEE is looking forward towards 1Tb/s Ethernet standard by 2015 and 5Tb/s standard by 2020.

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When looking at timecode, how can I tell drop frame from non drop frame?

When looking at timecode, how can I tell drop frame from non drop frame?:
This questions used to get me every time until someone (I can’t remember who or I would give credit) told me drop frame is a semicolon because you “dropped” a period. (You dropped the period and have a comma instead, get it?)  Meaning non drop frame could only be a colon.

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50i-to-50p (or 60i-to-60p) double deinterlacing

50i-to-50p (or 60i-to-60p) double deinterlacing:
A 50i video can be deinterlaced to either 25p or 50p. A 25p deinterlace is an approximation of an originally shot (with too short shutter time) 25p video and a 50p deinterlace is an approximation of an originally shot 50p video. Naturally the approximations fall short of the goals because in each of them half the lines are constructions. Using complex deinterlacers the constructions can be very good. For each high quality deinterlacer the approximation to the 50p goal will be just as good as the approximation to the 25p goal. The 50p goal contains more information than the 25p goal. More of the 50i information is preserved in the 50p deinterlace than in the 25p deinterlace. Whether that extra information can be of use in the final output depends on the case at hand.

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New EBU subtitling specification published

New EBU subtitling specification published: EBU-TT is a new XML-based subtitling specification that's suitable for modern file-based production methods.

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Understanding Bits, Bytes and Bottlenecks

DV 101: Data Rates for Digital Production: Understanding Bits, Bytes and Bottlenecks | www.creativeplanetnetwork.com:
Despite the fact that it’s 2012 and we’re more than a decade into the digital revolution of high definition (and beyond) moving images, there is still a very narrow bottleneck that keeps digital shooters from getting everything they want. That bottleneck is data.

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All You Can See

All You Can See:
What is 4K? That’s a good question without a simple answer. Nominally, 4K denotes a moving-image system with 4096 active (image-carrying) picture elements (pixels) per row. At one time, it was considered to have 2048 active rows; now 2160 — twice HDTV’s 1080 — is more common. But, if twice HDTV is appropriate vertically, why not horizontally, too? Sure enough, some call 3840 pixels across the screen 4K (others call it Quad HD, because twice the number horizontally and vertically results in four times the number of pixels of 1080-line HDTV).

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Tying it All Together

Tying it All Together:
This article connects the dots among Serial Digital Interface (SDI), image compression, the invention of the Advanced Authoring Format / Material eXchange Format (AAF / MXF) data model, the MXF wrapper format, the subsequent development of AS-02, AS-03 and other MXF application specifications, developments in high-speed networking technology and network security, the SMPTE 2022 Standard for Professional Video over IP transmission, the recent activities of the Hollywood-based ETC’s Interoperable Mastering Format (IMF), which has recently moved into SMPTE, and the Advanced Media Workflow Association / European Broadcasting Union (AMWA / EBU) Task Force on the Framework for Interoperable Media Services (FIMS), concentrating on service-oriented media workflows.

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ITU lays out recommendations on 3DTV, Ultra High Definition TV standards (video)

ITU lays out recommendations on 3DTV, Ultra High Definition TV standards (video):

The ITU has stayed busy, as we mentioned earlier it met to hammer out standards for UHDTV (Ultra High Definition TV), and also recently announced a new set of recommendations for 3DTV.

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ITU meets to define 4K and 8K UHDTV parameters

ITU meets to define 4K and 8K UHDTV parameters:

This month NHK has been previewing a slew of Super Hi-Vision equipment, but there's still much work to be done to make high res broadcasts a reality worldwide. There's where the ITU steps in, and as it did for HDTV back in the 90s it's been meeting to decide just what 4K and 8K Ultra High Definition TV (UHDTV) broadcasts are and how they will work. There's no word on minimum pixel counts for the standards -- we expect that quad-HD vs. 4K battle to rage on, remember these are the people who "defined" 4G -- but they're establishing color range, frame rate, and whether the broadcasts will go over unused satellite bandwidth or regular antenna frequencies. If you're somehow confused by the 33MP video streams that are coming our way... some day, check out a video featuring European Broadcast Union Deputy Director of Technology and Development David Wood.

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The ITU Sets the Standards for Our 4K & 8K Future

The ITU Sets the Standards for Our 4K & 8K Future:

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), which sets standards for broadcast around the world, has released their specifications for Ultra HD Television (UHDTV). We have been talking about 4K and 8K cameras for sometime now, but getting the standards down in the broadcast world requires a lot of research. The ITU standards that you all know and use everyday include their Recommendation 709 gamma and color space for HD video. With Ultra HD, they have set the 4K resolution at 3840×2160, which is 2x 1920×1080 in both directions and keeps the same aspect ratio of 16:9.

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The Evolution of NTSC Color Bars (video)

The Evolution of NTSC Color Bars (video):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYc7c-HuGRM&fmt=18
(NOTE: The colors may look different on some systems, based on such variables as different web browsers, i.e. Netscape / Firefox / Flock vs. Internet Explorer, or which Flash player, e.g. Version 9 vs. Version 10.)
In view of the upcoming demise of the analogue-based NTSC color TV system which had been in effect since 1954, here are recreations of key major electronic color bar designs, going back to the earliest days of the NTSC color system in 1954 (note how the -I and +Q matrices are initially bunched together before the 100% white bar is placed in-between them), all through the development of EIA RS-189A color bars (with and without PLUGE) and the iconic SMPTE bars (originally classified ECR 1-1978, later renamed EG 1-1990).

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MPEG-7 AVDP: a new ISO standard

MPEG-7 AVDP: a new ISO standard:
The MPEG-7 AudioVisual Description Profile (AVDP) has become a new ISO International Standard. Its support for automatic extraction tools can make the generation of metadata less costly.

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4:2:2 vs. 4:4:4

4:2:2 vs. 4:4:4:
I blogged about my F3 S-Log 4:4:4 10-bit uncompressed recording workflow a while ago. Just a quick breakdown: When shooting with my F3, I want to get the best possible image out of it. I am doing some serious colorgrading for some projects, so bitrate and bitdepth is important to me. Back in November 2011 I was searching for the perfect recording solution for my F3. The options were...

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Understanding pixel aspect ratio

Understanding pixel aspect ratio
Learn how to eliminate image distortion by identifying the pixel aspect ratio of your assets, and choosing sequence presets to match.

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Mozilla considers H.264 video support after Google's WebM fails to gain traction

Mozilla considers H.264 video support after Google's WebM fails to gain traction
Mozilla's director of research Andreas Gal has proposed enabling mobile H.264 video decoding via hardware or the underlying operating system, signaling the end to the group's war on the Apple-led H.264 video codec.

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PsF’s missing workflow, Part 10: FCP X

PsF’s missing workflow, Part 10: FCP X: How to deal with 25PsF and 29.97PsF with Final Cut Pro X In parts 1-3 of the PsF’s missing workflow series, we introduced the terms benign PsF & malignant PsF, and revealed the PsF status of several AVCHD cameras from 3 manufacturers. In #4, we did the same with several HD recorders. In #5, we revealed how one recorder manufacturer...

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Film Aspect Ratio Overview and Tutorial

Film Aspect Ratio Overview and Tutorial
Trying to decide what's the best aspect film ratios for your indie films?
Mike gives a detailed overview of the different aspect ratios using just a regular HD camera that shoots in 16:9 as well as using Premiere Pro.

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Leap year and drop-frame timecode are conceptually the same

Leap year and drop-frame timecode are conceptually the same
For those in the media production industries, February 29 was a good day to revisit drop-frame SMPTE timecode, because both leap year and drop-frame timecode came into being for the sole purpose of reconciling two different time bases on which we do things with mundane regularity.

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HD Monitor Calibration - SMPTE, ARIB, and White Balance

HD Monitor Calibration - SMPTE, ARIB, and White Balance:
I haven't spent a whole lot of time revisting old entries on this site. The most widely read post here was one written January 8, 2008 about HD Monitor Calibration using ARIB Bars. It's one of the only articles on the net that specifically addresses working with ARIB which is the reason for the traffic. Because of its continued use, I feel an overhaul probing a little deeper into the topic is beneficial to anyone referencing it. The article that used to reside here will be replaced by this current entry.


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