video noise problem

Paul Marschall · September 1, 2004

I recently telecined some anamorphic 35mm footage (800T) to digibeta and DVcam and had it looking good in the telecine suite, but when the director took it home and watched the DVcam on a regular tv the image looked aweful. The blacks were no longer black, but a milky, grainy and blue mess. He proceded to do the offline edit anyway and then did an online with the digibeta dailies followed by a color correction session. This result looked great. But then, again, the DVcam dubs were made and look aweful.

I've done projects this way many times and never had this problem. The project itself is pretty dark, grainy, and there are underexposed scenes (purposely) but I don't know how to account for the huge discrepancy between the look in the online suite and a regular tv. Thoughts?

Alessandro Machi · September 1, 2004

You need to confirm that the DVCAM has a problem by playing it somewhere else. One television monitor in somehome's home is not enough info to assume there is a problem.

I'd bring it back to the tranfer facility and ask for a brief viewing. The other issue that could be going on is the black level is being viewed at zero black in the studio but then the dub is being made at 7.5 IRE.

In theory this should not make the picture horrible looking but it's possible some of the grain and noise was "hidden" by using zero black or even subtley crushing the black. Also, really old TV's can produce the kind of image you are talking about.

Phil Rhodes · September 1, 2004

Hi,

Absolutely, you can't take it home and watch it on your TV then complain on the basis of that. Even if you have two broadcast monitors which disagree, you need to try it on several to isolate the problem.

Phil

John Pytlak RIP · September 1, 2004

Home television monitors are almost never set up correctly, and the viewing conditions are rarely controlled. Screen luminance (white levels), black levels, gray scale tracking, raster size, chroma, hue, color purity, convergence, ringing/peaking (sharpness), etc. are likely to vary considerably. Never make a decision based upon viewing on a consumer-grade television set. :blink:

Paul Marschall · September 1, 2004

Yes, I understand not to trust a home television, but the difference is so grossly different than anything I've seen before I think it is more than just that.