In a message dated 12/27/11 1:44:53 PM, steveo@practicali.com writes:
if sony has indeed developed a NEW SR codec that isn't h264 that would be interesting
Let me get this straight. Are you saying Adobe should come up with some entirely new visually lossless codec completely free of patent encumbrance and neither low bitrate nor high bitrate but perfect for whatever it is that you do? And it has to be more original than Sony, MPEG, SMPTE, ISO, Fraunhofer and whoever else could come up with, or you're just going to yawn at it from utter boredom?
YES. it was needed 10 years ago, and that need has not gone away. if anything its gotten worse because of :
1. a great codec thats closed and not fully cross platform
2. is "open" but has other problems like patents
3. was never given a chance, ie digital cinema format
4. an ok codec with licensing restrictions / problems
honestly its probably impossible to do anything with software these days that doesn't touch some body's patent. its amazing the k-rap the patent office has given out patents on, especially in the realm of software for which they have no clue about. patent reform is a bit out of scope here.
Sony hasn't come up with anything new it seems.
Adobe is one of the few companies large enough to do this. I don't ask them to do it for free. I'd be willing to pay something reasonable per seat for it. I'd also require that the 100 year rule be answered - there a published spec that some one can write against to at least be able to decode the file down the road. adobe can also pick up revenue from licensing it into hardware like cameras and recorders. just like other adobe technologies that just keep earning them money every year.
I'm tired of living in fear of apple cutting ProRes loose, or coming up with ProRes II and never fixing the gamma shift problems with ProRes. I've got hundreds of hours of material in ProRes. I know thats nothing compared to what the networks have. I'm waiting for apple to do something to completely screw this up and I can then convert to something new.
B&W RGB separation prints don't work for most folks either :(
so I need a medium bit rate lossless / slightly lossy codec. one I can use everyday to edit on with bare drives, over gigabit if I need to without having huge problems. DV50 was a great SD codec, but we never had DV200 HD. 4:2:2 full raster is good enough for everyday
Here's a tip for you: use AE's Cineon Converter utility to convert Lin-Log with zero Softclip (highlight rolloff), and save as QuickTime Photo-JPEG at around 90-95. Now you have what is effectively a 10-bit file that's completely x-plat compatible (Mac, Win, Lin, Irix, OS2, etc.), inverts back to linear and/or can hold out of range black or white values (you can premult and use the old "matte on super-black" trick), is pretty close to visually lossless, and is available to you right now at no cost.
