I am editing a short film in avid media composer 6. I complete the edit and export an aaf. I import the aaf in after effects with automatic duck pro. I change the bit depth to 16 bit and suddenly my footage gets introduced to artifacts. They are just pink and blue specs which are all around on the image. They are mostly on highlights but are also showing up in mids and shadows. They are not in every shot but in most of them. The footage is from 5d mark2 which is imported in avid as DNxHD 115. I want to do the compositing and export a 16 bit tiff sequence for grading in resolve. Why are the artifacts showing and how to remove or avoid them. Please help me. They go when i switch back to 8 bit but I have to work in 16 bit.

Ok. When I import the clips in Avid Media Composer 6 I transcode them to DNxHD and I guess that is a REC 709 color space. it shows something like Yrcb 709. When I lock my picture, I take my aaf to after effects with automatic duck pro. It gives me a pre comp in after effects (btw i have cs5) and i use that. I change the bit depth to 16 bit and change the color management to hdtv Rec 709 (16-235). But it doesnt matter which color management settings i choose. i did apple rgb and the artifacts showed up. I did the srgb and the artifacts showed up. I chose 32 bit and the artifacts show up. Its not about exporting they are showing up in after effects. I export using the working color management with perserve rgb checked. I export it as a 16 bit Tiff sequence with trillions of colors. This is because I take these stills to Davinci Resovle lite. But the artifacts are really troubling me and yes they show up in the tiffs. What to do? Please help.

Here is an export jpg:

http://images.creativecow.net/238323/seq1.exported.01_00206.jpg

I presume AE and MC are on the same computer so the Avid codecs are the same?

Sounds like an issue with AE and it's decoding of the Avid codecs. But not heard this before.

Have you tried doing a tiff sequence export out of Avid to avoid the DNX export stage? (no good for the AAF but you can test a few clips that way.

With a compelx workflow like that it's imperative to do tests before you start down that route.

I'd also try a few other tests to see what makes a difference.

Transcode a short section to a variety of codecs from uncompressed downwards and AAF those.

Try with a few clips not from the 5D camera (horrid H264 compression!)

Unfortunately this is a bug with the DNxHD Quicktime codecs when asked by the host application to provide a 16-bit image.

You'll have to wait for Avid to fix it, but it's been broken for some time (v2.3.7 were built October 2011...)  We're all waiting.  It makes capturing DNxHD Quicktimes into DS completely useless.

It truly is a pain, and I REALLY wish they'd fix it.

Tony

Totally agree.  This has bagged me multiple times and ways.

And it will only get worse - Resolve 9 now supports DNx .mov files.  I can only imagine the number of files I will get from the free Resolve Lite that will have this issue.

Please fix ASAP.

Thanks

Jef

I think the artifacts that are in the jpeg are caused because YUV colourspace can have a full swing luminance value with colour, something that cannot be represented in a 444 signal. Canon's D's and Sony XDcam for insatnce are often full swing 422 with chroma in the highlights.

David Yardley:

I think the artifacts that are in the jpeg are caused because...

Nope.  ManChicken has described the root cause of the bug.  It happens when the host app calls for a 16 bit image.  You don't see the bug manifest itself in the MC product line because MC never calls for a 16 bit image from the codec (in fact, MC doesn't use the codec at all on import).

The codec is bust, and has been that way getting on for a year now.

Tony

Avid PLEASE fix this codec.  This is just unacceptable in all file based facilities.  I NEED to use Quicktimes in DS and MC, and if they're not importing correctly I will go to the app that imports correctly.  It's pretty embarrasing when I have to create work arounds in a system twice the price of setups that don't have this issue(Avid DS 10.5). Can you give us any sort of sign this is on you're radar? 

Thanks,

Ryan Mulvaney

Digital Media Team

Quicken Loans

Detroit, MI

Dear Avid,

It's been a month since I posted and I see no response to this MAJOR issue with your software, which in my all file based(and Quicktime based) facility render your product useless.  How am I not surprised.  But I will tell you this Smoke 2013 Beta software and Adobe CS 6 read Quicktimes pretty well so I'll go back to them for now.

Cheers,

Ryan Mulvaney

This problem has been plaguing us for several versions now, and really needs fixing.  DNXHD is a great compression scheme and THE one I would prefer to use, but this problem of artifacts and gamma shifting is simply making it non-useable.  PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS! PLEASE FIX IT GUYS!

Did I forget to mention, we would really like to see this get fixed?

Ok, I am seeing this as well. It has burned me on a deliverable from a designer that needed to be re-rendered.

THS NEEDS TO BE FIXED! Avid's own codec should play with it's own applications flawlessly.

Tom

Has anyone tried J2K instead yet ?

mjolnarn:

Has anyone tried J2K instead yet ?

Unfortunately, that's not really relevant when we're given DNxHD files from other sources.

Tony

tonyjover:

mjolnarn:

Has anyone tried J2K instead yet ?

Unfortunately, that's not really relevant when we're given DNxHD files from other sources.

Tony

Hi Tony, I understand that of course, just curious if the bug was fixed with J2K, if so users have a workaround for internal use, maybe I´ll do a test myself when I get some time for it.

Just to be clear, this is a problem with the DNxHD *Quicktime codecs* and not a general problem with DNxHD its self.

And I am constantly being hosed by this, more last week and this week as I online 8 shows full of what were originally DNxHD renders, that I now need to replace..

Avid, this is an embarrasment.  And I'm going to keep replying to this thread shoving it to the top until someone pays attention.