color grading within power director tools vs color director

antiman

Newbie Joined: Dec 16, 2017 12:45 Messages: 29 Offline

Solved by

May 25, 2018 15:40

hi all

so i'm finding that when i mess with color grading in color director, the preview window playback suffers. i have lowered preview resolution and my computer is 16gb ram yet still playback is fairly choppy.

because of this, with my latest home movie i made i did all edits then color graded and went right to produce. i've set custom resolution presets for final output quality for 24fps and 60 fps depending on what i shoot, final output looks pretty good but on my tv at home i see some compression cubes, not BAD, but they're there in the sky or big open areas...

so today i open the same project to play with it some more, and i discover that if i use the tools within power director (after removing the previous grading) the playback is just fine! it can handle my tinkering with it's look...

so my questions are these.

i haven't yet spit out a produced project (with the PD tool set) but i'm curious, are these tools 'lesser quality' and will they affect the final output? i can get a similar look here without going into color director... just not sure if it will cheapen the final output...

is there a way to make a 'lut' out of the settings and apply it quickly? all the footage is from the same time of day, same location...

and finally,

it would be great if there was a simple way to remove ALL effects from an entire project/revert all back to 'untouched' video. does this exist or do i need to open each clip with the fix/enhance tool?

thanks everyone for reading and any help. i'm having a ball with this software (photo director too!)

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at May 25. 2018 15:42

ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline

May 31, 2018 21:13

Hi antiman -

As far as I could understand what you've done, I tried to replicate your steps.

Using a UHD video clip shot on Sony RX10iii - 3840x2160 @ 60Mbps - I:

Sent it to CDR (round tripping), applied adjustments then back to PDR for production

Applied the same adjustments directly in CDR & produced to the same format/profile as 1. (no PDR involved)

Applied the same adjustments directly in PDR & produced to the same format/profile as 1. (no CDR directly involved)

The produced videos, according to MediaInfo, are close to identical & I could detect no visual differences between them played on PC or UHD TV. None of the (much younger) people in the room could spot any differences either.

In answer to your question "Is there a way to make a 'lut' out of the settings and apply it quickly?" No - you can't make a LUT, but you can create a Color Preset in CDR which will then be available in PDR. e.g. Here's the preset I saved in 1. (above) that is now available in CDR & PDR (under Color Presets).

As far as I know/can tell the tools in PDR are not "lesser quality", even though CDR is capable of finer & more complex adjustments.

Maybe I've missed something in what you posted.

Cheers - Tony

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at May 31. 2018 21:13

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antiman

Newbie Joined: Dec 16, 2017 12:45 Messages: 29 Offline

Jun 01, 2018 11:49

thanks for the reply,

yea, i did eventually spit out a copy and the two are indeed identical in size, it's just a matter of taste i guess whether or not the PD tools are adequate. for what i was doing they're just fine. (still scratching my head as to why color directors tools slow down playback)

i have made color presets in cdr, after reading your post i went to look for them and once i pulled down from the tab 'all presets' i could indeed see the ones i'd made in cdr. however once applied they still cause playback to be choppy. this is what made me wonder if the tools were far superior, like the quality put a large strain on the computer's ability to play back.

at any rate, thanks for the reply, i'm finding plenty of room to play within the pd tools... (i think their presets are for the most part lame tho, far too severe in most cases! i wanted to try my hand at more cinematic looking color grading)

Quote Hi antiman -

As far as I could understand what you've done, I tried to replicate your steps.

Using a UHD video clip shot on Sony RX10iii - 3840x2160 @ 60Mbps - I:

Sent it to CDR (round tripping), applied adjustments then back to PDR for production

Applied the same adjustments directly in CDR & produced to the same format/profile as 1. (no PDR involved)

Applied the same adjustments directly in PDR & produced to the same format/profile as 1. (no CDR directly involved)

The produced videos, according to MediaInfo, are close to identical & I could detect no visual differences between them played on PC or UHD TV. None of the (much younger) people in the room could spot any differences either.

In answer to your question "Is there a way to make a 'lut' out of the settings and apply it quickly?" No - you can't make a LUT, but you can create a Color Preset in CDR which will then be available in PDR. e.g. Here's the preset I saved in 1. (above) that is now available in CDR & PDR (under Color Presets).

As far as I know/can tell the tools in PDR are not "lesser quality", even though CDR is capable of finer & more complex adjustments.

Maybe I've missed something in what you posted.

Cheers - Tony

ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Offline

Jun 01, 2018 16:48

Hi again -

Quote: so i'm finding that when i mess with color grading in color director, the preview window playback suffers.

That's something I totally agree with you about, having observed the same thing, but I neglected to comment on it before.

To verify, I tested with hardware decoding checked/unchecked in both PDR & CDR (same settings). This time I used 1080p @ 24Mbps clips from Canon XA20, so the higher bitrate wasn't a factor in playback.

In PDR, I bumped contrast, vibrancy & sharpness up to 10. Playback with preview resolution was smooth. In CDR, using the same clips & making the same adjustments, playback stuttered. This occurred whether I was round tripping or working directly in CDR.

I don't agree that this indicates the CDR tools are inferior, mainly because the produced files are visually identical (here) if I match the output format/profile.

But - yes - there's certainly some issue with CDR playback compared with PDR.

Cheers - Tony
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