We have a feature documentary beautifully finished in DS in Sweden. I’m in Hollywood now to try and sell it. Watching the finished DVD on American TVs it seems to lack color when compared to other programming. I have the entire project on a hard-drive but our budget is exhausted. I’m wondering if a DS studio can open the project and raise the color saturation slightly across the board with one global setting; i.e. very easily (and cheaply) without negatively affecting all the great work that has been done?

Thank you in advance for your time.

Hi, don't know if I have any answer to you at all,
but since no one else seems to be barking in,
I'll give a shot a it. Or at least to the "problematics"
that can be involved.

First of all, you can put a "colour correction effect"
at the top-most, i.e SFX-level, which effects all the
layers beneath.

But there are some "but's" to how successful opening
a DS project, on another DS-system, can be.

You have to check if you used any plugins in the DS
in Sweden, and if that's the case, that same plugins have
to be on the DS you open the project up on in the States.
Some strange and really timeconsuming artifacts can
come from not having the plugins installed. And in
timeconsuming I mean that it can take a hell of a time
for the guy opening the project to come to a conclusion
of what the problem is. And that could obviously cost
some "pretty pennies" before anything "real" even have
been done to the program.

Which DS-version the project is created in and then
opened up in could also be more of less of an issue,
depending on if you just have a copy of the project or
if the project has been properly archived. Archiving
(most if the time) gives a better "latter-version
compability".

Sorry for the "negative" attitude, but I just want you to
be cautious since you mention that your "budget is
exhausted". Dollars move rapidly out of your wallet
when your "out in DS country". Or any other "high-end
finshing suite" facility, of any brand, for that matter.

But ok, let's say that you got the project "in" and corrected,
then there are some options to get out of there:

1. Exporting to a high-rez format (for example QuickTime),
which means you'll suffer a render pass, and then that QT-file
has to converted to a MPEG-2 file, which then has to be
authored to a new DVD. Since I guess it's DVD you want
to end up at again?

2. Output to tape. Don't think that this is a realistic option,
but it depends on how the facility house you end up at will
work. This also then has to be captured to preferrably MPEG-2
and authored

3. Output from the DS directly to a capture device that can
convert from SDI to a MPEG-2 file in realtime. And then author it.

The latter two "real-time-outputs" will probably also need render
passes before they can be output.

Anyway as I see it the winner of the "less-timeconsuming-contest"
would be #3.

There is also a "sneak"-option that I think should be considered
when the budget is tight.

And that is to rip the DVD-content to a MPEG-2-file or maybe
a High-rez QuickTime or AVI, and then make the changes in
some program, like Premiere, Vegas or the like and then
export (and yes, recompress) to a new MPEG-2, and then
re-author.

This is something you even can manage on a "not-so-hefty"
laptop if you have the right programs installed.

It might seem strange to give this type of "cheap"-solution advice
on a high-end forum as the DS forum, but I see not reason to
blow a probably non-existant budget even further into utopia.

Anyway, good luck and I hope some of these words helped you get
some insight on to which route to embark in "solving this matter".

//mike

Thanks Mike!

I'll output the final to DigiBeta as my master, need it for festivals and such. I have a pretty good price in Hollywood to run off DVDs from BigiBeta, not sure what compression he uses but it looks OK.

So I understand that assuming the DS systems are compatible a general increase in color is pretty simple. Thanks for that info!

BR/Tom

tmca50:

I'll output the final to DigiBeta as my master, need it for festivals and such.

I suppose you could dub that Digibeta with the Chroma pot turned up a snort on the playback machine.  Or try and book 2 hours of linear SD time to do it.  That will be far less than booking 3+ hours of DS time.