Looking for Vectorscope to Use.

[HoosierGuy]

I'm reading a new book on color correction and the book has a lot of info about wave form monitors and vectorscopes and how to read the image and change the
shadows, mid tones and highlights.

I have Sony Vegas Studio 10 but I don't think there is a wave form monitor or vectorscope in it. Are there any other free programs that I can download that I can run video
through and have it show me the information on a waveform monitor and vectorscope and also allow me to change the basic settings like black/white, gamma mid-tones, etc...? I'm not looking for something that is professional or top quality. I just want something that I can use while I read this book.

Thanks

[edDV]

I'm reading a new book on color correction and the book has a lot of info about wave form monitors and vectorscopes and how to read the image and change the
shadows, mid tones and highlights.

I have Sony Vegas Studio 10 but I don't think there is a wave form monitor or vectorscope in it. Are there any other free programs that I can download that I can run video
through and have it show me the information on a waveform monitor and vectorscope and also allow me to change the basic settings like black/white, gamma mid-tones, etc...? I'm not looking for something that is professional or top quality. I just want something that I can use while I read this book.

Thanks

You should upgrade to Vegas Pro. Better yet get a real combo waveform monitor vector scope on eBay.
The main limitation of the Vegas monitors is they don't work during capture. You have to do test captures.

[HoosierGuy]

You should upgrade to Vegas Pro. Better yet get a real combo waveform monitor vector scope on eBay.
The main limitation of the Vegas monitors is they don't work during capture. You have to do test captures.


[Attachment 6170 - Click to enlarge]

Test captures? You mean the Vegas monitors do not work while transferring from camcorder to hard drive? I would have to load my video first on my PC and then use the scope in Vegas Pro?

Does Vegas Pro have a waveform monitor? Does Sony offer discounts for upgrades from Vegas Studio to Pro?

I did a quick look on ebay. I did not know used ones went so low - around $250.00 But how in the world would I hook it up? I would want to use it on the video I take with my MiniDV cam after I load it on my computer. Are they able to hook up to PC's and if so with want kind of connection?

[edDV]

You should upgrade to Vegas Pro. Better yet get a real combo waveform monitor vector scope on eBay.
The main limitation of the Vegas monitors is they don't work during capture. You have to do test captures.

Test captures? You mean the Vegas monitors do not work while transferring from camcorder to hard drive? I would have to load my video first on my PC and then use the scope in Vegas Pro?

Sad but true. Important only for analog captures.

Does Vegas Pro have a waveform monitor? Does Sony offer discounts for upgrades from Vegas Studio to Pro?

You will see the waveform monitor above.

You just missed a half price upgrade. Register for the Sony Digital emails.

I did a quick look on ebay. I did not know used ones went so low - around $250.00 But how in the world would I hook it up? I would want to use it on the video I take with my MiniDV cam after I load it on my computer. Are they able to hook up to PC's and if so with want kind of connection?

I think they go for more than that. That was a current bid. Look for a "buy now" price or monitor the closing bid..

A MiniDV capture will be digital bit for bit tape to hard drive. No need to monitor it.

If you were doing analog pass through capture, then you would want scopres active during capture.



Analog example

[HoosierGuy]

[QUOTE=edDV;2066835][QUOTE=HoosierGuy;2066833]

I think they go for more than that. That was a current bid. Look for a "buy now" price or monitor the closing bid..

A MiniDV capture will be digital bit for bit tape to hard drive. No need to monitor it.

If you were doing analog pass through capture, then you would want scopres active during capture.


[Attachment 6172 - Click to enlarge]

Analog example

[Attachment 6173 - Click to enlarge]

Are the software vectorscopes and waveforms in Sony Vegas and other editing programs like Final Cut Pro are as good as the hardware vectorscopes and waveform monitors? Are they better or superior or are the hardware scopes better? I've bought three video books in the last month and a half and all seem to be written about five years ago or so. Lots of talk about Avid and something called Apple Color but nothing about Final Cut Pro or CS5 or Sony Vegas Pro.

[HoosierGuy]

Yeah, now I want to upgrade from Vegas Studio Platinum to Pro. What kind of deals to do they offer?

[edDV]

[QUOTE=HoosierGuy;2066844][QUOTE=edDV;2066835]

I think they go for more than that. That was a current bid. Look for a "buy now" price or monitor the closing bid..

A MiniDV capture will be digital bit for bit tape to hard drive. No need to monitor it.

If you were doing analog pass through capture, then you would want scopres active during capture.

Are the software vectorscopes and waveforms in Sony Vegas and other editing programs like Final Cut Pro are as good as the hardware vectorscopes and waveform monitors? Are they better or superior or are the hardware scopes better? I've bought three video books in the last month and a half and all seem to be written about five years ago or so. Lots of talk about Avid and something called Apple Color but nothing about Final Cut Pro or CS5 or Sony Vegas Pro.

Analog hardware waveform monitor-vectorscopes monitor the analog signal before analog to digital conversion. For 8 bit video it is important to nail levels before A/D. If these capture programs allowed real time monitoring in preview before capture, they could mostly replace the analog equipment but they don't. All you can do is test capture and see what you captured.

Note that in 8 bit video, post capture levels correction is lossy due to course levels. 235-16 leaves only 219 luminance levels to work with. 8 bit color correction is so 1980's. The pros went 10 bit in the early 90's. 10 bit works in the 64-960 levels black to nominal white range. Today movies use 12-14 bit luma quantization.

Bottom line is for 8 bit capture, you need to get levels right before A/D.

If you are shooting with digital camcorders, they have done the heavy lifting for you. Most MiniDV camcorders produce good 16-255 levels so your "correction" job is to correct nominal whites down from 255 to 235. Unfortunately most consumer cams have significant clipping at 255 as a trade off for noise. Prosumer cams like the Sony VX/PD models have a knee to suppress overshoots down closer to 235 limiting overshots into 236-255.

80% of "color correction" is getting the luminance levels inside 16-235 for 8 bit video.

[poisondeathray]

You can download the 30-day trial to play with the scopes while you read your book

The only free software that I know of that has a vectorscope is blender's video sequence editor

Luminace waveforms are more common and can be found in some vdub plugins, or avisynth (videoscope or histogram)