OT: More NAB news. AVC-Ultra from Panasnoic.

Includes 4k, 2k, 444, 422.

Universal DI maybe?

http://cinescopophilia.com/panasonic-4k-avc-ultra-h-264-444-mezzanine-compr...

Should have read closer. It says 4K 12 bit - phew

[Jeremy Garchow] "I was so excited I misspelled Panasonic. Now corrected.

Jeremy"

You aren't the first, Jeremy.

I remember my first grown up trip to NYC - and was walking by a typical electronic store in midtown Manhattan - and saw the very, very aggressive price on a Panasonic component I'd been thinking about buying. Was about to enter the store when I suddenly noticed that there was an extra "o" in the Panasoanic box graphics....

(grin)

"Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions."-Justice O'Connor

No alpha = totally sad.

I'd sign.

[Andrew Richards] "Can (does) any sort of MPEG-4 support alpha? Is that just a limitation of the spec?"

Actually -- yes it does, sort of.

The MPEG4 Simple Studio Profile supports auxiliary channels, which could be used for alpha or depth -- and presumably even displacement, motion vectors, normals, etc.

I don't think they're mandatory, though. I also have no idea if the use of auxiliary channels has been codified or standardized by anyone, and I have no idea if any desktop software anywhere supports the Simple Studio Profile. The only actual use of MPEG-4 Simple Studio Profile that I'm aware of at all is HDCAM.

Regardless, if more people begin looking to MPEG-4 as an intermediate format, proper support for alpha transparency will be a must, and arbitrary multi-channel support a la OpenEXR would be cooler still.

But for today, adding alpha to AVC-Ultra (AVC-Ultra+?) would make me more than happy.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
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