Neat Video Using 8-Bit Pipeline for DCI 4K XF-AVC Intra footage

[ghuff]

I am using Premiere 24.3.0 and Neat Video 5.6.1 Second Revision on a 2020 iMac i9 (3.6GHz 10-core, Radeon Pro 5700 16GB, 64GB RAM, 2TB SSD, macOS Venture 13.6.6). I have been able to reliably get Neat Video to report an 8-bit color pipeline for XF-AVC footage from the Canon EOS CInema cameras (C500, 300, 70) if that footage is in DCI 4K resolution (4096x2160) and is the Intra version of the codec. I do not have this issue with LongGOP flavors of XF-AVC (all report 32-bit color in Neat Video) and, oddly enough, not with UHD (3840x2160) version of XF-AVC in Intra. I have tried this both in Mercury Metal and Software Only modes and the results are the same.

I am concerned if this could possibly mean that any plugin on this footage is processing in 8-bit vs 32-bit mode.

[MyerPj]

Interesting topic. I've emailed Neat Video before and always got a quick reply. Have you asked over there? If so, let us know.

[ghuff]

I have not asked over at Neat Video since they don't have control over what pipeline Premiere sends to 3rd party plugins.

[Bruce Bullis]

Not true; please contact NeatVideo. 

[We work with them regularly, and it may well be that the source of the problem is PPro; however, Adobe can't comment on issues with third party software. Happy to work with them to explore further.]

[ghuff]

I will reach out to Neat Video and post the response here.

Vlad from Neat Video responded, "Neat Video always reports the actual frame size and bitdepth of the data Premiere has actually sent to the plug-in. Neat Video does not choose the frame size nor bitdepth for Premiere to send it, Premiere alone chooses that. Neat Video only reports to user what Premiere has sent to the plug-in."

TLDR: Neat Video does not "have control over what pipeline Premiere sends to 3rd party plugins."

[ghuff]

In the response from Neat Video, Vlad helpfully suggested I toggle on "Maximum Bit Depth" to force Premiere to send 32-bit RGB to 3rd party plugins. I had seen this option in my testing, but since it is under "Video Previews" and this was an unrendered clip, I didn't believe it would change anything. However, this did indeed force Premiere to send the full 32-bit float RGB data to these plugins.

I would recommend that everyone working with this specific type of footage toggle this option on for their sequences to make sure they are not color-correcting 10-bit footage in 8-bit until this bug is fixed.

[Bruce Bullis]

Glad you found a solution that worked, and that NeatVideo was able to help!

>Neat Video does not "have control over what pipeline Premiere sends to 3rd party plugins."

Not so; all plugins have that control. In this case, PPro is behaving incorrectly, based on the plugin's declared support.

We'll investigate further. 

[ghuff]

I have confirmed that Premiere is also sending 8-bit RGB instead of the requested 32-bit RGB for Sony's XAVC Intra  implementation as well when the resolution is DCI 4K (4096x2160).

[MyerPj]

<<I have not asked over at Neat Video since..." blah, blah>>

Glad you contacted them..

Ahem...:-)