8 or 16bit?

[cookepuss]

I really can't say I'm familiar with blackmagic stuff. First time I've heard of it actually. Either way, if image quality is a priority, I'd always start with as many colors as possible and then whittle my way down. Visually speaking, going down from 16 to 10 offers you much more than going up to 10 from 8. It's a matter of color range really.

(Granted, if blackmagic usess those 2 remaining bits for something other than the primary color palette then 8-bit is the best place to start.)

Getting down to 10-bit really depends on the software though. No straight up tips for that, from me at least. For my work, I deal with 8, 16, 24, & 32. Not 10. Sorry.

[neonghost]

I'm not quite sure about the specifics of the blackmagic codec - at work we are moving away from Media100 to serial digital into FCP with a decklink card, so I guess I'll know more then.

Generally, though, 8bit colour is certainly good enough for broadcast, and 16bit is file size overkill unless it's going to go under a pretty intensive grade.

[cookepuss]

Considering the natural antialiasing effect of standard TVs, you may be right.

[neonghost]

just to clarify a bit, remember that in this case the bit depth is per channel (RGB), so it is effectively a 24bit colour image.

[astrofish]

Where 16 bit really comes in is if you want to do extensive post-processing on your data, since it preserves fine detail, and you can do lots of transformations without getting banding effects.

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