Comparison: SDI vs analog component

With the announcement of TriCaster 40 v2 and it's new features a lot of people are looking at it with renewed interest but are hesitant because of the lack of SDI inputs. So I thought I'd do a little comparison between the two. I expected to see a little more noise in the analog signal but not much other difference.

Methodology: 

• Played NewTek's standard demo clips (mov format) in a DDR on the TriCaster 8000.
• Output both SDI and component analog signals at 1080i.
• Ran those two signals into inputs on the same TC8000
• Used an M/E to setup a split screen.
• Recorded the main out, the SDI input, the component input and the split screen from the m/e

This way I could compare everything with exactly the same number of compression cycles.

Results:

Any difference in noise in the images is completely overwhelmed by the mpeg compression artifacts.
My particular TriCaster's analog out has slightly more contrast than the SDI. I pretty much fixed it with a couple of clicks in the proc-amp.

Conclusion:

Don't sweat the SDI/component difference for quality reasons. To my eye the analog picture didn't look worse than the SDI just a little different. I suspect you'd actually see more of a difference between any two individual cameras then I was seeing between analog and digital.

I could detect a tiny bit of noise using static test signals but not with real world video. If you were coming in from a good quality camera and looking at the uncompressed video you might be able to see the difference but by the time it's compressed using even a very high quality codec you are going to be hard pressed to notice a difference.

See for yourself:

The first image is enlarged 200% the video was not proc-amped at all in these images.

 

 

Just so you know the SDI is on the left

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NewTek NAB Recap

From around the web

3Play 4800 Changes Price Performance of Replay   The 4800 with it's social media features and basic switching capabilities is a game changer.

TriCaster 8000 New Features Maybe a dissenting view on the utility of the social media functions.

Replay No Longer Optional in Sports Production More on the 3Play 4800.

Compix CG For TriCaster Yet another big name is supporting TriCaster

NewTek NAB Special - Limited Time

From April 8-June 27, NewTek will offer TriCaster 455 for a limited-time purchase price of $9,995 for the base unit (a la Carte, no CS, no media drives), international pricing will vary. If you add the CS controller and a media drive you will save about $3000 over the normal bundle price. This is also a great way to get a backup unit.

  Give us a call at 1-800-692-6442 to take advantageof the deal!

TriCaster New Feature Preview from NAB

NewTek previewed some upcoming new features for some of the TriCaster models.Some highlights:

The TriCaster 8000 will be getting new animated frame stores. This will allow you to apply a video clip or animation to many elements in a VirtualSet.

TriCaster 40 will be getting animation store transitions and an improved multiviewer along with some new record formats. In fact the 40 is getting enough new features I'm surprised they didn't call it 2.0 and charge a bundle for it.

The Virtual Set editor gets the prize for the "Blow the Top of Your Head Off New Feature. Take a quick "shot" of a location with your smartphone (or presumably a real camera) and convert it to a virtual set with just a few mouse clicks.  Now we aren't talking about just a static background but a full pan, tilt and zoomable virtual set. The demo I saw even placed elements like a guard rail in front of the talent being placed in the virtual environment. Pretty amazing. I'm not sure how this is going to translate into sets for the TriCasters below the 8000 but I'll see what I can find out.

The really cool thing is these are all free upgrades. NewTek just rocks.

The Cool New 3Play 4800

NewTek just announced availability of the new 3Play 4800. This is their newest instant replay and more machine. The user interface has been completely revamped with the addition of multi-angle previews, the full TriCaster transition engine, a quick tagging function and a ton of other things. I've only seen a brief demo at the dealer meeting but I think 3Play users both current and future are gonna like it. Oh, and there will be upgrades available from other 3Play models.

 

Another big new feature is the ability to use the 3Play as a simple switcher. This makes it just about perfect for driving score board video displays since you won't really need a switcher. The social media features will be great in this situation too.

Features At A Glance:
• Redundant Capture
For intense action, redundant capture of up to 4 live video sources doubles up ISO recordings and protects all your assets. Need more angles? Standard mode lets you record up to 8 live video sources, simultaneously.
• High-end Visuals
Live animated, 3D-warped visual transition effects for switching and in-program editing, with custom animation creator and import of your own branded graphic elements.
• Live Replay Switching
Monitor all angles during replay, and transition between them video-switcher style—providing a completely finished replay segment within moments, animated transitions and all, to output to switcher, feed the video board, or upload to the Web.
• Interpolated Slow Motion
Get clear, crisp slow motion playback with standard HD or SD cameras (or both), achieved with a high-quality, super-resolution algorithm for sharper slow motion and dramatic stills alike.
• Social Media Publishing Easily distribute content to multiple social media sites in one pass—even during live production, for a unified, immediate brand presence

TriCaster Update Released

An update for TriCaster 40/455/855 to Rev 5D has been released along with TC300/450/850 to Rev 4H.

Rev 5D:

• Fixed an issue where faulty or interrupted network connectivity could sometimes leave a Net input 'stuck' and unusable.
• General UI improvements relating to browser window placement.
• Fixed a case where starting or stopping a recording while playing a clip in a DDR could cause playback to stop and the DDR to become unresponsive.
• Streaming start/stop keyboard shortcuts (start: ALT + W and stop: CTRL + ALT + W) were accidentally omitted from the XD40. These shortcuts have now been correctly added to the XD40.
• Fixed a rare issue where a certain kind of file corruption of bitmap images generated for clips, stills, or titles, when loaded into a media player, could cause the interface to hang or become unresponsive.
• Fixed an issue where having both DSK1 and DSK2 delegated could sometimes cause an error message in the user interface when performing a transition or take.
• A rare issue where the mouse could unintentionally travel off the main UI was corrected.
• A bug where delegating both DSK1 and DSK2 could cause an error message was fixed.
• Keyboard shortcuts were added to start streaming (ALT + W) and stop streaming (CTRL + ALT + W).
• Support for the TriCaster's Auto-Setup Streaming SDK was added. This SDK provides for online video distribution services to easily automate the configuration of the TriCaster's live streaming connections on their website.
• Clips that have had their indexes damaged are now corrected by the DDR upon loading the clip into the DDR.
• Changed de-fielding to prevent some rare issues and add support for recording web quality H.264 with no fields visible.
• Increased performance and stability of various modules.
• Fixed a very rare crash seen on exiting Live.
• Improved performance and stability when scrubbing clips in the DDR and with the TimeWarp control surface.
• Corrected a seldom seen behavior where clips created with TimeWarp would have problems playing back in the DDR.
• General performance improvements for streaming.

Rev 4H:

• Fixed a rare issue where a certain kind of file corruption of bitmap images generated for clips, stills, or titles, when loaded into a media player, could cause the interface to hang or become unresponsive.
• Fixed an issue where having both DSK1 and DSK2 delegated could sometimes cause an error message in the user interface when performing a transition or take.
• A rare issue where the mouse could unintentionally travel off the main UI was corrected.
• A bug where delegating both DSK1 and DSK2 could cause an error message was fixed.
• Support for the TriCaster's Auto-Setup Streaming SDK was added. This SDK provides for online video distribution services to easily automate the configuration of the TriCaster's live streaming connections on their website.
• Improved performance and stability when scrubbing clips in the DDR and with the TimeWarp control surface.
• Corrected a seldom seen behavior where clips created with TimeWarp would have problems playing back in the DDR.
• Increased performance and stability of various modules.
• Fixed a very rare crash seen on exiting Live.
• General performance improvements for streaming.

 Available at the NewTek registration site