Elite BVP4 video proc amp vs. VirtualDub color correction?
 

hey

a buddy saw my setup who is an electrical engineer and said using elite bvp is doing nothing for my setup and is technically useless, removing data from final product, and causing all quality loss. from a technical aspect, what do you guys think? should i just use filters in vdub and skip the analog "real time editing"?

He's wrong.

Proc amps are a type of processing, and all processing can be good or bad. Most have both some negatives and some positives, and getting needed results can be an art.

You can't always correct color in software. When you're doing things in software, your using RGB. But a proc amp is in the native analog YUV. It's not the same concept when you color correct.

All proc amps behave differently as well. Yes, sometimes that BVP4+ is not ideal. and causes more harm than good. Other times it will help better than anything you can do in software, and looks better than the uncorrected signal. Let your eyes guide you. Not dogma. When it comes to color correction, you'll notice I've never been dogmatic. It's art, not science.

My favorite proc amp is usually the built-in on the TBC-3000. But a BVP4+ is still in my toolbox. As is Adobe Premiere, VirtualDub ColorMill, and others.The more tools you have, and learn to use them, the better you'll be.

Remember that analog sources change color balance every few minutes and scene-by-scene. Also remember that a proc amp can blow your dark and bright levels and chroma values to pieces, which can't be corrected later. If you don't know how to use a histogram during capture, you'll be working against yourself.

Color correction of analog source during capture is a masochistic exercise in futility.

This is why it should only be used on full-tape corrections, or multi-capture situations. Otherwise, I agree, a form of self-punishment.