Image bit depth

m_theater

hi mark,

i am running into a question concerning image processing and acquisition

as the new hdsdi interfaces are happy to provide 10bit images,

how are this image feeds handled in isadora / core video package

is the image "shrinked" to 8 bit or does it live in something like a 16bit buffer ?

just wondering and trying to understand the "best" way

after reading this [post](http://troikatronix.com/troikatronixforum/discussion/comment/7138)

thanks in advance

clemens

mark

Dear @m_theater,

There are ways to get GPUs to use floating point numbers for the colors (32 bit per color) but this is pretty unusual -- maybe scientists that do super high-end graphics processing [i.e., the space program] take advantage of it.

All imagery in Isadora up being 8 bit ARGB, one way or the other. This is not an Isadora limitation per se, but a convention of all the real-time video processing software out there -- at least all of those of which I'm aware. (In all of the code I've browsed on the web, I've never come across 10 bit processing.)

Mostly this is related to the needs of the graphics cards. When it comes to the CI actors (which are Apple plugins) they immediately upload all still pictures and video to the GPU at 8-bit resolution, i.e., 8 bits each for Alpha, Red, Green and Blue. So the CI plugins are definitely 8 bit.

Best Wishes,

Mark

m_theater

dear mark,

oh yes it seams that 10/12 bit hd mixing / processing will be

still a task for the appropriate "hardware" solutions

for the next couple of months

many thanks for your explanation and insight of the ci actor

best

clemens