Color banding in problems in FCP

Thanks for clarifying VIEWER and CANVAS image stats. Good to know that true color would not be expected while working in the FCP environment. I only mentioned the FCP VIEWER and CANVAS because I also noticed the banding there as well - and thought it might help point to the problem.... but REAL issue is that I cannot produce a rendered QT file without the color banding problem in the final high-quality output with prores 422 - or any other codecs in the selection list. Is this unusual? Is nobody else having these banding problems?

Thanks for getting back to me.

I am looking at the exported file on my MacBook Pro.

But to be clear, I am also looking at the source footage on that monitor as well - and it is flawless - smooth gradients with no banding. A good example is the sky where there is a smooth grad from dark blue to light blue. The difference is really obvious when comparing the source to the exported file on the same monitor.

-ds

Yes - Quicktime 7

Using QT 7 to view both source and exported file on the same monitor.

-ds

Tried setting the switches indicated.

Still seeing the banding.... but perhaps my expectations are unrealistic (?).

If I set the video compression type to NONE (instead of Prores 422(HQ)), the results are much better - indicating the banding is a compression artifact?

Maybe I could post a before/after sample somewhere?

Thanks again.

-ds

Maybe the sky gradient example is a little abstract.... (since you don't have the examples in front of you)

More to the point -

If I render a simple fade-up from black - same result - really noisy banding that crawls through the as image as it ramps up from black.

Surely I must have something wrong in the way the preferences are set in FCP - 'cause I can't imagine this being acceptable to any editor or end user.... it looks pretty awful.

What am I doing wrong?

Anybody?

Thx

-ds