Hap Alpha and HapQ

[Pierre-Luc Brunet]

Hi guys,

I just noticed / read that QLab 4 supports the HAP family of codecs! That's great. Very good news but I ran into a couples issues.

1) I have one HapQ file and it does not play in QLab. QLab tells me that this codec is not supported.

Here is the link for a HapQ file.

2) My HapA files show up with a white background rather than transparent.

Here is the link for a HapA file.

Another of my HapAlpha worked but not this one.

Also, there is now a HapAlphaQ that exist so there is a total of 4 codecs

Hap

HapQ

HapAlpha

HapAlphaQ

Do you guys all see these behaviours?

I'm using Qlab 4.0.1 and El Capitan 10.11.6

Thank you.

[micpool]

Using HAP codecs v12 rendered from After Effects

HAP Q and HAP Q ALPHA are not currently supported.

If the composition background is black both straight and  premultiplied HAP ALPHA function correctly and are transparent

If the composition background is white  straight  HAP ALPHA render transparent /premultiplied renders white.

Here's  my current thinking on HAP with QLab  in general

There are some misconceptions around HAP probably due to it's origins in the VJ community. Standard  HAP is a very high quality codec, comparable to ProRes HQ rather than the lower quality versions of ProRes. In my testing there does not seem to be much difference in performance between it and ProRes HQ. If sequences are preloaded HAP has the edge if they are not then ProRes gives better results.

HAP alpha is more compact than Prores4444 and gives better performance in QLab. 

Obviously the results might be different on other systems  and with other test material but my current summary would be.

If you are primarily interested in maximum number of simultaneous clips then use ProRes proxy or LT

If you are primarily interested in video quality then try HAP or ProRes HQ

If you are doing clips with transparency then HAP alpha  may have advantages over ProRes4444.

Preloading HAP clips seems more important than with other codecs to get best performance, and if not preloaded starts can be a bit raggedy.

It's also worth saying that your mileage may well vary with this, and if you do a lot of video work it is worth doing your own evaluations, to see if you agree  with my findings or not!

Mic

[Pierre-Luc Brunet]

HAP Q and HAP Q ALPHA are not currently supported.

That's what I figured. 

If the composition background is black both straight and  premultiplied HAP ALPHA function correctly and are transparent

If the composition background is white  straight  HAP ALPHA render transparent /premultiplied renders white.

Very interesting. So the only time it doesn't work is when the composition BG setting is set to white and rendering in premultiplied... That's good to know.

And yes, as usual, codec testing is always required base on the needs and the system.

Thank you for these answers and for sharing your input & findings.

[Daan Hazendonk]

Thanks Micpool for this codec overview, this is very useful information.

Op maandag 21 november 2016 06:45:28 UTC+1 schreef Pierre-Luc Brunet:

[David Bengali]

Hi, I am having an issue where Hap videos play, but they are distorted into strange diagonal stripes.  Using Qlab 4.1.2

I have Hap V12 installed, and tried downgrading to Hap V11

Is this a known issue?

[David Bengali]

A followup --

I have found the issue.  This happens when the vertical dimension of the content is not divisible by 4.

Although in some cases hap assumes divisibility by 4,..... other programs can use arbitrary dimensions with hap, so..... :-)

Would be a great upgrade to the next version.  Not sure if it fully qualifies as a bug report or not.

[Sam Kusnetz]

Hello David

Are you saying the Hap codec itself makes assumptions about divisibility by 4?

Have you encountered this not-divisible-by-4 bug anywhere else besides QLab?

Thanks for your input!

Sam

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[micpool]

My understanding is that some program can cope with HAP  at any resolution and a few require video dimensions divisible by 4

QLab requires it. Resolume Arena/Avenue and VDMX5 are perfectly happy playing 809x601 files (which can't be divided by anything!)

Mic

[Sam Kusnetz]

How bizarre.

Thanks for the news; we’ll look into it!

Sam

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[Joey Moro]

Yep, I just ran into this same issue with Hap on QLab 4.2.5 on High Sierra.  Original Hap files rendered to 2454x615, and they play in Quicktime 7, but diagonally distorted/torn in QLab.  Scaled up the render so that at least the height is divisible by 4, (2458x616) and it plays fine.  (The QLab surface is still 2454x615 and set to full surface scaling.)  Interestingly the width is still not divisible by 4...

-Joey