Bluefish444

Bluefish444 – The Professionals Choice

BlueFish444 offer a comprehensive range of SD, HD and 2K input/output video cards for editors, visual effects artists and broadcast designers.
All their SD and HD products support 8 or 10 bit RGB or YUV modes of operation with their latest Catalyst card extending upon this by supporting SD, HD and 2K at up to 16 bits per pixel for the best possible quality.

Coupling these capabilities with key channel outputs for the broadcast industry and a wide range of supported application software this makes Bluefish444 the ideal choice for the professional.

The RGB future

Working in 10 bits per pixel colour space provides 1024 levels of colour as opposed to 256 levels of colour in 8 bits per pixel colour space. Today, 10 bit YUV and 10 bit RGB are industry standard and this is documented and recognized by the Society Of Motion Picture Television Engineers:

SMPTE 259M
SMPTE 292M
SMPTE 296M
SMPTE 372M

Bluefish444 believe the future of Post Production is uncompressed RGB 4:4:4 and hence the company name “Bluefish444”.

How do they know this?

Simple. For years every piece of video equipment has been in the YUV 4:2:2 colour space. The major reason for this has been bandwidth limitations of the equipment but recently this has changed. High end desktop workstations, camera CCU’s, tape decks and broadcast monitors are now available which support 10 bit dual link 4:4:4 RGB SD and HD capture and playback.

Other companies that see the same future as Bluefish444 include Sony with their new HDCAM SR™ range of camera and decks, Thompson with their “Viper” 4:4:4 RGB camera and of course Telecine which has been outputting dual link 4:4:4 for many years.

HD 10 bit RGB matches 2k film quality and is much easier and cost effective to work with than film. It is also perfect for digital transfers from the telecine bay!

Digital visual effects or “compositing” is becoming a much bigger part of many projects in today’s post production environments. Compositing requires the use of RGB 4:4:4 - anything else is just not up to par.
Consequently, 100% of the compositing applications used today are working in an RGB environment. So it just makes more sense to capture and work in RGB. Regardless of the final output format, your masters can be stored in RGB 4:4:4 forever, archiving them at the highest possible quality.

These days, there is really no need for colour space conversion until the final transmission. Using industry standard file formats such as Cineon ensures compatibility with virtually every compositing application.
Although Bluefish444 believe that RGB 4:4:4 is the future they still realize that RGB 4:4:4 may not suit everyone, which is why they also provide YUV4:2:2 colour space in every BlueFish444 card. This makes their cards extremely versatile, as they give you the choice as to which colour space best suits your workflow.

Bluefish444 – The Professionals Choice BlueFish444 offer a comprehensive range of SD, HD and 2K input/output video cards for editors, visual effects artists and broadcast designers. All their SD and HD products support 8 or 10 bit RGB or YUV modes of operation with their latest Catalyst card extending upon this by supporting SD, HD and 2K at up to 16 bits per pixel for the best possible quality. Coupling these capabilities with key channel outputs for the broadcast industry and a wide range of supported application software this makes Bluefish444 the ideal choice for the professional. The RGB future Working in 10 bits per pixel colour space provides 1024 levels of colour as opposed to 256 levels of colour in 8 bits per pixel colour space. Today, 10 bit YUV and 10 bit RGB are industry standard and this is documented and recognized by the Society Of Motion Picture Television Engineers: SMPTE 259M SMPTE 292M SMPTE 296M SMPTE 372M Bluefish444 believe the future of Post Production is uncompressed RGB 4:4:4 and hence the company name “Bluefish444”. How do they know this? Simple. For years every piece of video equipment has been in the YUV 4:2:2 colour space. The major reason for this has been bandwidth limitations of the equipment but recently this has changed. High end desktop workstations, camera CCU’s, tape decks and broadcast monitors are now available which support 10 bit dual link 4:4:4 RGB SD and HD capture and playback. Other companies that see the same future as Bluefish444 include Sony with their new HDCAM SR™ range of camera and decks, Thompson with their “Viper” 4:4:4 RGB camera and of course Telecine which has been outputting dual link 4:4:4 for many years. HD 10 bit RGB matches 2k film quality and is much easier and cost effective to work with than film. It is also perfect for digital transfers from the telecine bay! Digital visual effects or “compositing” is becoming a much bigger part of many projects in today’s post production environments. Compositing requires the use of RGB 4:4:4 - anything else is just not up to par. Consequently, 100% of the compositing applications used today are working in an RGB environment. So it just makes more sense to capture and work in RGB. Regardless of the final output format, your masters can be stored in RGB 4:4:4 forever, archiving them at the highest possible quality. These days, there is really no need for colour space conversion until the final transmission. Using industry standard file formats such as Cineon ensures compatibility with virtually every compositing application. Although Bluefish444 believe that RGB 4:4:4 is the future they still realize that RGB 4:4:4 may not suit everyone, which is why they also provide YUV4:2:2 colour space in every BlueFish444 card. This makes their cards extremely versatile, as they give you the choice as to which colour space best suits your workflow.