v6.4 Pomfort Livegrade Pro

Updates

What’s new in version 4.2?

In-camera grading workflow for Panavision DXL2:

• Upload Look: Upload currently modified look to DXL2
• Metadata workflow: Look metadata travels in recorded files
• Hybrid setup: Hybrid LUT-box and camera grading workflow for interactive look adjustments

New features and improvements:

• Hardware configurations: Save and restore hardware settings in the device manager
• ACES: Better ACES version selection behavior
• Thumbnails: Adjust size of thumbnails in Shot Library
• Refresh: Make frame grabs from within video scopes UI to refresh video scopes
• Scene, Shot, Take: Menu items for increasing scene, shot, and take and new default values
• Robustness: Improved robustness of HD-SDI capture device support

Support for Panavision DXL2
Hybrid in-camera grading workflow

LiveGrade Pro adds support for an in-camera grading workflow with the Panavision DXL2. LiveGrade Pro comes with a new feature to upload looks into the DXL2 camera. This applies the look e.g. to the viewfinder, but also adds the look metadata to recorded clips. An additional LUT box can be used for interactively adjusting the look based on the log output of the camera.

What’s new in version 4.1?

Additional metadata sources:

• Dynamic Metadata: New metadata sources for ARRI, Panasonic, and Sony cameras
• Metadata via LUT Box: Read camera metadata from SDI signals connected to the BoxIO and IS-miniX
• CAP Metadata: Read metadata from connected Alexa Mini and Amira cameras via CAP
• RCP Metadata: Read metadata from connected RED cameras via RCP
• VENICE metadata: Read camera metadata for Sony VENICE from HD-SDI (VENICE V2 firmware)

ACES:

• RED and ACES: Added ACES IDTs for RED cameras (log3G10)

Other Changes:

• Framegrab: Auto-refresh framegrab feature for BoxIO
• Still Images: Export only the still image of a shot
• New “Metadata Only” slot view: Show metadata without preview image

macOS 10.14 or higher.

The Pomfort software products are based on the latest macOS technologies, therefore they cannot support older versions of macOS.

Silverstack and Livegrade products run on macOS only. There are no plans to port Silverstack and Livegrade products to other operating systems in the near future.

What’s new in Livegrade Pro 6.4?

Color Grading

• Custom False Color Mode: 1D-LUT-based mechanism allows checking exposure for most common log-encoded formats or using self-defined ranges

Device integrations

• Stream Deck +: Gain speed and precision when adjusting printer lights and basic grading parameters by extending your DIT cart setup with the latest Elgato device

Daily License activation mode

• Optional Daily Activation Mode: Convenient option for using the same license on multiple devices on different days

More features

• Node Presets Including Metadata: Save camera, lens, and filter offsets as Node Presets and access them via a new list-view
• Stream Deck Migration from Livegrade Pro to Studio: Bring along your valued and internalized Stream Deck configurations when upgrading from Pro to Livegrade Studio
• Apply Node Presets to Library: Employ node presets as a single component of your grade to existing shots in the library
• Linked Look Improvements: New possibilities to edit a linked look in the library slot and subsequently create individual shots of linked slots
• Custom Slate Values for Reset: Introduction of custom reset values for scene, shot, and take
• Show/Hide Shot Library Outline: Create more space on your screen when working with smart groups only

What’s new in Livegrade Pro 6.3?

AJA ColorBox Integration:

• Interactive Grading: Real-time grading of camera signals (HD-SDI/3G /6G /12G) on Ethernet-connected AJA ColorBox
• 4K Framegrab: Continuously refresh framegrab option for high-quality uncompressed reference stills at up to 4K resolution
• ANC Metadata: Receive horizontal and vertical ancillary metadata from a wide range of cameras

ARRI Alexa 35

• In-Camera Grading: Interactive grading via CAP (Camera Access Protocol) in the “ARRI CAP Compatible” grading mode
• Framegrab via CAP: Receive high-resolution framegrabs from ethernet-connected cameras via CAP
• ANC Metadata: Receive ANC metadata from SDI-wired cameras
• LUT Presets: Preinstalled LUTs for ARRI LogC4 signals to most common output colorspaces

A detailed list of all changes can be found in the Livegrade Pro 6 changelog.

What’s new in Livegrade Pro 6.2?

ACES Look Exchange

• AMF Import: Import ACES Metadata Files (.amf) including CLFs used in LMT nodes and exchange with third-party applications such as Colorfront’s Express Dailies
• AMF Export: Improved compatibility for advanced ACES pipelines with multiple LMT nodes (e.g., IDT > LMT1 > CDL > LMT2 > ODT)

Productivity

• Load At Thumbnail Frame: Toggle between loading movies at the first frame or at the thumbnail frame’s position via the menu item “Load at Thumbnail Frame Position”

Localization

• Chinese Localization: The UI is now available in Chinese for improved usability

System Requirements

• macOS Compatibility: Reintroduced support for macOS 10.15

What’s new in Livegrade Pro 6.1?

Advanced Setups

What’s new in Livegrade Pro 6?

• Output Colorspaces: For streamlined handling of looks with different output colorspaces, e.g., with HDR-SDR dual monitoring setups:
  • Set your look’s output colorspace manually or automatically for pre-installed LUT presets and ODTs
  • Read and export the output colorspace of custom LUTs in the comment of the LUT file
• Output Colorspace Attribute: Inspect the output colorspace attribute of looks in the shots table and the info tab, and include the output colorspace token in wildcards
• Output Colorspace Smart Group: Filter your shot library using the output colorspace smart group
• HDR/SDR Video Scopes: Set the appropriate color primaries (Rec.709/Rec.2020) for your video scopes manually or automatically based on your look’s output colorspace
• False Color Preferences: Choose to force the false color filter to be applied on your “Graded”, “Bypass”ed or “Original” video signal for appropriate quality control of HDR video signals
• YCbCr Color Conversion: Set the YCbCr Color Conversion Matrix (Rec.709/Rec.2020) for LUT boxes and video I/O devices and pass on the appropriate attribute in recorded QuickTime movies
• Color Profile Tagging: Enable/disable color profile tagging for still images and apply the appropriate color profile for most common colorspaces (Rec.709/Rec.2020/Rec.2100 PQ/Rec.2100 HLG/sRGB)

ACES:

• ACES v.1.3: Support for ACES version 1.3.0 including Reference Gamut Compress parameter for improved accuracy with extreme color ranges
• Load CLF in LMT: Load Common LUT Format (CLF) files in LMT node for convenient round-tripping in ACES workflows
• ACES Look Metadata: The metadata fields “ACES Input Transform”, “ACES Input TransformID”, “ACES Output Transform”, “ACES Output TransformID and “Reference Gamut Compress” allow inspecting ACES look metadata in the shot library and communicating relevant info via reports

Color Grading:

• Knee Curve Node: Create simple “knee” and “toe” curve adjustments to quickly modify contrast range and limits of highlights and shadows

Playback Controls:

• Jump to Thumbnail Frame: Jump to the Thumbnail Frame of your recorded movie
• Loop Playback: Loop playback of your loaded movie in the viewer window
• New Player HUD: Buttons for “Set Thumbnail Frame” and “Jump to Thumbnail Frame” and enable/disable “Loop” playback directly in the player HUD of the image viewer

Media Management:

• Duplicate As Shot With Still Image: Duplicate your shots with movie recordings as a shot with still image at the thumbnail frame’s position
• Delete Shots And Media Independently: Delete shots and their associated media files independently to avoid conflicts with shared media folders or for transforming shots with hi-res media into “look only” shots
• Reveal Media In Finder: Reveal media files in their associated media folder directly from a contextual menu item in the shot library

Share Still Images:

• Airdrop Stills: Instantly share graded still images via Airdrop to other Apple devices directly from your shot library

Sony VENICE 2 Integration:

• Interactive Grading: Color grade on connected VENICE 2 cameras in real-time via ASC-CDL compliant nodes in the grading mode “CDL + LUT”
• Look Upload from Shot Library: Upload looks from Livegrade’s shot library onto connected VENICE 2 cameras as User 3D LUT
• Manual Look Upload: Upload the look from your current slot to connected VENICE 2 cameras as “User 3D LUT”
• Look Exchange: Benefit from auto-generated look metadata in recorded camera files

Capture Devices:

• Use All Connectors as Inputs: Use all SDI-connectors of half-duplex capture devices as inputs (e.g., AJA Io4K Plus)

Tetrahedral Interpolation:

• LUT Interpolation: Choose between different interpolation methods and benefit from tetrahedral interpolation for improved color accuracy on video output and still image export

Project Preferences:

• Project Settings: Labels and custom fields are now project-dependent
• Custom Fields: Assign titles for Custom fields for using individual names for your custom metadata fields

Look Library:

• PFLA Export / Import: Exchange your look library or a section of look presets with other users or Livegrade systems

Fully Native:

• Apple Silicon M1 Support: Application runs natively on Apple Silicon M1 machines*

More Features:

• Camera Metadata: ARRI and RED cameras connected via network can be added as a metadata-only source in all grading modes (with grading disabled)
• H.264 Record Format: Record movies in the space-saving H.264 video codec
• HEIC Still Images: Create still images in the highly-efficient HEIC format (8-Bit only)

* I*S-mini device support only using Rosetta

Full release notes

What’s new in Livegrade Pro v5.5?

What’s new in Livegrade Pro v5.4?

What’s new in Livegrade Pro 5.3?

Color Grading:

• Curves Color Picker: Auto-create curve points by picking a specific color in the viewer window for applying precise and quick color curve corrections
• Custom Color Curve: Color picker for choosing target hue of the custom color curve allows to create scene-accurate looks in seconds
• HSL Curves: New “Grading” preference to set curve points for six primary colors by default
• Curves Control: Select and adjust curve points using a keyboard or grading panel

Exchange Settings:

• Global Settings: Import and export global setup settings (video router configurations, keyboard shortcuts, column layouts, smart groups layouts, record folder, custom clip identifier, slot / device configuration, label preferences) allows to share or transfer settings between workstations conveniently
• Project Settings: Import and export project folder structure allows to re-use an existing project structure as a template for new projects

Productivity:

• Color Labels: Tag shots with color labels and a customizable label text for flexible categorizing of shots
• Label On Shot Creation: Apply a default label or secondary label on shot creation automatically
• Second Create Button: Enable a second “Create” button in the “Shot Creation” preferences in order to create shots with default label or secondary label more conveniently
• Info Tab: Better organized metadata overview in “Info” tab with collapsable sections and search feature
• Multi-Edit Metadata: Editing metadata fields in the “Info” tab allows to quickly and conveniently clean up metadata of multiple selected shots at once
• Slot Metadata: Re-ordering slot metadata fields allows to create a custom slot metadata layout
• Jump To Timecode: Go to a specific timecode or time of a recording by pasting a timecode reference or typing the desired position

Device Integration:

SmallHD Monitors: Use SmallHD 4K Production Monitors as real-time grading devices (with SmallHD firmware version 4.4.0 or higher)

What’s new in version 5.2?

Color Grading:

• Color Curve Modes: “RGB-Based” and “Luma-Based” allow precise color curve adjustments with or without influencing luma and saturation of colors for creating appealing looks like bleach bypass with ease
• RGB Curves: Apply curves to individual color channels red, green and blue
• Custom Color Curve: Apply curve adjustment to any custom color and create appealing looks like orange & teal in seconds
• Hue-Sat-Lum Curves: Apply secondary color corrections with curves for hue vs. hue, hue vs. saturation, hue vs. luma, luma vs. saturation and saturation vs. saturation
• Amount Sliders: Fine-tune color grades quickly by adjusting the intensity of grading nodes
• Printer Lights: RGB master can now be precisely adjusted using color panels
• User LUT Folder: Watch folder to add custom user LUTs for selecting them as LUT presets

Improved ACES Workflow:

• ACES Metadata File Export: Exchange grade settings and metadata in ACES workflows (works with ACES ver. 1.2 or higher)
• AMF + CLF: AMF Export for looks created in the ACES CDL Advanced mode merges non-CDL nodes into a CLF (Common LUT format) file.

Look Exchange:

• CDL + LUT Combo Export: Exporting looks split into CDL and non-CDL components (ASC-CDL and 3D LUT ) allows complete look exchange with dailies and color grading software while maintaining the exchange of CDL and saturation values

Device Integration:

• Stream Deck Plugin: Map and trigger Livegrade actions from your Stream Deck devices
• Video Routing from Stream Deck: Apply up to 20 video routing configurations and select up to 20 video inputs and outputs from Stream Deck devices

Pomfort ShotHub:

• Project Upload: Upload entire project with shot information to ShotHub, including thumbnails (optional)
• Collaboration: Parallel upload from several Livegrade clients

Productivity:

• Smart Groups: Organize shots using an automatic outline assembled from metadata (e.g. Scene, Shot and Flagged) for comprehensive media management and improved handling of large libraries
• Library Folder: Search entire shot library with home folder “Library”
• Smart Group Layouts: Use predefined hierarchy layouts and create user-defined layouts with custom hierarchies for full flexibility and improved productivity
• Shot Library: Library path displays current library folder and smart groups level for better overview
• Set Thumbnail Frame: Set custom thumbnail frame of recorded video clips
• Device Manager: Use a custom letter (A-Z) as slot character
• Slot Metadata: Efficient keyboard navigation between slot metadata fields
• Video Routing: Display index counter and change order of video routing configurations
• Multi-Edit Rating and Flagging: Rate and flag multiple shots with designated menu items and actions for Stream Deck
• New Functions and Shortcuts: Copy look to all slots, create shot from library slot, Increase take number after shot creation

Metadata:

• New metadata field: “Shooting Day” metadata field to quickly organize files using shooting day metadata
• New metadata field: “Location” metadata field to quickly organize shots using location metadata
• New metadata field: “Day/Night” metadata field to quickly organize shots using time of day metadata
• New metadata field: “Int/Ext” metadata field to quickly organize shots using interior/exterior metadata
• New custom metadata fields: Three additional custom metadata fields for more flexible metadata workflows
• Wildcards: Use TC Start and TC End in wildcards

What’s new in version 5.1?

Playback Controls:

JKL Navigation: Playback, jog, and shuttle using J, K, L keyboard shortcuts

Import:

Shot Library: Import movie files (mov, m4v, mp4)

Productivity:

Working with Looks: Copy & paste looks between slots
Library Slot: Adding a reference from another slot to the library slot

Metadata:

Global Metadata: New metadata field for “season”

Auto-Record:

AJA Capture Devices: Trigger auto-record via HANC rec-flag for ARRI, RED, and Sony cameras (works with Kona 4 or newer, and IO 4K series by AJA)

Panel Support:

Tangent Wave and Wave2: Customize the user interaction with the Tangent Mapper

ARRI Alexa Mini LF:

CAP Support: In-camera grading and camera metadata support

What’s New In Version 4.4?

Highlights:  LiveGrade Pro 4.4 with added support for AJA Kumo routers.

More Video Router Control And Automation:

• Router Control: Now support for both AJA Kumo and Blackmagic Design Smart Videohub devices.
• Mapping for Tangent Devices: Map your video routing configurations to buttons on Tangent control panels.
• Multi-Slot Use of Capture Devices: Automatically move capture devices from slot to slot for frame grabs and camera metadata in multiple slots with one capture device.

Options For Displaying Reference Images:

• New Display Options: Viewer displays the reference image left, right, top, or bottom of the current image (with splitter), or as an overlay (with opacity control).​
• Flip and Flop: Mirror the reference image for easier comparison e.g. in left-right comparisons.

Other Changes:

• LUT Presets: New LUT presets for Panavision Millennium DXL2 and RED IPP2.
• ACES: LiveGrade Pro 4.4 is now shipping with a selection of common ACES 1.1 transforms.
• Custom Keyboard Shortcuts: Keyboard mapper dialog now has a search field for easier access to actions.

Highlights of LiveGrade Pro 4.3:

• Video router control and automation: Set up video routing configurations for Blackmagic Design Smart Videohub devices, and automate them on certain events – such as changing slots or switching to another application.
• Advanced grade node controls: Define custom names for grade nodes. Save them and build up your library of “node presets”, e.g. for filter corrections.
• ACES support: an Improved mechanism for downloading ACES transforms, and ACES version 1.1.

What’s new in LiveGrade Pro 4.3

Video Router Control And Automation:

• Router Control: Support for Blackmagic Design Smart Videohub
• Configurations: Create routing configurations for selected router connections
• Apply: Apply routing configurations on certain actions (e.g. slot changes) or menu/custom keyboard shortcuts
• Automation: Custom automation for in-application events and actions

New Node Presets:

• Selected Nodes: Save selected grading nodes
• Look Library: Build your library of “node presets”, e.g. for filter corrections
• Apply: Only update nodes with the same name

Updated Aces Support:

• Downloading: An Improved mechanism for downloading ACES transforms
• ACES 1.1: New ACES 1.1 version available

More Features And Improvements:

• Wildcards: More wildcards for file names for the look and still export
• Still export: Export of stills without look applied (“log” still export)
• Reference Mode: Compare in split-screen as well as overlay mode
• LUT presets: New LUT presets for ARRI, RED, and Sony cameras
• Non-interactive mode: New for ARRI CAP and Sony F65 cameras

Video Router Control

Control And Automate Video Routing Devices

Video routers are often used to route camera signals to the devices controlled by LiveGrade Pro. Users of LiveGrade Pro can now setup routing configurations within the application, and trigger these configurations either from the application when needed, or automate them on certain events within the application such as slot changes. With this feature, the entire video setup can now be operated from LiveGrade Pro.

What’s new in Livegrade Pro 4.2?

LiveGrade Pro 4.2 now supports an in-camera grading workflow with the Panavision DXL2: 
Looks created in LiveGrade Pro can be loaded directly into the DXL2. This way the look is instantly written into the clip metadata and can be passed on directly with the clips to post production. For interactive grading on the live image of the camera, an additional LUT box can be used.

Watch the new video by Panavision to learn more about this new feature. Follow Michael Cioni as he walks you through the new integration and its benefits – from the film set to post production.

New features and improvements:

• Hardware configurations: Save and restore hardware settings in the device manager
• ACES: Better ACES version selection behavior
• Thumbnails: Adjust size of thumbnails in Shot Library
• Refresh: Make frame grabs from within video scopes UI to refresh video scopes
• Scene, Shot, Take: Menu items for increasing scene, shot, and take and new default values
• Robustness: Improved robustness of HD-SDI capture device support

What’s new in LiveGrade Pro 4.1?

Dynamic Metadata: Extension of live metadata support to a broad range of setups and devices. Use your existing devices to access live camera metadata in LiveGrade Pro, including:

• Metadata via LUT Box: Display camera metadata extracted from the HD-SDI signal by BoxIO and IS-miniX
• ARRI and RED Metadata: Read metadata from Alexa Mini and Amira cameras via CAP, and from RED cameras via RCP
• VENICE metadata: Read camera metadata for Sony VENICE from HD-SDI (VENICE V2)

ACES support for RED cameras: Work with ACES IDTs for RED cameras (log3G10)

Other Changes:

• Framegrab: Auto-refresh frame grab feature for BoxIO
• Still Images: Export only the still image of a shot
• New “Metadata Only” slot view: Show metadata without preview image

What’s new in version 4?

New Shot Library

• Extended Shot Library: Logging entire shooting days
• Metadata: Lots of new fields and columns for scene and camera-related metadata
• Look Presets: Separate library for storing look presets
• Folder Hierarchy: Hierarchical folder structure for advanced project management
• Metadata preparation: Metadata entry before a shot is recorded

Live Camera Metadata

• New Slot Bar: New overview of all attached cameras with live image and metadata
• Cameras: Display of live metadata from camera’s HD-SDI signals for ARRI Alexa, Sony F55, and Panasonic Varicam models

Video Scopes

• Native Video Scopes: Waveform, histogram, vectorscope with settings
• Versatile: Video scopes can be used on live image, frame grabs, and captured clips

Video Input/Output

• Library Slot: Option for a permanent output of stored frame grabs or clips for reference
• AJA: Full support for multi-channel capture, playout, and metadata with devices such as Io 4K
• Ranges: Handling of legal and extended ranges in capture and recordings

Keyboard Shortcut Manager

• Custom Keyboard Shortcuts: Define your individual shortcuts for any action in the main menu
• New Defaults: New, refined default shortcuts for streamlined interactive work on set

User Interface

• Modernized: Refined and cleaned-up user interface

ARRI ALEXA LF:

• CAP Support: Grade control of ARRI Alexa LF cameras via Wifi-based CAP protocol

Extensive Shot Library

Logging Camera-related Information

LiveGrade Pro introduces a new Shot Library, that comes with lots of new capabilities for logging a shooting day. The Shot Library stores camera-related information as well as look metadata. It allows easy browsing of past shots with frame grabs and captured video. You can now also enter metadata in advance for an upcoming shot. Information can be grouped hierarchically into Folders and Bins as familiar from Silverstack. All information can be exported in PDF reports.

Live Metadata

Monitoring Camera Metadata And Live Image

With a video device from AJA or BlackmagicDesign, LiveGrade Pro can capture multiple camera signals. Professional cameras such as ARRI Alexa, Sony F55, and Panasonic Varicam embed extensive camera metadata into the HD-SDI outputs as so-called ancillary or ANC data. A new slot bar displays live metadata from cameras for each slot right beside the live image. All information gets stored in the new Shot Library.

Video Scopes

Analyzing Live Video, Frame Grabs, And Recorded Clips

Video scopes are the tool of the trade for judging exposure and white balance and help to control and adjust a broad range of camera settings. LiveGrade Pro offers three kinds of video analysis tools: Waveform, vectorscope, and a histogram. Each tool comes with settings to customize the processing and display to individual needs. The waveform also adds the display of the resulting curve of all current color transforms and thus integrates well into the look management and grading workflow.