Bad color banding on Apple trailers?

[Pat H]

I've searched google and can't seem to find much on this topic. I recently downloaded the 1080p trailer for 2012 and like many of the HD trailers I've watched before it, there was some very noticeable color banding present (particularly in fades to and from black). I re-encoded the .mov to very high bitrate H.264 mp4 for my PS3 and the banding got even worse.

Anyone else notice this? I figured it could be that I'm using a TN panel for my Mac, but my fairly new Samsung TV is showing the same thing. So is it the files or just the bit-depth of my displays?

Here's the trailer if you want to look for it (it's especially present at 0:18). Click on Trailer 2 in 1080. (Trailer's pretty awesome as well )
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/2012/

 

[roidy]

I just tried it and your right it does contain really bad banding, which probably means it`s been encoded at too low a bitrate.

I re-encoded the .mov to very high bitrate H.264 mp4 for my PS3 and the banding got even worse.

Re-encoding a file is always going to give you a lower quality file than the input file, regardless of weather you pump up the bitrate.

 

[TheNightPhoenix]

The banding is in the original video.

Your best not to re-encode the video, but rather transcode it.
Go to export and choose mp4, but set both video and audio to passthrough.
I always use this method when transferring to the PS3, you won't loose any quality that way.

 

[Pat H]

Thanks for the advice guys. I will definitely use the pass through method for PS3 encoding next time. And I'm glad the banding isn't just me. Obviously Apple needs to improve their encoding.