Adobe first out of the gate with support for the 4K XAVC codec in the F55

[Craig Seeman]

From Sony’s online talk about the camera

Q: Will the new XAVC codec work natively in Premiere, Avid or FCPX?
Lucie Wendremaire: XAVC will be compatible with main NLE partners from End of January on. You will have to install some plug ins for the support but then it will work directly.

Maybe they’re being diplomatic but one might think “main NLE partners from the End of January” might be more than one NLE.

[Steve Connor]

[Craig Seeman] “Maybe they’re being diplomatic but one might think “main NLE partners from the End of January” might be more than one NLE.
“

Yes there will be support from others including FCPX, but not at 4K resolution yet, this according to the Sony powerpoint at least

Steve Connor
‘It’s just my opinion, with an occasional fact thrown in for good measure”

[Craig Seeman]

The XAVC plugin itself has already been spotted in FCPX. Not sure about sans 4K though.

https://www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/news/972-new-sony-import-plugin-for-xavc-into-final-cut-pro-x-spotted

Looking at the Inspector near the end of the demo it shows 1920×1080 23.98 so it’s not clear about 4K support initially in FCPX.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRwYvD3SAmE&hd=1

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[Aindreas Gallagher]

Fly premiere – flyyyy my pretty.

https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Craig Seeman]

Japanese blog but conveniently states in English
https://www.macotakara.jp/blog/report/entry-18321.html

This XAVC supporting feature is powered by Sony providing plug-in for Final Cut Pro X, first releasing plug-in will not support 4K.

CineAlta 4K cam will be released in February 2013, and 4K supporting plug-in will be released at the same time of this 4K camera debut.

[Craig Slattery]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “Fly premiere – flyyyy my pretty.
“

now if they can get rid of those tracks, they might be getting somewhere.

[David Cherniack]

Yes, nasty tracks, Precious, we hates them, hates them. They makes us think and it hurts our head, Precious.

David
AllinOneFilms.com

[Wolf Austad]

Apparently real time performance for 4K XAVC requires 16 cores or more. According to a Sony rep. So current Macs are too weak for this work. When, or if, Apple decides to make a Mac that’s powerful enough to handle this, maybe 4K support will come to FCP X???

Aasulv Wolf Austad, fnf
Director of Photography
Los Angeles based

[Steve Connor]

[Wolf Austad] “Apparently real time performance for 4K XAVC requires 16 cores or more.”

I’d be very surprised if that was correct, Sony guy didn’t mention that in his codec presentation yesterday.

Steve Connor
‘It’s just my opinion, with an occasional fact thrown in for good measure”

[Wolf Austad]

https://www.studiodaily.com/2012/10/sony-reveals-f5-and-f55-cinealta-4k-cameras/

“Gaggioni did warn that XAVC 4K is “computationally intense,” meaning the equivalent of an HP Z820 workstation packing 16 cores of processing power will be needed to hit real-time performance benchmarks. “An xw8600 workstation can also handle it, but for demanding post-production applications, you need a beefier machine.””

Seems very reasonable to me. I’m not a post guy, but when I try to play back 1080/30P AVC-Intra after a shoot on my Macbook Pro 17″ with 2 cores it skips frames. 4K will be 60P for broadcast and XAVC is, according to Sony, more advanced than AVC-Intra, so probably more computationally intensive. That’s roughly 10x the horsepower needed compared to a typical 1080/30P AVC-Intra workflow. If Sony can make this flow on the hardware mentioned I think they have done a good job.

Aasulv Wolf Austad, fnf
Director of Photography
Los Angeles based