DVCProHD mxf Failure to Import CS3.2 and CS4

Adobe Premiere Pro

DVCProHD mxf Failure to Import CS3.2 and CS4

Posted by Dennis Lillee on August 27, 2009 at 2:42 am

Hi I’m new to the forum, and looking for some miracle advice.
I have taken over video production in our internal multimedia/publications/training department due to redundancies at the start of 2009.

I have some foreign footage provided by a European office who hired a cameraman. He used FCP to capture the rushes filmed in DVCProHD 1080i 25fps format. They don’t have extensions coming from the Mac, they do now playback with Quicktime Pro and a demo of Calibrated{Q} DVCProHD Decode for Windows installed.

We use Premiere Pro CS3. I updated to 3.2 because that says native support to DVCProHD, however import causes error “Catastrophic Failure”. The error usability made me smile at least 🙂

I tried on my Premiere Pro CS4 at home, import failure result.

My workaround option is adjusting the Calibrated{Q} settings to export to an edit format with Quicktime Pro so CS3.2 can import it. I’m still working through this. I’ll have to buy Calibrated{Q} decode to remove the grey rectangles in the demo.

I have read lots of threads across a few forums, but Creative Cow seems to be on a greener pasture, so I’ve joined up here.

In hindsight I shouldn’t have been greedy for nice HD footage and settled with the DV option, but aiming high and failing spectacularly is too enticing!

– Is there a format of DVCProHD that PPro CS3.2 and CS4 can’t handle?
– Is it because it came through Mac?
– Does anyone know of alternatives to Calibrated{Q} that may work better/easier, or are free? I tried Avid DXnFC but it didn’t playback.

Thanks in advance,
Dennis.

Dennis Lillee replied 17 years ago 3 Members · 4 Replies
4 Replies

Jon Barrie
August 27, 2009 at 9:50 am

DVCProHD when natively coming from the camera record is what PPro uses and understands. FCP sadly can’t do this and so it re-wraps it into its own proprietary codec. Unfortunately they call it DVCProHD when its actually an Apple only codec. Sorry but you can’t use it on a PC and you would need FCP on a Mac to get it to work too.

Ask the other editor to convert all the material to ProRes. Then download the ProRes for windows plugin. Then you can cut the material and hopefully not have any quality loss.

Beware that ProRes footage requires a fast PC to run in RT as it will still not be edited natively. You can thank Apple for this runaround.

– JB

Jon Barrie
aJBprods
http://www.jonbarrie.net
Dennis Lillee
August 28, 2009 at 7:39 am

Thanks Jon,
I had read similar kinds of replies in other threads, but yours succinctly summarised it with my situation in mind perfectly.

Reporting back for others what I have found
– Avid DNxHD codec for windows (free) does not allow Quicktime to playback the Mac FCP format.
– Calibrated{Q} DVCProHD Decode for windows (demo) does allow playback. There are lots of options for controlling the codec, so I read the user manual and started some combinations. Bad export results/no quick luck, so considering it wasn’t free and wasn’t working straight away, I stopped the trial/error cycle.
– Raylight Decoder demo worked. No options and exported with QT Pro without a problem. CS3.2 Imports the .MOV wrapped Mac .MXF and can edit while Raylight Decoder is installed. Just need to purchase Raylight Decoder now to remove the 7 DVFilm labels on the demo.

Some other thread recommended Cineform as a whole better workflow that will also solve the problem. I looked at Cineform workflow and it is very appealing, I have downloaded the trial that is my next test.

My decision at this stage is between buying the Raylight Decoder demo to become Raylight Encoder Pro, or to put that company money towards Cineform if there are long term benefits from that workflow… possibly meaning no future upgrade to CS4 required with Cineflow workflow… but I haven’t looked into that yet.
Carl Lakari
September 7, 2009 at 4:11 pm

Hello Dennis: I am on a similar exploration as you have been. What was your ultimate decision on Raylight v. Cineform and why?
Thanks,
Carl
Dennis Lillee
September 7, 2009 at 7:49 pm

Hi Carl,
In short, Raylight was essential.

The long version:
Raylight has been the only one I’ve found to work like a conventional codec (install, it works in QTPro). Naming the files .MXF crashes PPro3.2, but wrapped as a .MOV out of QTPro with Raylight installed, it handles the .MOV files.

I tried Cineform but it alone wouldn’t read the Mac FCP DVCProHD format.

Ironically I received some Sony AVCHD footage that PPro3.2 wouldn’t open (need CS4) but Cineform NeoHD on PProCS3.2 would import it, convert to Cineform intermediate, and PProcCS3.2 can edit them. The Cineform codec is installed so will allow playback of these Cineform AVI in Windows Media Player as well.
The only catch is the Cineform trial ends in 15 days, so:
– Raylight decode _essential_ for the Panasonic DVCProHD through FCP .MXF
– Cineform trial seems like a genuine great tool, solved the Sony AVCHD issue for CS3.2, decision is same kind of money deciding between PProCS4 upgrade or Cineform NeoHD with the current PProCS3.2.

Thanks again to Jon Barrie who had the explanation concise and well tuned 🙂

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