“Externally” encoding to Blackmagic MJPEG Codec?

[Deleted User]

Hello,

I am not sure Procoder will work properly with the Blackmagic codecs. You can also import the m2t files into After Effects and create a render cue lists to convert into the Blackmagic MJPEG. Also m2t files are not supported yet in Premiere pro so its hit and miss. Try converting them into Cineform, it’s a far superior compression then the MJPEG.

Hope that helps?

[Brett Howe]

There are several issues with The Blacmagic MJEG codec.

The Codec itself is excellent, but it will not work with much outside of Premiere and After Effects. I have also had issues with AE CS3 and writing BM MJPEG.

I have the new Procoder 3, and still no BM MJPEG. Autodesk Cleaner will not work either.

This is a frustrating issue, as we are currently constantly using work-arounds to deal with our media, which is a mixed bag of various HiDef formats.

Please Black Magic, get it to work!

[Kylesway]

Hi all

I have had a chat with Blackmagic Support.

The issue with the MJPEG CoDec not being recognized correctly
by at least some applications (specifically ProCoder) is a
known issue and under investigation. They’ll let me know if
there is another transcoding app that will work with it, and
what the status is on a fix for the CoDec not being recognized
properly.

Leo: I know that the CineForm is (at least said to be) better
than the BM-MJPEG. But so far it’s a software only solution
that will not give me affordable preview to a “real” monitor.
It can use one of the AJA cards but that’s an around USD 2000
investment if I remember correctly. If CineForm/BM will make
CineForm’s CoDec work w/ the Intensity, I’ll happily go that
route. (I’ve read somewhere on the net that this is being
considered.)

As its stands now, BM-MJPEG to me is currently the most cost
effective compromise between native HDV and an uncompressed
workflow.

BTW: HDV (m2t) in PremierePro2 works quite well – as long as
the project remains small, there’s no need for “real” timeline
preview, and you can stay inside of Premiere. As AE7 cannot
(afaik) write “real” m2t, things get hairy if you need it.
Maybe it will work better if you use DynamicLink, but that’s
somewhat against my Workflow…

I’ll try and remember keeping you posted. My current inclination
is to go thru the ordeal of more or less manually transcoding
my couple hundred clips in PPro or AE. The sped up workflow
and most notably “real” timeline preview seem to make this
worth the effort…

Thanks a lot for your thoughts

— Kyle

[Deleted User]

Hello Kyle,

Yes, sadly the Multibridge etc does not support playout of the Cineform. I agree it is a huge incestment when I have a Multibridge and it works but not outputting Cineform etc.

I think Intensity works with CIneform well, check out the Cineform website.

– – – – – – – – –
Leo Baker
Post Production
Sync Films
United Kingdom
http://www.syncfilms.com
– – – – – – – – –

[Kylesway]

Hi all

as promised, here’s an update.

– I went ahead and bought the Intensity Pro
– I transcoded all my files using PremierePro2
– Things are really stable (so far, have not yet
had the time to do much editing)
– HOWEVER: I only noticed after transcoding that
PremierePro2 introduced nasty vertical dark/bright
banding when scaling hdv (m2t) to the 1920 used
by BMD. This is not immediately visible in most
shots but pretty obvious in some.
– WORKAROUND: Do the scaleup into the BMD-10bitHD
Codec and then transcode (again) to BMD-MJPEG.
Somewhat nasty but feasible. Is PProCS3 better
at this? I read somewhere it’s fully higher color
depth in CS3.
– ODD: In After Effects 7, my exports from m2t to
BMD-MJPEG screw up the timing (looks like the clip
runs slightly slower). Have not yet found a workaround
so far.

But the hassles are worth having the “real” timeline
preview to Video Projector.

Hope this helps

— Kyle

[Drew Mccoy]

I am migrating my workflow to be based off an Intensity and I’m wanting to re-encode my clips to BMD-MJPEG.

How did you go about encoding your files to BMD-MJPEG in Premiere Pro? I’m using PP CS3 and when I attempt to encode any of my clips (random assortment of H.264 .MOVs and Huffyuv .AVIs, all 720p 59.94fps) it gives me the following error:

Error Compiling Movie.

Codeccompression error.

This codec may be unable to support the requested frame size, or there may be a hardware or memory problem.

I’m using a project based off the BMD 8-bit 720p59.94fps preset, and I’m just going through the normal Export -> Movie route. Any suggestions?