MXF vs. ProRes 422/HQ…? (AVC Intra Footage)

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Banks Meador] “Hi, Jeremy… Is your above statement still true?”

Yes, unfortunately it is.

[Banks Meador] “Bummer if it is, because I just purchased an AVC-Intra option board for my HPM-110 (P2 recorder) so I could use MXF4MAC to edit the files natively. “

MXF4mac is ready for AVC-Intra and IF it ever comes it will work, until now we wait and beg and plead Apple to enable an rt codec for AVC-I:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/finalcutpro.html

There’s a new product coming out from MXF4mac called P2 flow that allows metadata editing of all Panasonic MXF files and it has some really really great features for us AVC-I editors. It’s good you got MXF4mac, it’s a very very useful piece of software. AVC-I is a great in camera codec, so try and remain patient. I can’t imagine Apple won’t enable AVC-I in real time.

Jeremy

[Banks Meador]

Jeremy,

Thanks for the insight. I’m new to FCP, and I need to establish a good workflow for a time sensitive television show (we shoot our football coach’s show on Saturday night, and it has to be ready for air by 8 am Sunday morning).

So….

If I record the production truck feed for highlights on my HPM110, which is capable of AVCIntra and DVCPROHD P2 recording, if I want real time support, I’ll need to use DVCPROHD for now (with MXF4MAC), right? By the way, we’ll be editing directly from the P2 cards read from the HPM110 recorder/player.

Just curious; what happens to the AVCINTRA when it hits the FCP project? Is it not wrapped just like the DVCPROHD? Is it transcoded to ProRes?

If I try to use MXF4MAC to edit the AVCINTRA clips (while attempting to leave the files on the cards in the reader) what will happen? I’m awaiting my copy MXF4MAC, and I’m interested in whether FCP will copy the files to my media drive; an obvious roadblock when it comes to asap editing.

Thanks for any further thoughts. You guys are all helping me make the transition to FCP work like a charm.

Banks

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Banks Meador] ” if I want real time support, I’ll need to use DVCPROHD for now (with MXF4MAC), right?”

Yes. But look what can change overnight. Native AVC-I!

https://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/whats-new.html

[Banks Meador] “Is it transcoded to ProRes? “

Via Log and Transfer, yes.

[Banks Meador] “If I try to use MXF4MAC to edit the AVCINTRA clips (while attempting to leave the files on the cards in the reader) what will happen?”

You get no rt performance and you get an 8 bit SMPTE interpretation. Everything will have to be rendered.

[Banks Meador] “I’m awaiting my copy MXF4MAC, and I’m interested in whether FCP will copy the files to my media drive; an obvious roadblock when it comes to asap editing. “

You mean from the cards? No I use Shotput Pro for that. With MXF4mac, you can work right of the cards if you need to. I’d suggest using DVCPro HD for this one, then AVC-I once FCS3 is released.

Jeremy

[Banks Meador]

Jeremy,

Thanks again! I ordered my copy of FCS3 and we’ll see! Exciting, ain’t it?

Banks

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Banks Meador] “Exciting, ain’t it? “

For sure.

Jeremy

[Serge Noel]

I just finished a project done in AVC Intra on FCP 7. I would like to mention that with a color compressed codec such as AVC-Intra Apple ProRes did not do the great job you might expect. It would turn out noisy when slight nuances of green, brown or gray were involved. My project what shot a lot outside, so that was a problem. I should also say in all fairness that more contrasty stuff looked fine.

But the project I am working on is going to end up in 35mm via Arrilaser, and so getting the most out of the original media WAS a concern.

We ended up doing some sort of a conform back to .mxf. Two options exist as far as I know what would allow this. 1) You can finish up on Avid, use AMA or Boris AAF to do so (not very mac like, but that is what we did because it was cheaper in our situation). Or 2) on mac, you could also conform using the .mxf to .dpx tool panasonic provides (DPX Conversion Plugin). I used this second option to enter AVID with some clips that Nitris would not recognize for some reason. It worked fine, but it is slow.

One thing you must do is select in and out points with the panasonic Viewer, before the export. Again, tedious. But really worth it when you want all the color latitude you can get.

I hope this can help someone.

Serge

[Jeremy Garchow]

Serge, MXF4mac now has an AVC-I encoder that would allow you to export an AVC-I MXF and then transfer that to DPX if you need be. No transcoding need, it all stays native of you have no effects/movement/filters on your timeline.

might be easier than hand matching back to the orig MXFs.

Jeremy