P2 (DVCPRO HD based) MXF 3rd party converter

[Bouke Vahl]

Please enlighten me.
(I never use P2 myself).
Isn’t the codec FCP comaptible?
A transfer from MXF to MOV is essentially re-wrapping the data in a QT container, and should be as fast as just a simple copy command.

So my idea was that importing the P2 would be quite fast, and you should transcode the Canon stuff to the same codec, so you don’t have a mixed codec timeline, and don’t have to edit H264 (which is a bad idea with FCP).

Bouke

https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pros

[Adam Weinberg]

[Bouke Vahl] “A transfer from MXF to MOV is essentially re-wrapping the data in a QT container, and should be as fast as just a simple copy command.”

hmm .. interesting .. i never thought about that possibly being the case. unfortunately, when you’re capturing 40 hours of P2 data, a simple copy command isn’t so fast.

i guess here’s the reason i’m so confused: using the EOS-E1 plugin from canon, you can transcode the 5D’s H.264 to ProRes directly during log & transfer. with that in mind, i didn’t understand why you wouldn’t be able to theoretically transcode P2 directly during log & transfer as well.

another reason i am trying to avoid transcoding the DVCPRO HD P2 media to ProRes after it is already captured is that the link to the raw media on the card will be broken, and with this much media it is kind of necessary to maintain that link. i mean, it’s necessary to maintain that link for BOTH the 5D and the HPX .. which makes this all very difficult.

[Bouke Vahl]

Hmm.
Just tought of something…
Does the cam shoot DVCproHD or AVCintra?
If the latter, you’re in for a render on both cams.

For the transfer speed, yes it will be fast if it is DVCproHD.
The top is 100 Mb /s, and a typical el cheapo transport disk will run at some 200 Mb / s, so the transfer will take half the time of the duration. (In your case, 20 hours…)
Divided over several days, totally doable.

If the shoot is AVCintra, the files will be very small and perhaps can be FTP’d (if you shoot / edit in locations where high speed internet is available.
But AVCintra does need a proper transcode before you can edit it.

You might also render proxies on the shoot location, transfer them over internet and start editing with those. (perhaps transcode the proxies to another codec in the studio, but if they are small, that should be fairly fast.)
So you get a head start this way, and replace the proxies with the HQ video after the transcode is done, a day or two before delivery.

But in all cases, do test the entire workflow before commiting yourself to it. And for a project like this, if there are only a few small transport disks available, i would be scared…
(cost of transportation might exceed the value of the disks. Strange way of budgetting IMHO…)

Now, it is all possible, and i could even alter Offloader to do the re-wrapping while making proxies.
(DVC-pro MXF is currently not included in the transcoding, nor is AVCintro, but i could change that.)

Bouke

https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pros

[Shane Ross]

Why do you want to convert DVCPRO HD P2 to ProRes? You won’t gain any quality…all you will do is increase the file size. AVCINTRA P2 is a good one to convert to ProRes…and FCP allows for that. But DVCPRO HD P2…it just gets re-wrapped (like Bouke mentioned) to Quicktime…zero quality loss. Straight copy. And you can mix it with ProRes just fine. So why not keep the file sizes small? save space.

XDCAM comes in native too. FCP won’t convert that…until AFTER you import. But that is a harder format to work with. DVCPRO HD is one of the easiest HD formats to deal with.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Adam Weinberg]

from my experience DVCPRO HD is one of the easiest formats to work with .. when you’re dealing exclusively with DVCPRO HD. and it usually works OK when cut with ProRes as well. but the thing is, i need to be multipclipping DVCPRO HD media with ProRes media, and i have found that to be problematic / glitchy.

this is precisely why i want to be dealing exclusively with ProRes. or exclusively with DVCPRO HD. it’s not about quality – the quality of either format will suffice.

i guess this is a scenario where i’ll need to pick the lesser of two evils though, on this budget i can’t have everything..

[Jeremy Garchow]

You can log and transfer the dvcprohd u2, then take the orig files from the capture scratch (not Fcp) and drop those on to a Compressir droplet setup to the format of your choice.

This will keep the same tc/reel which will make tracking back to the DVCPro P2 material far from automagic, but it will be easier.

[Douglas Sarine]

I am having the same issue and was considering the same 4yousoft 3rd party solution. Did you end up buying/trying that? Results? Other solution? Thx