XDcam EX and ProRes

[Gary Adcock]

[arnljot Bringedal] “If i use the HD-sdi out – and go into the AJA IO HD… and to FCP as prores. what kind of color compression will i get? wil it be crappy GOP or …??”

you will get a true iframe 10bit ProRes file capture from the HDSDI out on the EX and the HDSDI signal is PRE-Compression.

gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production Workflows
Inside look at the IoHD

[Arnljot Bringedal]

Thanks GARY!

Just as i was hoping for.
Have you seen good keys from this cam?

*** Norwegian videojournalist & Editor***

[Hans Vernhout]

The keys that you can pull from the EX1 are very good.

I did test the EX1 for a shoot for Dutch national television we were going to do in China (there will be an English translation of the test report) and the chromakey capabilities of the EX1 shots were better than the footage from our Sony DVW-790 digibeta camera.

You can find some test clips of a quick and dirty chromakey setup with the EX1 and the DVW-790 digibeta at https://www.vocas.nl/praktijk_pmw-ex1.htm

The link to the (fullres) clips are at the bottom of the page. We did a quick, single key with Keylight without spill suppression etc. to get a fair comparison with the digibeta PAL footage.

Even the 35 Mbit compressed HQ footage from the SxS cards did key remarkably well, and will be usable for all but the most critical of your chromakey setups. This was a big surprise for us, as the clips on the cards are heavily compressed with 4:2:0 sampling.

Hans Vernhout
Director / lighting cameraman
The Netherlands

[Rafael Amador]

[Hans Vernhout] “, as the clips on the cards are heavily compressed with 4:2:0 sampling.”
yes but let don’t forget than a EX-1 “I” frame have more Luma and Chroma information than a Digi-beta frame.

Mac OX 10.5.2-FC 6.02-QT 7.4.1
G5 2x2Gh 4GbRAM-BlackMagic Extreme
PMBP 17″Core2Duo 4GbRAM-AJA ioHD
JVC DTV-17″
SONY EX-1 . SONY PD170
..and always a big mess on top of the table.

[Hans Vernhout]

Correct. That’s because you’re comparing the total amount of luma and chroma information that is in HD sized (EX1) vs. SD sized (digibeta) frame sequences. We did that same comparison in our testing as well, because Dutch national tv is still broadcasting in standard definition, so EX1 shots used for Dutch tv will end up in an SD broadcast anyway.

But even if you look at the ‘chromakeying potential’ of the 4:2:0 sampled 1920×1080 frames itself (HQ mode 35 Mbit/s), the codec of the EX1 performs surprisingly well.

This is important, because people tend to place their HD tv-sets at the same spot their SD-sets used to be, so they see more resolution in HD programs and DVD’s, and sampling/chromakeying artifacts are more easily noticed (by viewers with normal vision).

In reality the relation between frame size, chroma and luma sampling, compression, etc. is a very complex one. A real world test can clarify quite a bit.

Hans Vernhout
Director / lighting cameraman
The Netherlands

[Elijah Lynn]

Did this report ever make it to a English translation?

[Hans Vernhout]

Hi Elijah,

Unfortunately, no. The offer we got back in 2008 to translate the report in English didn’t substantiate and I didn’t have time due to deadlines and English not being my mother language.
In the meantime some excellent EX1 reviews and test came out in English. I don’t know what you already researched yourself but the following links provide some very good starting points for getting to know the EX1:

https://provideocoalition.com/index.php/awilt/story/review_sony_pmw_ex1_1_2_3_cmos_hd_camcorder/

https://www.dvinfo.net/conf/sony-xdcam-ex-cinealta/

Kind regards,

Hans Vernhout
Director / lighting cameraman
The Netherlands

[Elijah Lynn]

Hi Hans,

I was just trying to make out teh footage on that page. The XDCam and SDI clips looked the same to me.

We are getting a EX1 and I was planning on purchasing a IO HD at somepoint for some superclean keying but am going to have to get by for now with the Mpeg 2 files. It appears to me that you can get very nice results with the Mpeg 2 and the ProRes HQ capture may not be entirely necessary.

The report looks very interesting and would be great to understand more fully.

[Hans Vernhout]

Hi Elijah,

[Elijah Lynn] “The XDCam and SDI clips looked the same to me.”

We concluded in our testing that the 35Mbit/s SxS (4:2:0 sampled) footage looked very much like the
10-bit 4:2:2 footage captured live via our IoHD to ProRes HQ from the SDI-output of the EX1. There are subtle differences, but for a good chromakey the heavily compressed SxS footage holds up remarkably well. Before the test we had anticipated a much bigger difference.

[Elijah Lynn] “It appears to me that you can get very nice results with the Mpeg 2 and the ProRes HQ capture may not be entirely necessary.”

Yes, that’s exactly what our testing proved.

[Elijah Lynn] “The report looks very interesting and would be great to understand more fully.”

It is a lot of work to do a proper English translation myself, and I don’t think many people are still interested in another report about the EX1. But feel free to ask specific questions you have, and I might be able to answer them with findings from on our tests.

Hans Vernhout
Director / lighting cameraman
The Netherlands

[Elijah Lynn]

We can have Google translate it but the PDF is locked. If you can give me a link to a unlocked PDF I will translate with Google and we can get a rough idea for those who are interested.

Thanks