[Don Greening]

Hi Alex,

Welcome to Creative COW.

You’ll be able to view EX footage on your PowerBook G4 with the following minimum software requirements:

• Final Cut Pro v.6.0.2. You already have v.6.0.0 so do the software update.
• Quicktime v.7.3.1
• Mac OS v.10.4.11. You’re already running that so no prob. there.
• Sony Transfer Tool (this is a universal binary app so no problem there, either.
• Sony FAM driver – this is for your G4 to recognize the camera as an attached device.

You can get the free Sony Software here:

https://www.sony.ca/xdcamex/support.htm

Don’t bother downloading the Clip Browser software. It’s Intel only and won’t work on your Motorola PPC PowerBook.

There are fundamental differences between the Panny HVX and the EX cameras and how they approach video recording. The HVX footage is not as compressed so it’s easier on your computer’s processors to play back the footage smoothly as long as you have a decent transfer rate between your editing hard drive(s) and your computer. The HVX does not use the HDV codec but in fact uses the DVCPro HD codec, which is a very good thing. The DVCPro HD codec runs at 100 Mbits per second.

The EX cameras shoot to a more compressed codec which is much harder on your computer’s processors because they have to sort of “uncompress” your footage to play it back with some semblance of smoothness. The upside is that the data transfer speeds between the computer and hard drives aren’t that much more than DV NTSC which is good for you. So the data rate comparisons are:

DV NTSC (and HDV) – 25 Mbits per second
EX footage – 35 Mbits per second
HVX – 100 Mbits per second.

Since I’ve never had the opportunity to watch EX footage playing back on a G4 PowerBook you’ll have to find out for yourself. Your PowerBook almost meets the minumum software requirements now so I recommend you do the Apple software updates, download the Sony software and get to it. If your PowerBook ends up not being enough then you’ll just have to buy something that is. Even so, you’ll still be able to see what your EX footage looks like in the FCP timeline (or QT Player by itself) and will give you an idea of your EX picture settings.

– Don

[Don Greening]

[Noah Kadner] “in my experience the actual data rate at a given resolution is always the same no matter what the content is. And that’s pretty much the same in DV, HDV, DVCPROHD etc.”

Since I’m a proponent of the ‘Ockham’s razor’ theory I find the above statement quite logical. There must be different levels or flavors of Long GOP MPEG2 recording then, because the end result of a DVD encode is fluctuating VBR numbers when the data rate is called up on a screen during playback.

I would be very interested in seeing a comparison of the the same picture at 35VBR with the higher XDCAM HD 50 Mbit rate. Perhaps one day.

– Don

[Don Greening]

[Rafael Amador] “We go to “no moving parts” system. “

If your name is “Panasonic” then this certainly seems to be the current trend. When they come out with a P2 version of their flagship VariCam camera then you know they’re banking heavily on the end user acceptance of solid state recording.

I think Sony is a little different in their thinking and want to continue offering their customers both tape-based as well as tapeless recording options. Consider the new 650F HDCAM camcorder from Sony. It’s tape-based and because of this I don’t see Sony walking away from tape any time soon. Not with 43,000 HDCAM camera and deck users worldwide.

– Don

[Don Greening]

I also had a look at Mr. Anderson’s sample footage several days ago and thought that it looked more like a power frequency issue than anything else. It looked very similar to a computer monitor or television scanning mismatch. It seems to me that people roll out the “rolling shutter” phrase as a catch all to describe different issues.

Standard CMOS technology scans the chip from the top down and over a period of time. CCD chips get scanned all at once. The downside of CMOS then results in:

• picture skew when motion happens faster than the CMOS chip is scanned
• half-frame camera flashes

I’m sure that the CMOS chips are more sensitive to power frequency issues than CCDs as well but there are settings in both the EX1 and the EX3 to minimize or neutralize them.

– Don

[Don Greening]

[Steve Wargo] “That recording across the cards makes my stomach feel kinda funny. The whole recording to cards makes me a bit queezy. “

Agreement, and this is because of past practice. We both know that tape-based recording is a tried and true medium. But when you think about it, recording an image digitally to tape (as opposed to analogue) has been around now for about 10 years and we both trust it, yes?

So now I’m starting to think about what’s a more reliable way these days: tape or card because they’re both digital. The tape is being recorded as it is dragged across recording heads. The card has a solid electrical connection that doesn’t move. I’m starting to think the card idea is the better one. It’s the post-production workflow that’s still got everyone in a tizzy.

– Don

[Don Greening]

[Noah Kadner] “I’ve never seen it go higher than 35MBps. “

Indeed. I’ve actually never looked nor am I too worried about what the the data rate is from one moment to the next. My primary concern is whether the picture looks good or not. The belief that higher data rates come in to play is most noticeable when recording over-cranked footage, for example shooting HQ 720 30p @60 frames per second. This shooting mode takes up twice as much space as normal speed. Which begs the question: is it just 2 times the stored information and does that mean the data rate is higher as a result? Or is it as simple as having a file size that’s just twice as big? Sony calls is it variable bit rate for a reason, I guess. Normally the idea is to have more bits assigned to more frame motion.

I’m just trusting that those who say the data rate is higher are more knowledgeable about such things than I.

– Don

[Don Greening]

[stephen may] “btw – the EX11 isn’t actually out yet – just kidding – that was a type-O”

Since everybody keeps telling me that Sony doesn’t like even numbers I’m assuming the next one will be the EX5. This is the one I’m waiting for which will look suspiciously like an HPX300 on steroids. Which is why my real name is actually Gone Dreaming.

– Don

[Don Greening]

It’s an average rate. When using over-cranking for example, the data rate can go much higher, according to those in the know.

– Don

[Don Greening]

Sony’s Clip Browser will enable you to view EX footage without having an NLE present on your computer. Perhaps XDCAM HD footage is viewable as well . You can find the free software here for both Mac and PC:

https://www.sony.ca/xdcamex/support.htm

Or you go here and buy all the XDCAM Quicktime codecs for Intel Macs and PCs:

https://www.calibratedsoftware.com/QXD.asp

– Don

[Don Greening]

It doesn’t look like multiple clips can be queued for playback. I tried shift-selecting several but the transport controls become greyed-out when selecting more than one. Perhaps a future program version will allow all clips to be played back sequentially.

– Don