Lars Wikstrom
Forum Replies Created
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I agree it would be a benifit. The only problem that I have is I use many other applications that don’t support MXF. I use Sound Soap to remove back ground noise and It imports MOV’s not MXF’s. I use Electric Image for 3D work. I can use Mov’s as Texture maps not MXF’s. This is for many apps as well. I haven’t tried After Effects yet so I don’t know.
The point of this whole thing was to have Panasonic support QT by giving us a Plug-in. There is a need for it because you can buy it from other companies that have been mentioned in this thread.
If there was an easy way to connect the HVX to my Decklink card and log and capture footage I would. This whould bring it out of the MXF world and into a more user friendly QT world with free downloadable codecs for Mac and PC. Converting MXF to QT seems to be probamatic if you switch from 5.0.4 to 5.1 with your already created QT footage. I hope Panasonic does not pull a Sony and say you have to be apart of our club if you are going to work with our stuff. When Sony did that they saw my last Dollar and I was a big supporter of them before (Well not huge but they got my camera and monitor sales). Panny is way ahead of the pack but not quite there yet for me, My opinon only : )
Cheers
-Lars
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But that problem shouldn’t be with the Quicktime clip. That would have to be a FCP bug. If it plays fine in QT player then it should import and play fine in FCP. The great power of FCP is the ability to work with native formats like .MOV’s .PSD’s AIFF’s and so on. With Avid everything needs to be converted in and out of that world. MXF’s are to new and I know that Apple format is QT. They may or may not adapt that format in the future or continue with the converting like it does now.
That must be a bug that will more then likely get fixed or it will cause alot of problems and perhaps turn people away from the P2 format if it will cause lots of more work when upgrades come out.
-Lars
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Hey Berry thank you. I didn’t know that all the other platforms edited MXF natively and it was only Apple’s FCP that made you convert to QT.
Interesting. Thanks for that tid bit of knowledge.
-Lars
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You know Bill I have to say that I walk a different path then the other people here. When I got the camera 6 weeks ago I took my laptop to the jobs and imported the footage right from the card into FCP. I was told last week that this was not the perferd method of working but I have not seen any problems with that process. No one here has said there is a loss in quality putting a new wrapper on it from MXF to MOV so I am guessing there is no loss.
If you are going to be editing in FCP then it will need to convert your MXF to QT anyways. When I finish importing a 4 gig card I drop that into Toast and burn a DVD of the clips from the Capture Scratch folder. When I come to dump the next P2 card the last one is burned and verified.
Jan is right that it is like your master tape but the fact is it is not a tape. It is 1’s and 0’s sitting on a hard drive and if your drive or disc dies then it dosen’t matter if it is MXF or MOV’s
I will still keep doing it this way even though it is not the perfered way since it works for me. The only probelm that you will come across is Panasonic does not offer the Quicktime Codec as a download from thier site. So if you give the files to a friend to take home to look at on their PC they won’t play. Found that out the hard way. but the camera is still great!
-Lars
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And if I am correct you don’t get the DV 50 or 100 with QT. You have to buy FCP to get these codecs installed on your Mac. I only hope the powers that be at Panasonic re-think the codec problem. When I need to edit in FCP I don’t edit the MXF files I have to convert them to QT files to edit.
But it is intersting to know.
-Lars
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If you read a few posts down you will see a problem that I came across. If you are planning on shooting with the HVX-200 and editing in something like FCP then you will be happy. P2 is not a Quicktime format it is an MXF format. If you have other people that are working on the film and their systems don’t support MXF format you can give them Quicktime movies from the FCP import. If they stay with the DVCpro 50 compression format in the QT movie then they will have to buy the codecs from a 3rd party vender like.
https://www.mainconcept.com/site/?id=537
For about $350. But if you are doing everything yourself on a system that supports MXF you will like the work flow because it is easy.
-Lars
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Mitch, the FCP vers. Avid I totaly agree with you. FCP has been my package since version 1. I guess I am just old school even though my BFA was in 94′ from Cal Arts and I want things simple. I like QT movies with 2 tracks of audio. .MOV’s are much better then .AVI like you mentioned too. MFX format from what I understand has everything seperated on the P2 card from audio, video, information and so on. FCP P2 import allows me to combined all that seperated data into one useable QT file, everything embeded the way I like to work.
As Jan mentioned Sony does not offer thier codecs which is now 1 more reason I’m glad I moved away from Sony products. And Mitch your right, other people are creating “Non-Standard” formats which causes them to offer their own codecs. But those codecs follow the standard for the computer they will be on. Apple is Quicktime. If I shot with a DVCpro 50 camera to tape and then digitized that into the computer I would need a Kona card, I/O, Decklink, Auorua and so on. This would then create a QT movie. Avid is in it’s own world but they offer a codec for the Apple enviornment. QT for windows is popular as well.
I understand what you guys are saying now and I have learned more about the new p2 format.But I know if Panasonic wanted to they could easily create a drop in codec for QT for Mac and Windows for the people who converted from the P2 format to Quicktime. I use Sound Soap to do audio cleaning. I can import QT files not the P2 MXF files.
So Panasonic, please create at least read only QT codec and put it on your website for FREE download.
Thanks,
-Lars
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Sorry this reply is so late I just saw it. Thanks for that info!!!!!
-Lars
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Yes you are right. This will be edited in Modesto I think he said it will be edited on an Avid system. The Director / Producer wanted to look at the footage on his Dell this week to get an idea of the shots he will be using for the edit.
The original P2 files don’t exist anymore. My work flow is drop the P2 card in the laptop, import the P2 media via FCP and have workable QT files located in the capture scratch folder.
If they can’t import them into the Avid then I will have them send the disc’s back to me, download the FREE AVID SOFTWARE CODEC which AVID supplys online for FREE and transcode the files to a format they can use.
It seems like every other company DeckLink, Avid, AJA and so on that have a codec that is not standard in QT supply a free codec for people who need to work in that format that don’t have the hardware. I would asume that Panasonic would also offer this FREE codec to make it simple. Perhaps they do and I can’t find it or they are working on one or just don;t have one which some people in hear have said already.
If I have him download the P2 viewer is that only to view the P2 media from the card or can he view the DVCpro 50 QT clips I gave him in that viewer?
Is DVCpro a licensed format that Panasonic is building all this hardware around or do they own the DVCpro format? If so then they should atleast put a downloadable codec on their website even if it is for viewing and not writing to this format. Many other companies who create their own hardware offer downloadable software codecs for people who don’t have that hardware. I guess I keep talking about this because I have never seen this before.
I told the client before I left that it might be in the QT codec line up or downloadable from the panasonic site, opps.
If there is no multi platform codec to solve this problem (now or in the works) then I guess I will have to dust off the old DVCAM, “Old Faithful”, that went into retirement 5 weeks ago for these types of jobs since P2 makes it harder then just giving them a tape.
This is not a rant so please don’t read it like that. I am thankfull for the information all of you P2 brainiacs are providing me to help me get the most out of the equipment I know use.
Thanks!!!
-Lars
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Noah, I don’t mean to insult I just happen to know from her posts that she is a Panasonic Rep and might have more insite as to a software decompression codec that non Panasonic people might not know about. There might be more Panny people here but she is the only one that I know about which is why I mentined her.
The client now has all the files since I was just hired to shoot the event and give them the tapes or media. When I shot it on Saturday I had no clue that it would be this hard to track down a codec for viewing. If I knew what I know now I would have transcoded the clips to a more user friendly multi platform format then DVCpro.
If you use Black Magic card to digitize in the footage you can go to their website and download the sotware codec to view on other computers that don’t have the hardware installed. Since the HVX-200 creates the clips in the camera and uses the DVCpro codec as the compressor the computer only needs the decompressor and no other hardware. So before Saturday I thought that was a standered way of thinking. Go to Panny site and download the codec and drop into QT plugs for Mac or Windows version and it’s done.
This was the first job that I used the new camera for and I do about 10 a year like this where the client takes the tapes / media with them. Now I will have to have him send me back the discs so I can trancode them for him.
Thanks for all your insite!!
-Lars