[Mark Burton]

Just to be really clear for James, Xpress Pro HD 5.0-5.2.x was and will never be available on the Mac. So the answer to your original question is no. As others have said Xpress Pro 5.5 is the release that brings the PC and Mac feature set together.

[Mark Burton]

I’m sorry I missed this thread, this is very interesting news Dan and Gary, thanks for looking into this and trying to come up with a solution for us PAL people – its really appreciated.

Anyway I just downloaded the demo and tried a 720p25 file (not pn) – the file imports and plays inside HD Log. When I exported it, Quicktime Player reports it as ‘DVCPRO HD 720p50’ at 50fps – so that seems to work and I was not given any extra options inside HD Log so it must be automatic.

What’s strange is that there is no such 720p50 Apple DVCPRO HD codec! Yet this is exactly how Quicktime Player reports it – codec names usually come straight from the codec bundle but for 720p the Apple DVCPRO HD codec has only ever shown as 24, 30 and 60. It seems to me that this DVCPRO HD codec could easily be enabled/extended for 25 and 50? Perhaps this is where the HD Log trickery is coming in. Perhaps the Apple 720p codec is just frame rate agnostic.

Inside FCP however, it is reported as DVCPRO HD 720p60 at 50fps. I could not set up a custom sequence template to work with the clip as FCP has no 50 option for FPS. I guess you need to shoot with 720pn25 so that you end up with 25fps rather than 50. Unfortunately I only have an FS100 and no P2 cards, so i can’t record PN.

Thanks again for doing this Imagine,
Mark

[Mark Burton]

Shane could you test the G-RAID on the G5’s FW400 port – use a FW800 to FW400 cable if the G-RAID has no FW400 port. This test would be much clearer if you test the same drive setup on the two ports.

many thanks
Mark

[Mark Burton]

Unfortunately not. This is the case for FCP v5.0.4, v5.1 and now v5.1.1. We still wait for 720/25/50 support. Equally this is not yet supported in Xpress Pro HD and MCA. The only way to cut this stuff at 720p is to use DV Film Maker v2.3, Cineform Aspect HD or Cineform Connect HD and either Premiere Pro or Sony Vegas – all PC based which is probably no god for you – sorry.

[Mark Burton]

I believe this JVC format is not yet supported by Avid Xpress Pro / MCA.

[Mark Burton]

The Media Manager tool mentioned above is a great tool and the developer is working very hard to support all the feature requests people ask for – all for free. Since I started using it there have been around 5 or 6 updates, each bringing new features and again all for free. The media preview feature is clearly not a simple tool to implement. I know of only a few 3rd party tools which have some sort of OMF playback ability:

Drastic Preview – WIN. Will play most OMF types, quality is poor with DV types.
https://www.drasticpreview.com

Media Munger – MAC. Will play/convert most OMF types except DV it seems. Expensive.
https://www.gallery.co.uk/mediamunger.html

Quicktime Player – MAC/WIN. If you want to view OMF files which are DV25 based, then you can temporarily change the extension from .omf to .dv and the file will play in Quicktime Player. Fairly sure this only works with DV25 clips. Audio will not play.

[Mark Burton]

I think:

1 – Choose the ‘Menu’
2 – Then push ‘Enter’ and ‘Degauss’ at the same time

This should get you into the service menu.

[Mark Burton]

Xpress Pro’s almost certain not to work properly if at all even if you could get it open, but the dongle recognition it actually due to the fact that the driver for the dongle, provided by the dongle manufacturer have not released a UB version of this driver yet – PowerPC kext (driver) files can not be run via Rosetta on Intel Macs.

So it will require them and Avid to produce UB versions of their software.
—
Mark

[Mark Burton]

Tried it with 5.2.4 on MacBook Pro 2.16Ghz – Xpress Pro HD opens and runs very well apart from the fact that the ATI cards do not work with PC Xpress Pro so you can not see any playback in the Composer windows – the overlay is not supported with the ATI cards.

So in short, its not usable. (unless Avid decide to buld in support for ATI video cards) 🙂
—
Mark

[Mark Burton]

Check out this PC app:
https://fiool.nm.ru/progz/

…and keep an eye on this thread on the Avid forums, where the developer will announce new versions and take feedback:
https://www.avid.com/exchange/forums/55873/ShowPost.aspx

Mark