any way to edit my DVCPRO HD footage on a PC?
 

Hey guys,

Sorry if this should be obvious ... having trouble getting my footage to work on my PC.

I have about 4 hours of .MOV files stored on a portable seagate drive that I want to edit on my PC in premiere pro... its in DVCPRO HD format, 720p60, reads fine on a mac in FCP, but when I play the stuff in quicktime on my PC i get sound but no picture (just a black background)...

is there a way to convert it to use a different codec, hopefully without a loss in image quality? Someone mentioned blackmagic, but I don't know how I can convert it if my PC can't decode it in the first place... maybe I could convert it on the Mac to a better format, before I transfer it over to the PC ?

Thanks in advance!

JT Coleman
Austin, Texas

Hi. Try going to DVfilm.com and downloading Raylight. It costs but it converts the mxf files to avi's.

converter
 

the source files are in .mov format, will that converter still work?

Thanks,

JT

Do you still have the original MXF source files? If so, the Canopus Edius 'Broadcast' software can reportedly handle those no problem, if you have a spare $999 to spare. In their current MOV form you probably won't have much luck with the video files on a PC.

Avid XpressProHD should work although I've never tried it with DVCProHD. You need a version of the DVCProHD codec in order to transcode from QT to PP2. I'd check with the Apple boys to see if QTPro supports it? Panasonic are in bed with Apple on DVCProHD, hence the lack of native support on many PC based editors.

I gotta say, if anyone from Panasonic is trolling...

I went out yesterday to buy a sony HDV deck (mostly for SD, but options are nice).. anyway, I realized I was spending $3000, so why not go $3000 more and just buy an HVX and do away with a deck al together?!

I was about to purchase one, until this issue with PC and Adobe Premiere came up. Unfrotunatly, I cannot buy an HVX because of this, and I feel they will lose more customers do to this problem. The HVX seems like one of the better cams out there, but PC's aren't exactly going extinct!

GAH!

Raylight makes HVX200 editing in Premiere Pro a snap. Drop Raymaker
into your video folder, double-click on it. Start editing.

See http://dvfilm.com/raylight/raylightTutorial1.htm

It's 100% native DVCPROHD and trolls love it.

So, it converts the footage and compresses it for editing, then in the render, it assembles the non-compressed footage?

It creates a lo-res proxy and creates pointers to the original frame data in the MXF file. So, even though you are working with an AVI file, the
final render always draws from the original camera data for the maximum
possible quality. The tutorial has the details.

choices
 

Hi, i'm about to buy a computer dedicated for video editing (HVX200 cam, mostly used with DVCPRO HD) but i still wondering if i should:

1. Stay with PC (that i already know), buy a good, custom-built to my needs desktop computer and editing software (Adobe Premiere, Vegas, etc..)

2. Jump into the Apple world (and learn it), buy a new Intel MacBook Pro and the popular Final Cut Studio

3. " " , buy a new Intel iMac20 and the popular Final Cut Studio


I'm curious about the apple/final cut combo but i wonder if the Macbook pro or imac will be enough for HD video editing (?) ...or if i need some G5 quad beast or something..

If i choose to stay with PC, will it be a loss to work with Adobe/Vegas combined with Raylight ?

I speak in term of general performance and easy-to-learn factors ?

Thanks for your help :-)

Jon

Choices
 

You should always try to stick with what you know. Learning a new system takes away time that could be used to tell a better story. Adobe PP2 has plenty of features, but more importantly, incorporates After Effects and Photoshop. Knowing skills in those programs will always help your career prospects. I never see a FCP position that doesn't have the phrase "AE and Photoshop experience a plus." If you really want to work on Apple, that's great. But your not missing out on anything if you don't. As far as performance, the new Macbook Pro works faster than my duel G5 workstation in rendering and compression of HDV. You'll be fine if you budget your project time right. If you go with FCP you may also want the assistance of the MXO accelerator built by Matrox (www.matrox.com/video) to boost the output of the Macbook Pro.

I hope that helps,

CJ Rogers

Thank you CJ Rogers for the answer, greatly appreciated.

Jon

Don't Cineform products handle this situation?
 

I have Aspect HD on a spanking brand new PC with Adobe Production Studio, (and I still have LOTS to learn about how to use it, so I'm no expert...heck, barely a novice), but I thought the whole intention of Aspect HD was to ease editing of HD files such as those. If I understand it correctly, Aspect HD even comes with presets for such files.

Does Raylight do something different?

You're probably OK with Aspect if you already have it. The main advantage of Raylight is that it has zero quality loss on cuts, meaning there is no recompression. It always draws data from the original MXF files on a final render. Also the new release, which I am still working on, can author a P2 card for playback to the camera.

JT, not sure if you have found a solution yet but your problem is in whatever codec you used to encode your Quicktime files into. For many codecs, especially hardware codecs, you must have them installed on both systems. If you post what software you used to encode, that will give us a clue as to your problem.

Jon, your in a dilema is tough to answer. I personally have been a PC guy for years as that is just the tools the I had to play with. However with the Intel chips, I am seriously considering jumping ship and going Mac. But for me, I am going to hold out for a while. Right now, the only thing that truly works with no glitches on the new Macs, is Apple software like Final Cut. Third party developers are not yet up to speed on updates for the new chips so you might want to consider that.

I am an Avid editor so for me, I could not consider moving until Avid software is available and the bugs somewhat worked out before making the move.

I have also read some issues with Adobe software and it seems that right now, many people are having to do work-arounds to use their software.

I suspect that by Q1 of 2007, most if not all bugs will be worked through and the Mac Intel chips will be the best solution out there.