Sony PXW-X70 announced: Pro XDCAM version of AX100

[Aaron Holmes]

Originally Posted by Stephen Robinson

Sony lists this for the recording format:

XAVC HD : MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 4:2:2 Long profile

So my understanding is all the XAVC, regardless of the frame rate will be 4:2:2. The file extensions are .MXF

Got it. Probably necessary to use something like Catalyst Browse to transcode to ProRes first, in that case. Maybe not the end of the world, but certainly less than ideal.

Thanks again!

[Christopher Young]

I hear TotalCode Studio will work with these files and batch convert to almost any flavour required. TotalCode is a MC product. MC are still writing a bunch of XAVC codec material for Sony. Bet that is what we are waiting for, MC to deliver a codec library to suit this newer XAVC format.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

[Mike Griffiths]

I hear TotalCode Studio will work with these files and batch convert to almost any flavour required. TotalCode is a MC product. MC are still writing a bunch of XAVC codec material for Sony. Bet that is what we are waiting for, MC to deliver a codec library to suit this newer XAVC format.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

But only for windows 7 PCs, nothing for Macs

[Christopher Young]

Oooh, nothing for Macs? Doesn't sound too good! At this point anyway.

Just had it confirmed by a colleague that MainConcept's TotalCode Studio 3.1 [full version] will handle the XAVC-L 50-mbit 422 10-bit MXF files straight out of the X70 with no problems at all.

It also supports batch conversion from a chosen 'watch folder.' It can also transcode / export to virtually any flavour of codec/format/resolution you desire. It's also pretty quick and the quality is is as you would expect. It will also handle the XAVC-Intra 200+mbit MXF files from the F5/F55 family along with all of Sony's MPEG2 and H264 flavours from the rest of the camera family.

Not too surprising really when you look at it when you see that virtually every plugin made for Sony software including Vegas and the new Catalyst Browse is written by MainConcept.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

[Gabor Heeres]

Adobe Premiere Pro CC works fine with these XAVC-L files. No problems here.

[Ron Evans]

Edius Pro 7 will play/edit these files ( downloaded from this thread ) just fine too. Identifies files as H.264/AVC ( Long GOP ) 50P, PCM audio 48000hz 24bit, with time code.

Ron Evans

[Christopher Young]

Originally Posted by Gabor Heeres

Adobe Premiere Pro CC works fine with these XAVC-L files. No problems here.

That's interesting Gabor. We just tried with the latest Prem Pro CC update on Mac. Only updated in the last 48 hours. PP will see the XAVC-L 422 MXF files but won't play them. Hmm! More investigation required I think.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

[Christopher Young]

Originally Posted by Ron Evans

Edius Pro 7 will play/edit these files ( downloaded from this thread ) just fine too. Identifies files as H.264/AVC ( Long GOP ) 50P, PCM audio 48000hz 24bit, with time code.

Ron Evans

Yes we were aware that Edius was ahead of`the curve. Strange goings on I think.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

[Barry J. Weckesser]

Originally Posted by Christopher Young

Yes we were aware that Edius was ahead of`the curve. Strange goings on I think.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

IMHO. - They (Edius - Grass Valley(Canopus) have been "ahead of the curve" for a number of years - just don't have the "image" of PremierPro or FCP. Many professionals dismiss the software without looking into its capabilities.

[Aaron Holmes]

Originally Posted by Barry J. Weckesser

IMHO. - They (Edius - Grass Valley(Canopus) have been "ahead of the curve" for a number of years - just don't have the "image" of PremierPro or FCP. Many professionals dismiss the software without looking into its capabilities.

Edius seems to have its own modular codecs. They're an underdog, which means their marketing department isn't quite as "in bed" with their engineers as Adobe's is with theirs. As much as I like Premiere, I have to say I'm pretty sick of Adobe holding minor codec revisions for ransom. Yeah, yeah... grumble, grumble.

[Ron Evans]

Originally Posted by Aaron Holmes

Edius seems to have its own modular codecs. .

Yes Edius has their intermediated codec HQ and HQX but the issue of the X70 files is a decode issue not a source codec issue. I use HQX to go between Edius and Vegas(or Premiere ) . I have CS6 Production Suite,Vegas 12 and Edius 7. I do not use Premiere just Photoshop and AE, main editor is Edius with Vegas12/Sound Forge for audio editing.Edius has the best multicam editor in my opinion and is very fast with native files.

Ron Evans

[Mike Griffiths]

Originally Posted by Ron Evans

Edius Pro 7 will play/edit these files ( downloaded from this thread ) just fine too. Identifies files as H.264/AVC ( Long GOP ) 50P, PCM audio 48000hz 24bit, with time code.

Ron Evans

But not for Macs!

[David Dixon]

On a Mac the free version of Catalyst Browse will play the files and convert them to ProRes. The only real glitch is that it will only transcode them one file at a time.

Once the files are imported into Catalyst, select one of them, choose Transcode to... from the File popup at lower right, set Format to ProRes, set Preset to the flavor of ProRes you want.

Sony is reportedly working on a plugin for direct import into FCPX.

[Craig Seeman]

On another forum, Ian Cook from Sony said they certainly are working on direct import of XAVC-L into FCPX. No timeline stated though.

[Mike Buckhout]

Can someone repost the test footage from the X70? The download link isn't working anymore.