Hello, being a close follower of this community while lurking in the shadows, I have much to thank you all for the incredible depth of information that can be dug up and the willingness of so many of you to help those in need.

Right is that enough buttering up? Get on with the question Jencks.

I know that the HVX camera is the one for me, but the one thing that has put me off is the lack of support for 720pn25, the general thought was that nobody yet supported it. I went to the brodacts live trade show today and was looking at someones final cut set up using a Black Magic Design Multibridge Extreme PCIe and low and behold in the easy set ups there was a 720pn25 codec.

The guy with the computer didn't seem to know anything about this problem and hadn't used it. And everyone else I asked at the entire show, said that nobody supported it, but does any one here know anything?

Because if it does work, I'm buying one tomorrow.
Thanks in advance
John

720/25pN is supported in a few ways. DVFilm.com's Raylight supports it on the PC platform; I don't recall if Cineform does or not; and P2 Log from Imagine Products employs a pass-thru codec that lets you edit 720/25pN on FCP.

I went to the brodacts live trade show today and was looking at someones final cut set up using a Black Magic Design Multibridge Extreme PCIe and low and behold in the easy set ups there was a 720pn25 codec.

Are you sure this was actually a codec and not just an easy setup? An easy setup is simply a sequence preset and could use any codec, most probably the Uncompressed 8bit or 10bit codec. Did it actually say PN or just P?

If it was the Imagine passthrough codec it would have said 720p50, so I doubt it was that.

Oh, yeah, it was FCP easy set up, not a codec. My mistake, but I'm pretty sure that it said PN.

Does that mean that 720pn25 is usable in FCP with a Blackmagic? Or do we still have to wait for a codec?

I know it is do able in otherwise, but I would like to keep things simple.

Thanks
John

Hi John,

I'm fairly sure Blackmagic have not released any DVCPRO HD codecs of their own. They use the Apple DVCPRO HD codecs and offer play-through with their products. The Multibridge will have the ability to show DVCPRO HD material on external monitors via HD-SDI or the DVI connection or even via down-convert to SD connections. Apple are yet to provide a 720p25/50 codec and MXF import for this format.

As Barry mentioned the only way to cut 720p25/50 in FCP is to use P2 Log or HD Log and their passthrough codec which 'tricks' FCP into using the 720p60 DVCPRO HD codec. I don't know how the Multibridge or Decklink's will play with this passthrough codec.

I don't expect to see Apple address this until September at the earliest, but I really, really hope I'm wrong!!

Regards
Mark