EX's MP4 files worked just fine in CS3!!
 

Using the footage from this site

and dragging the MP4s straight into CS3, they worked! They required rendering, which unfortunately took 38 seconds for a 9 second clip.

I used the Sony Clip Browsing software to convert the files to MXF, which did not work in CS3.

But the MP4s (after rendering) worked just fine!

Does not work at all in Final Cut Pro 6.0.1. One simply gets an error message. I suspect this will be fixed in an update coming soon given that the Sony Clip Browser can't convert the files to anything on the Mac.

John, what preset did you choose for Premiere to open the files?

John do you have any hardware setup like Matrox RT2 with the CS3? What CPU, RAM are you using? 38 secs for a 9 seconder is an awful lot of time!

I just did a drag and drop of these files into Newtek's editor "SpeedEdit" and they play instantly!

I made a custom one. I didn't think too hard about codecs or anything like that I just made a 1920x1080 project. I forget the rest.

Have you tried in CS3 with no success?

No hardware support outside of my 2 GB of RAM and dual core AMD 4400.

It did take longer than I'd like to wait but at the time I thought at least I can bypass the conversion to MXF so maybe it evens out.

But the MXF conversion doesn't take anywhere near as long.

Hopefully eventually Propect can convert the mp4s to avis in faster than realtime... I don't know if it will though...

Thanks John, I did bring them into Adobe AE and they seem to work just fine.

I didn't realize at the time that these might be PAL and I don't work in PAL...
So I'll play with them some more...

So whats everyone think so far... I do see a small amount of CA but not much...

The noise looks to be kept in check too.

How did you convert?

I don't see any EXPORT function.

There is no Export button, but there is Export option in the File menu drop-down list.

However, I cannot even load any of the mp4 clips! The browser doesn't see them at all in the directory I copied them to!

What am I missing?

Piotr, I was seeing the same as you... just couldn't get the files in there...

Then I read Seemans post on another thread...

"It worked for me. Open Clip Browser and use File/Import/
Then use "..." and select the clip. Then use Add. Repeat for all three clips. Select OK.

For an additional treat use Viewer/View Full Screen.

Keep in mind the Clip Browser only works on Intel Macs. Clip Browser will not open on a G5. You'll get a compatibility warning message."


Like he says, when you click on the file and it starts to play go to the viewer optioin and get full screen... the footage looks pretty good.........

Have you tried using File/Import?
As far as I can tell the Viewer, which should show the MP4s, is not working. Once you use File/Import it'll create a BPAV folder and you will see the video file.

Export is in the Windows version of the Clip Browser. There is no Export in the Mac version.

My own hunch is that Apple will update the Log & Transfer function in FCP to support XDCAM MP4 to MOV. I believe that tool only support P2 at the moment.

If you try to use that tool in FCP at the moment and point it to the BPAV folder, you'll get a warning about an invalid folder structure.

Interesting thing to note is that MP4 is truly a wrapper that contains the XML and folder structure. Import sort of "tears it apart" so you can see all that by creating a BPAV folder.

When you import more than one clip they are placed in the same BPAV folder and within that, the CLPR folder actually contains the MP4 media plus associated XML file

What seems "broken" in the Clip Browser is the top Info Window does not display the initial MP4 so you have to use File/Import. In addition you can't select a group of clips to import. It only does one at a time. Both the Info Window Import and importing a group should work but are broken as far as I can tell.

The Bottom Info Window is for selecting destination for move/copy functions.

Split Folder function seems to be a neat idea which makes the FAT32 4GB limit a "good" thing. In theory, you should be able to split folders with spanned clips. This can help if you want to burn the contents to DVD to hand to a client after the shoot. You should be able to burn these to a DVD along with a copy of the Clip Browser software and the client should be able to view the video (no worries about deck compatibilities such as with HDV!).

Imagine being able to copy your clips to 16x DVDs right after a shoot rather than being limited to a 2x Blu-ray burner (slow burn plus forcing the client to find a Blu-ray drive to play your clips). Now I see some "wisdom" in the choice of FAT32.

duplicate message - please ignore

Thanks, it now works. But Steve is right in saying this is a very primitive piece of software - why not show filtered mp4's on switching to the right folder? Hopefully, it will show them when the root dir is set to the SxS card-mapped drive, as the proper directory structure will be there...

Anyway, I exported the mxf and loaded it into Vegas 8.0a, set for 1920x1080 project. The playback fps struggles, especially with 32bit floatin point video - but yes, I'm ready for editing stuff from the EX1 (now if it only be available at last) :)

BTW, the 35Mbps mxf's are playable in WMP!

Not for me

Excellent! Can you try a bit of colour correction too, so we can have a very "preliminary" idea how much we can push saturated colors before they show some artifacts? I'm very curious about 35mbit native quality...posting just some "compared" tiff would be really appreciated...Thanks

p.s.: I've watched them on wmp, but my old graphic card is only good to preview files...

I guess the main advantege of the long GOP 35Mbps VBR vs the 25Mbps CBR codec is in movement/detail handliig, not colour handling...

I'm doing a quick test via photoshop cs3 (i've extracted some png files right now via videolan player)...highlights seem to show big problems, they simple don't have enough data to play with it, I've pumped to 60% saturation, after this they show nasty color artifacts but I'm not worried about it. According to my old test, pushing up saturation to 60% show artifacts also in dvcpro format, but highlights are more tweakable.

There will be an EX codec released for FCP shortly. You'll need the latest Sony File Transfer Software version and latest Quicktime to make it all work. I'm sure there'll be instructions aplenty on the web about this.

(We edited the just-premiered EX promo videos in FCP-- worked great.)

Will it be Intel only or will PPC Macs be supported?

I can understand that Apple (& Sony?) may want to keep the specifics under wrap as it were but if it's NOT going to support PPC some of us need to know ASAP because having to buy a MacPro or MacBookPro has an impact on what ancillary gear some of us need to purchase ASAP if we are to use the camera.

I am disappointed that the Clip Browser is Intel only. It's something I may need to distribute to clients to view master clip and no PPC support means many clients won't be able to view clips at all.

They also seem to play fine with the program Mplayer Classic

for those wanting to download the program...

http://www.free-codecs.com/Media_Pla...c_download.htm

And using the VLC media player...

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

I wouldn't think much of these clips right now. There are very rough shots done in a pretty dull setting and environment. This is about as bad of shots as any of us could ever even think of shooting with a camera. I would just look at these in terms of how the mp4 wrapper will play and work on your system. We do not even know what type of settings were used for these shots. Do not judge the camera quality based on a few sneaked through clips pointed at a white wall with a few bored looking people walking by.

True the flicker is due to fluorescent lighting, probably older ballasts.
Under these conditions, flicker can be a problem with any video camera.
It looks different due to the rolling shutter . I agree, we just don't know the setting used for these quick show room floor clips.

These clips may be of poor technical quality (flickering flourescents, fast frame rate for the other two clips) but they look gorgeous. The clips played fine with Media Player Classic.

I'm viewing them on a 1600x1050 display and the best way to describe the picture is "a Digital SLR at 25 frames per second." And it has no noise and artifacting can barely be seen. I've seen much worse at half-res 1080i on an HVX200. At full resolution the image looks crisp and will definitely be a force to be reckoned with in the world of prosumer video ;-)

I do agree. Even though this is the nastiest environment you could ever put a camera in the level of detail is amazing. The 720p shot is more detailed then most 1/3" 1080i HDV cameras.

Clips?
 

Hello, can i have a link for downloads sample clips from the EX1, please?

Alessandro Zumstein

see first post in this thread

I'm not sure about it being more detailed, but it certainly looks nice. One interesting thing is that the data rate of the 720p clip seems to be the same as the 1080p clip so the camera isn't reducing bandwidth at 720p.

Shouldn't this mean in theory that the camera is applying less compression to the 720p images?

Paul.

Yes, I've noticed the same - and I think you're right that it translates to less compression! The 720/50(60)p will be simply great for fast action...

On the other hand, no chance of more material length fitting on the same capacity card than in 1080 mode.

This is all speculation though - there is too little action in those clips to conclusively state how the two modes average data rate differ.