XDCAM EX Clip Browser V2.0
 

It would appear that v2.0 of the XDCAM EX clip browser is available at the Canadian Sony website here:

http://www.sony.ca/xdcamex/software.htm

It includes drag and drop capability into Avid bins and, hopefully, a fix for Macs

Good find, Bill. Having demo'd it at NAB for Sony, I really like this release.

-gb-

Sweetness! Native res still grabs. Why no TIFF or PNG though?

In some of the recent pdf brochures on XDCAM EX, I read about the future CLip Browser ability to convey camera settings as clips' metadata. Can't see it in v2.0; or am I missing something?

The full screen playback on secondary monitor is nice, but why not really full (this picture is less than 1920x100, and shifted to the left).

Finally, the long-awaited SD downconversion is 4:3 only - what a pity!

EDIT: disregard - there's the squeezed option of course, with 1,4568 pixel aspect ratio. Very nice SD downconversion, actually!

Good show Mr. Ravens.

Bill, thank you for the find! You continue to be an awesome help on this board and I really appreciate it.

I must say the additional codex' prices are sick!

Also, has anyone managed to open the XDCAM 4:2:2 in Vegas? (Edius plays it just fine)

The Metadata is there. I saw it. It doesn't have cool stuff like focal length and iris info though. But you can tag up the clips, and they do carry camera serial #, userbit, and some other things. Probably a help on multi-cam shoots.

What XDCam 4:2:2? I'll try to open it in Vegas if you can point me to it.

Apart from the regular EX-mxf (35Mpbs 4:2:0), you can now export in the XDCAM HD-compliant formats (25 Mbps 4:2:0 and 50 Mbps 4:2:2). Of course, without the add-on MC codec, the clips get watermarked.

Yep - I was hoping for the "cool stuff", as well:)

This is a stellar update from Sony Canada. It makes version 1.0 look like an underdeveloped freeware tool.

The In/Out point to new clip feature alone is enough to download. This was a feature in XDCAM Transfer that has made it's way to Windows. Awesome!

Performance seems improved and the program overall seems more stable.

The interface is sleeker. It conforms to my monitor size so that all screen real estate is used and even has an Optimize Window Layout option in case I were to mess it up. The tabbed clip browsing is cool.

Lots of output options! The SD AVI downversion looks good on my screen (can you export to mp4 from your NLE and then use Clip Browser as a downconverter? Someone test this please). That MainConcept Conversion Pack is quite lame though...it's such a tease. Oh well, $150ish isn't too bad if you just get Pack #1.

The clipbrowser would not import a mainconcept mp4 I created in my editor.

And I tried to convert a clip to .wmv and that failed to open in windows media player. So it looks like not everything is rosy here...

The wmv opens here just fine (but is watermaked, as well :()

What to view MXF files with
 

When i exported MXF using clip browser V1, i could view my files in windows media player using the snell and willcox mxf desktop plug in, however, when using Clip Browser V" i can no longer view the files
VLC player doesn't play the 1080SQ files, never has.
So what are you all using to check that the files have converted correctly ?
The only way i can view the files at the moment is with vegas, which i have installed on my desktop but not my feeble laptop, i used to use vlc and windows media/snell and willcox to view the files.

So, on location,with client, i rewrap footage to mxf for him and then what ?
How can i prove that the footage is on his portable hard-drive ?
Clip browser can't show the files once converted.

Paul.

This is indeed a nasty surprise, Paul! Have been trying all my MPEG players, and only Nero Showtime tries to play the mxf's back - but it has a tendency to hang ...

This version still won't play the files in the preview window consecutively. You have to play them one at a time. I don't get it.

In terms of VLC media player playing the MXF files, just change the extension to either .m2v or even to .mpg and it will play them. If you put all of them in a single directory, you can open that directory in VLC media player and it will play them all consecutively.

John

John, which VLC version do you have? 0.8.5 will NOT play them; I'm upgrading now...

OK - the 0.8.6d DOES play mxf's even without renaming (still no sound though).

I am not sure why yours does not play sound. I didn't try creating the .mxf files with Clip Browser version 2 yet. They were created with version 1.1 , the extensions changed to .m2v, and they all played in VLC with sound.

John

Even more strange, as m2v is a video stream...

But you know what? I changed the interface language from default (Polish in my case) to US-eng, and voila! - VLC does play mxf's with sound, both those from the previoues and the latest ClipBrowser versions.

Happened to me too, albeit in MPEGStreamClip. I feel however, that this happens only if a corresponding audio file with exactly the same name is in the same folder as the m2v file.
Strange anyway.

P.

Well, it's not THAT strange really, if you think about it - what we have here is a complete, video plus audio multiplexed, MPEG-2 file in a different wrapper. Changing the name extension from mxf to mpg to m2v doesn't change anything for smart players like VLC...It still finds the audio stream, and plays it!

You're right though that when CREATING separate video and audio streams (like at NLE rendering), the m2v (video) stream file name (main part) must be the same for its audio (whichever format) counterpart, for many players to play the 2 simultaneously.

Hopefully, sometime soon, vegas will be able to use the raw files so i won't bother rewrapping, i'll just copy the files to my hard-drive then check they're all there with clip browser, then delete the card with clip browser. If i need to rewrap to mxf for someone else,i'll just use vegas to check that the transfer was succesful.
So, i don't need anything except vegas and clip browser.

Paul

Where did you find the prices for the add-on's...

Thanks

http://www.mainconcept.com/site/index.php?id=21901

The link is in the pdf manual you can download from the same page as the ClipBrowser software.

Don't we have most of the watermarked main concept codecs included in Vegas Pro 8.0b now? Would there be some advantage to converting these with Clip Browser 2.0 instead of Vegas?

Yeah, but...
Just compare the time needed!

Of course, we usually edit, and do at least one final render anyway, but sometimes you would need another format quickly - perhaps to hand over to the customer?

So it's that much faster? It's not rendering? Why can't Vegas?

How does the XDCAM SQ transcode from HQ look? Never mind...I should just try some of these things and not bother everybody.

Tom,
I really don't know how they do it, but exporting to all those format added to ClipBrowser v2 is almost as quick as re-wrapping to mxf with v1. Really, just like re-wrapping - not rendering!

Oh, and SD down-conversion (no watermark - pure DV AVI) is very good, IMHO (will not swear just yet it's better than my DVD renders with Vegas, but it's certainly much quicker)...

BTW, ClipBrowser 2.0 is now also available for download from the http://sonybiz.net European site.

Thanks for the link... around $500 to get full up on the new Sony Clip browser :-(

One problem diminishing the utility of the otherwise awesome transcoding features of Clip Browser 2.0 is that it only works with the mp4, so it's a fairly expensive proposition considering that limitation.

BTW,

At least using my laptop, I noticed some strange scaling jaggies on the browser preview.

To cure this issue:

Go to:
Tool>Optons>Display>Resolution.
This was set to Automatic. When I changed it to Normal the jaggies went away.

I used the Mac version for about twenty minutes and I have to say I don't like the new interface or how it feels. There are still some bugs, like playback and no option for automatically rewinding. Opening each clip requires double-clicking and it opens in a new tab!

I still haven't found options to import as stereo mixes, rather than CH1+CH2.

Piotr, the current version of VLC media player is 0.8.6f and it will play MXF in 35mb and 50mb 4:2:2. I have played the 50mb files directly off the disc of the PDW-700 camera attached via firewire.

-gb-

Yes Greg - confirmed here, as well. Do you know why Vegas Pro 8 cannot read the 50Mbps, 4:2:2 mxf's? Any information about SCS to make it compatible?

Thanks!

So, I just installed 2.0 for Windows and the prview window when paused looks like it has a negative effect on it...When played it does not seem as smooth as the old version either. I am going to install the Mac version to see if the results are the same... It sucks when pausing on a fram to capture a still and you can not tell what it looks like....

How do yoou inport mp4 clips into cb2? I have tried but it only seems to recognise sxs cards. I made an mp4 file in vegas and it fails to import. Did the same in PPcs3 and the same result.

Page 21 of the manual.

Actually it's up to 0.8.6i

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

They've been updating very quickly lately.