MXF still pretty good!

LarsHD wrote on 5/17/2010, 9:56 AM
I compared the following:

5D2 MOV footage
MXF
Cineform

Same content and all 1920x1080.

In Vegas 9.0e MXF plays back considerbly better than Cineform.
In PPro it also plays back better than Cineform. Actually much better. Some strange stuttering speeding/up/down in cycles with Cineform that I haven't seen before. not so with MOV and MXF.

In PPro (with Mercury Cuda enabled) Cineform consumes more CPU than 5D2 MOV! Kind of strange, one would like to think the basic idea with Cinform to play back *better* than the camera footage it is transcoding from...

Playing Sony Vegas rendered MXF in PPro CS5 seems like a very happy marriage so far.

Whatever the codec-ingredients with MXF are it sure seems like a pretty useful and reliable format.

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PC :
Q6600
8gb ram
P5KR mobo
2 x 10000 WD Velociraptors RAID-0

Comments

Sebaz wrote on 5/17/2010, 12:48 PM
SCS should have added a simple feature in the project media window to convert files to mxf to use as proxies and then replace back with the original AVCHD footage when done editing, kind of like the ProxyStream script but easier, right there on the project media window.
LarsHD wrote on 5/17/2010, 1:30 PM
Agree. Since MXF deos seem to be the 1920x1080 format/codec that plays best. it plays it much better than it plays Cineform. It could have MXF and settle for a little less than the minimum 35 Mbps that is available now.

Basically they could have done like Avid. Just throw all the 5D2 MOV files in a bin and then wait and then it could produce MXF in lets say 720x408 which would be enough for editing. Then yuo hit a button to render and it uses the original 5D2 files and applies whatever metadata is required.

But judging by deed, it seems SCS dno't really care *HOW* projects play.

there seems to be a strange misconception - often reflected here - "throw anything on the timeline and it plays" and this is used as something "good".... When in fact it often plays really bad. And when in fact it even crashes - just try throwing 35 5D2 files on the timeline. Crash!

Your idea is very good.


Lars
Laurence wrote on 5/17/2010, 1:54 PM
If I was going to use MXF with Canon footage, I would want to apply a Computer RGB to Studio RGB color correction filter and slow down the footage 1% from exactly 30fps to the more commonly used 29.97fps. Is there any way to set up a batch conversion which also does this color correction and slight speed slowdown?
LarsHD wrote on 5/17/2010, 2:16 PM
1.
The latest software (from ;arch 2010) allows you to get 29.97 25 and 23.976 in the camera so no need to slow down any longer).

2.
Doing batch conversion and introducing plugins is another of Vegas weaknesses: Dropping many 5D2 files on the tikeline and Vegas simply crashes. Using Production Assistant is ok for doing batch work as long as you don't want to introduce any plugin in the job. this is sad. i often need to batch transcode stuff and would like to use one or the other plugin.

3.
Using ths range and script thing from within Vegas could work with plugins. But as in point #1 above - Vegas brakes apart when you drop more than 10-15 MOV 5D2 files on the timeline.

Also, with many 5D2 files on the timeline the first 70% may be OK, then they just show black etc. Highly unreliable. It's been around 2 years now and depite several updates it never gets fixed :(. Logging a bug report doesn't help. I have tried.


Lars
Laurence wrote on 5/17/2010, 3:13 PM
>1.

... but I have a Canon SX-1 IS which probably will never get such a software upgrade unfortunately. I'd still like to know a way to batch convert with a slowdown.
farss wrote on 5/17/2010, 3:17 PM
A Q6600?? I would have problems buying such an ancient CPU. Not running the latest CPU such as the i7 could skew test results.

MXF containing what at what bitrate. I'd imagine you normally shoot very clean footage with your 5D. From my experience playback of mpeg-2 can be affected by content. I'd suggest taking your 5D into a dark room, wind the ISO up as far as it will go and waving the camera around. Then you'll have a clip that should be a valid stress test.

Bob.