AVC-Intra demo clips

[Gabriele Mondada]

Dear all,

I'm searching some small demo footage recorded in P2/AVC-Intra 100. AVC-Intra exists in many variants (720p, 1080i, 1080p, ...) and it should be great to have a sample for each.

I'm personally only interested in AVC-Intra 100, few seconds of video for each variant, no matter what is shooted because I would like to use it for testing workflows and tools.

Is there anybody having done such clips or planning to do that, maybe for other purposes (camera evaluation, image quality tests, etc.)?

Is there any interest in the community for such files?

Here are the variants as defined in FCP. The first column is the four-cc id used in quicktime files.

ai5p Apple AVC-Intra 50M 720p24/p30/p60
ai5q Apple AVC-Intra 50M 720p25/p50
ai56 Apple AVC-Intra 50M 1080i60
ai55 Apple AVC-Intra 50M 1080i50
ai53 Apple AVC-Intra 50M 1080p24/p30
ai52 Apple AVC-Intra 50M 1080p25
ai1p Apple AVC-Intra 100M 720p24/p30/p60
ai1q Apple AVC-Intra 100M 720p25/p50
ai16 Apple AVC-Intra 100M 1080i60
ai15 Apple AVC-Intra 100M 1080i50
ai13 Apple AVC-Intra 100M 1080p24/p30
ai12 Apple AVC-Intra 100M 1080p25

Thanks for your help,
Gabriele

[Gary Nattrass]

But what are you expecting to do with the footage? if it goes on-line it will be hugely compressed so the differences will be minimal.

I have shot test pieces in most of the AVC intra formats and they are all superb for web based streaming, all of them look great on my 1080 TV fed from a blackmagic HD card as well.

I would say hire a camera and shoot yourself what you need but I doubt if posting them on vimeo etc will be of any use.

[Konstantin Kovalev]

I think he means uploading uncompressed AVC-Intra footage to a file hosting service, so that he can push it around in post and see what it looks like. I suppose that shouldn't be too much trouble...

[Konstantin Kovalev]

It's not fancy, but here are some raw clips I took today in my free time, based on modified BBC setting, shot at 1080/25p, noise filter turned off: HPX370 clips
I kept them under 13 sec. as Mediafire has a 200mb limit.

[Gabriele Mondada]

Thanks for your replies.

The files you posted, Konstantin, are exacly what I'm searching for. These file are those recorded by the camera, with no transcoding. You just converted them to MOV (Quicktime). This convertion changes the container but the footage inside is untouched.
For me it is important to have the original files (or at least the Quicktime equivalent) because we can see the real image quality and we can test if a given workflow or a given tool works well with this file format.
I'm always surprised when camera manufacturers publish their demo footage in a reencoded and, sometimes, resized format.

So, thanks for this footage. This is ai12 and I also find ai13 files on this post: AVC-intra [Archive] - The Digital Video Information Network

If you agree to share ai15 footage or other formats, you are welcome :-)
I know, I can hire a camera an do that by myself or maybe ask a freelancer having that camera...

[Konstantin Kovalev]

Nope, no transcoding, I merely imported them into FCP and it log & transferred them, which is what will happen with any NLE when you import AVC-intra footage. You don't have to L&T in FCPX, but it actually does so anyway in the background so you don't notice.
I thought this was going to be more convenient on your end so that your program wouldn't have to waste time wrapping them. The .MXF files produced by the camera are also split into several folders, so I would have to have kept the folder structure.

As for other formats, I'm gonna have to find some free time for that. I'm guessing you want the interlaced format tests to be of moving subjects to see how it handles motion, right? Also, do you need any panning shots?

I had the 370's noise reduction filter turned off (PAP mode 2) and so the noise will be slightly higher than in official footage, however this holds better micro-detail when panning and makes the noise predictable because there are no noise trails or ghosting.
For locked-off shots, it is nice though, as it eliminates noise and improves sensitivity.

The scene file settings (gamma, knee, etc) I use are optimized for dynamic range, so they will look fairly flat without color correction. Using DRS in 720p can push dynamic range even further, but the clips I put up are the practical limit of what you can get in 1080p without making the footage just plain muddy.

[Gabriele Mondada]

Sharing the complete folder tree with MXF files is better for me, and I think it is so also for who don't work in FCP. By making a ZIP file with all files and folders related to the clip inside, you have a single file to share. But Quicktime is also ok.
By panning, everything is moving on the picture (except if you track something) and it is sometimes not convenient. It is better to have part of the picture moving and part static.
Settings you chose are perfect for me.
Thanks a lot.

[Konstantin Kovalev]

Oh.. by panning, I meant tracking, because I try to avoid panning the camera if there isn't a subject to pan with in the first place, so I get the two mixed up sometimes. And alright, I'll just zip the .MXF tree.