Sony PXW-X70 announced: Pro XDCAM version of AX100

[Steve Kimmel]

Stephen, I think this is quite excellent. I like the angles and the color out of the camera looks very nice. What color profile where you using? Also, what frame rate?

Thanks.

[David Dixon]

I like it too. After the sort of mixed reviews so far of this camera, it's nice to see that it is sharper than my current camera - a big factor for me.

How did you edit the piece - at first I thought 1080p60 in a 24p timeline, but it looks slowed down more than that.

[Stephen Robinson]

Originally Posted by Steve Kimmel

Stephen, I think this is quite excellent. I like the angles and the color out of the camera looks very nice. What color profile where you using? Also, what frame rate?

Thanks.

I am using the PP4, which is the default color profile out of the box. It seems to be the truest to color for my color blind eyes :)

It is shot at 60fps, played back at 24. I did slow down a a couple of the shots a little more in post. As well as speeding up the first shot back to normal speed. It was all shot using the S&Q motion feature.

[Stephen Robinson]

Originally Posted by David Dixon

I like it too. After the sort of mixed reviews so far of this camera, it's nice to see that it is sharper than my current camera - a big factor for me.

How did you edit the piece - at first I thought 1080p60 in a 24p timeline, but it looks slowed down more than that.

All the shots were taken on that time line, but you are correct. I did slow down a couple to see how the video would hold up. Seems pretty good to me.

[Robert Young]

Stephen,
Which codec did you shoot this in: XAVC or AVCHD??
Also, I'm curious what editing software you are using.

[Stephen Robinson]

Originally Posted by Robert Young

Stephen,
Which codec did you shoot this in: XAVC or AVCHD??
Also, I'm curious what editing software you are using.

XAVC-L 50mbps

I am using Adobe Premier Pro Creative Cloud to edit. I import the files directly into premier pro without any issues.

[Paul Anderegg]

This X70 post could be useful to some of you.

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-xav...ml#post1864117

Paul

[Robert Young]

Originally Posted by Stephen Robinson

XAVC-L 50mbps

I am using Adobe Premier Pro Creative Cloud to edit. I import the files directly into premier pro without any issues.

Are you dragging and dropping the files from the camera card to your HDD, or using transfer software like Sony Catalyst Browse- or something else?
Also, within PPro CC, exactly what sequence preset are you using for the XAVC timeline?
I'm finding that I can work with the XAVC footage in PPro CC 2014, but everything seems a bit haphazard & off the cuff.
It's like Sony doesn't really have the infrastructure in place yet for this codec.

[Gabor Heeres]

Robert,

When using Adobe Premiere Pro CC you can just copy the MXF files from the SDXC card directly to your HDD using a cardreader and import these in Adobe without any problems.

Gabor

[Stephen Robinson]

Originally Posted by Robert Young

Are you dragging and dropping the files from the camera card to your HDD, or using transfer software like Sony Catalyst Browse- or something else?
Also, within PPro CC, exactly what sequence preset are you using for the XAVC timeline?
I'm finding that I can work with the XAVC footage in PPro CC 2014, but everything seems a bit haphazard & off the cuff.
It's like Sony doesn't really have the infrastructure in place yet for this codec.

I have copied the MXF files to my hard drive and accessed them from there. I have also pulled them right off the card using a card reader without any issues.

I'm just getting started with PP CC, I downloaded the trail version since I couldn't work with the XAVC in my other software. I am apparently just using the default settings.

[Christopher Young]

I have tried importing and dragging all flavours of XAVC files into various NLEs. With the 230mbit XAVC-I MXF files from the F5 / F55 I have no issues. Also no issues with the 8-bit XAVC-S files that are wrapped as MP4s such as those from the Sony A7S. Where the problem appears to lie for some of us is with the newer 50-mbit XAVC-L MXF files from the PXW-X70. It is these Long GOP files that are proving very hard to read. I have tried reading them with the latest update of Premiere CC and Avid on Mac and Vegas and Avid on PC and all to no avail.

Upon analysis of earlier XAVC MXF files I find that all previous iterations have been written with Sony's writing and library application called

'Sony util 1.0'

Whereas these newer XAVC-L 50-mbit MXFs from the X70 have been written by a new Sony writing and library application that I haven't seen before and it's called

'Sony mem 2.0'

Why Sony has made changes to the writing and library app is unknown. I guess they have a good reason for doing so. There are other significant changes in the file structure of the two MXF flavours such as CABAC and Format_setting_wrapping as can be seen from the attached JPEGs of the file info’s. Until such time as Sony releases the details for these proprietary libraries I don't see any hope of any resolution coming quickly. By all accounts Edius manages to read these files with no issues. Maybe they have a hot line to Sony's software team.

It does make we wonder if this issue is going to appear with the release of all the new XAVC-L MXF capable cameras such as the PXW-X160 / 180 / 200. This could get interesting if it's not sorted pretty quickly.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

[Aaron Holmes]

Apologies if these questions have been dealt with elsewhere in this gigantic thread; I'm coming in late:

*) Does the camera support 1080p60 in XAVC 50Mbit? The specifications here suggest not:
Sony X70 Page
...while the specifications here suggest so:
Sony X70 PDF Brochure

Similarly, B&H omits any mention of 1080p60 XAVC. Seems odd that the camera wouldn't inherit all the HD modes of its cheaper siblings, but... *shrug*

Which is it?

*) Is the 4:2:2 XAVC from this camera supported by Premiere CS5.5? I've had no trouble with the 4:2:0 8-bit stuff from the CX900 and AX100, but a line has to be crossed at some point, I suppose. :)

[Stephen Robinson]

Originally Posted by Robert Young

Are you dragging and dropping the files from the camera card to your HDD, or using transfer software like Sony Catalyst Browse- or something else?
Also, within PPro CC, exactly what sequence preset are you using for the XAVC timeline?
I'm finding that I can work with the XAVC footage in PPro CC 2014, but everything seems a bit haphazard & off the cuff.
It's like Sony doesn't really have the infrastructure in place yet for this codec.

Originally Posted by Aaron Holmes

Apologies if these questions have been dealt with elsewhere in this gigantic thread; I'm coming in late:

*) Does the camera support 1080p60 in XAVC 50Mbit? The specifications here suggest not:
Sony X70 Page
...while the specifications here suggest so:
Sony X70 PDF Brochure

Similarly, B&H omits any mention of 1080p60 XAVC. Seems odd that the camera wouldn't inherit all the HD modes of its cheaper siblings, but... *shrug*

Which is it?

*) Is the 4:2:2 XAVC from this camera supported by Premiere CS5.5? I've had no trouble with the 4:2:0 8-bit stuff from the CX900 and AX100, but a line has to be crossed at some point, I suppose. :)

Yes, the X70 has 1080p60 XAVC 50.

I cannot answer the second question.

[Aaron Holmes]

Originally Posted by Stephen Robinson

Yes, the X70 has 1080p60 XAVC 50.

I cannot answer the second question.

Thanks Stephen. I suppose a follow-up would be: Is this 1080p60 4:2:0 XAVC-S in an MP4 wrapper -- like on the AX100 -- or is it 4:2:2 in an MXF wrapper. Or is it something else? I suspect that informs the anwer to the CS5.5 compat question.

Thanks!
Aaron

[Stephen Robinson]

Originally Posted by Aaron Holmes

Thanks Stephen. I suppose a follow-up would be: Is this 1080p60 4:2:0 XAVC-S in an MP4 wrapper -- like on the AX100 -- or is it 4:2:2 in an MXF wrapper. Or is it something else? I suspect that informs the anwer to the CS5.5 compat question.

Thanks!
Aaron

Sony lists this for the recording format:

XAVC HD : MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 4:2:2 Long profile

So my understanding is all the XAVC, regardless of the frame rate will be 4:2:2. The file extensions are .MXF