Viewing MXF files on a Mac?

[Paul Gale]

I don't have a current Mac to explore this. I'm trying to send a unch of MXF proxies to a customer so they can review some footage. They're a publisher and as such work mainly on Mac's. They don't have any FCP machines and are generally lowish-tech users.

So, is there a piece of software I can send them on the DVD-Data disc that enables them to view the proxies? (similar to the windows VX10 MXF viewer or older proxy viewer).

I know there's the Mac transfer tool but I'm not sure this will help at all?

Thanks,

Paul.

[Clive Haycock]

Originally Posted by Paul Gale

I don't have a current Mac to explore this. I'm trying to send a unch of MXF proxies to a customer so they can review some footage. They're a publisher and as such work mainly on Mac's. They don't have any FCP machines and are generally lowish-tech users.

So, is there a piece of software I can send them on the DVD-Data disc that enables them to view the proxies? (similar to the windows VX10 MXF viewer or older proxy viewer).

I know there's the Mac transfer tool but I'm not sure this will help at all?

Thanks,

Paul.

Paul,
We are all PC over here but as far as I am aware there isn't an equivalent of the PDZ-1 or VX10 for the Mac. I think that the transfer tool would only be of any use if they had FCP software on their MAC although they may be able to just view them using the transfer tool software & quicktime but I have no way of checking at the moment.

Sorry

Clive

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by Paul Gale

I know there's the Mac transfer tool but I'm not sure this will help at all?

Sure it will. Open the transfer software in stand-alone mode, select all of the thumbnails you want to export, then right click to export proxies. They get unwrapped to their native MPEG4 in a QT wrapper that will play on either platform.

-gb-

[Paul Gale]

But that's no good to me on a PC though...

And I don't/can't ask the customer to do this.

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by Paul Gale

But that's no good to me on a PC though...

And I don't/can't ask the customer to do this.

Ooops, I read it backwards, I thought you were on the Mac platform. Going the other way, you can output ASF files from the PDZ-1 software. I believe they are playable on the Mac. Give me a few minutes and I'll try it out (I have Vista, XP, and Mac in my house).

What do you edit with on the PC platform? Vegas reads MXF files directly and can export them to a format viewable on the Mac.

-gb-

[Greg Boston]

If you export the cliplist in the story manager to ASF format, the Mac will read the files if you have Windows Media Player 9 for OSX or VLC Player. I tried both with success.

-gb-

[Paul Gale]

Yeah - I have a load of ways to transcode the files - but that's not the point. I want to directly and easily send this customer the raw proxy files without me having to do anything except copy them and a player app to DVD-data disc. I do this now with Windows customers and it works well.

I have a Matrox Axio LE system (dual quad Xeon + large RAID array etc) running Premiere CS3, after effects etc.

[Paul Gale]

I should also add - one of the main reasons for giving them MXF files and the great thing about the Windows version is original timecode display - which they will use to log the clips they require.

Oh, and ASF is a dead format too...

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by Paul Gale

Yeah - I have a load of ways to transcode the files - but that's not the point. I want to directly and easily send this customer the raw proxy files without me having to do anything except copy them and a player app to DVD-data disc. I do this now with Windows customers and it works well.

I have a Matrox Axio LE system (dual quad Xeon + large RAID array etc) running Premiere CS3, after effects etc.

Try supplying them a copy of XDCAM Transfer tool. The proxy files are MPEG4 format so they shouldn't need anything like FCP installed to view them and the transfer app will run stand alone.

-gb-

[Paul Gale]

Thanks Greg.

As they are low-tech users, how easy an experience would it be for them to install the transfer software and run it stand alone? If it installs multiple icons, asks for installations of FCP etc, I wouldn't use it as IME this can cause too many problems and I would end up spending more time this way and annoying them! ;)

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by Paul Gale

Thanks Greg.

As they are low-tech users, how easy an experience would it be for them to install the transfer software and run it stand alone? If it installs multiple icons, asks for installations of FCP etc,

None of that. It will ask for locations to store imported files and how much disk space to allow for proxy files. This is only on the first time the application is used. It supplies default values which work best in my opinion.

-gb-