Dumb Codec Question: EX1 QT to Windows CS5

[Mark Schubb]

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Have several hours of interviews to edit in Premiere Pro CS5 for Windows that were shot on a Sony EX1. Unfortunately during the shoot, they were offloaded in Final Cut Pro and re-wrapped as EX1 QuickTime files -- which simply will not work in Windows QuickTime, CS5, Sony ClipBrowser or any other Windows media program. This project is a non-profit freebie and I've tried every suggested free solution w/ no luck. The only answer seems to be to use FCP to open the files and then export them to something windows friendly.

MY CODEC QUESTION: A friend with a Mac & Final Cut is willing to transcode all the files, but WHAT CODEC should they transcode it too?

Want to retain quality, but don't have the hardware muscle to work uncompressed. Need to have a "master" of these files that I can edit for DVD-based output -- but also need give the organization clips for someone to excerpt and post on their website using windows movie maker. (Which I can do myself once I get the "master footage" into CS5.)

Thanks again for your help. If there was a budget to solve this, I wouldn't be pretending to be an editor...

[Dave Sperling]

Go to the Convergent Design website
Downloads | Convergent Design | Professional Video Recorders and Converters
Near the bottom of the downloads page is a file converter program that will run on a PC that can re-wrap-back the FCP .MOV files to standard MXF files that can be played and edited on a pc.
It's not the most elegant interface, but it's free and it works (Thanks to the people who bring you the NanoFlash and the Gemini).
And from now on ALWAYS make an archive of your BPAV files.

[Barry J. Anwender]

I have Premier Pro CS5.5 and no problem with .mov files. Both CS5/5.5 support .mov files provided that you have Quicktime installed. Adobe provides workflow guides for P2, RED, XDCAM, AVCCAM, and DSLR cameras and footage on the Adobe website. From the Premier Pro CS5/5.5 manual:

Supported video and animation file formats
3GP, 3G2
ASF (Netshow, Windows only)
AVI (DV-AVI, Microsoft AVI Type 1 and Type 2)
DLX (Sony VDU File Format Importer, Windows only)
DPX
DV (raw DV stream, a QuickTime format)
FLV and F4V
Note: Premiere Pro CS5 can import FLV files with video encoded using the On2 VP6 video codec; Premiere Pro CS5 can’t import FLV files with video encoded with the Sorenson Spark video codec. As with any unsupported format, transcode the file to a format that Premiere Pro can import.
GIF (Animated GIF)
M1V (MPEG-1 Video File)
M2T (Sony HDV)
M2TS (Blu-ray BDAV MPEG-2 Transport Stream, AVCHD)
M4V (MPEG-4 Video File)
MOV (QuickTime Movie; in Windows, requires QuickTime player)
MP4 (QuickTime Movie, XDCAM EX)
MPEG, MPE, MPG (MPEG-1, MPEG-2), M2V (DVD-compliant MPEG-2)
MTS (AVCHD)
MXF (Media eXchange Format; P2 Movie: Panasonic Op-Atom variant of MXF, with video in DV, DVCPRO, DVCPRO 50, DVCPRO HD, AVC-Intra; XDCAM HD Movie, Sony XDCAM HD 50 (4:2:2), Avid MXF Movie)
R3D (RED camera)
SWF
VOB
WMV (Windows Media, Windows only)

[Craig Seeman]

Death to your data wrangler. The BPAV are the camera masters. Anything else they did would warrant being fired. They had no right to assume they could toss the masters and leave with with EX wrapped in .mov.

On Windows you'd need to buy the CalibratedSoftware to allow those EX .mov files to be used in an NLE.
Alternate do try ConvergentDesign's software.

You should bill back the work you have to do to get these files into a Windows NLE to the person who tossed your camera masters IMHO.

Mistakes like this give us EX users a bad name. Clients think the workflow is flawed or otherwise unreliable after they have an experience like this when it's simply someone's incompetence.

Even if you do use FCP, the BPAV is the camera master and you back that up regardless.

This is a peeve of mine.

[Dave Sperling]

Originally Posted by Barry J. Anwender

I have Premier Pro CS5.5 and no problem with .mov files. Both CS5/5.5 support .mov files provided that you have Quicktime installed.

Barry,
Are you saying that you are on a PC and can work with the FCP flavor of quicktime files? Did Adobe license a PC version of the codec from Apple? or create their own? Or can you just use the mov files that will normally play on a pc using quicktime or quicktime Pro (the FCP .mov files won't on any of my pc machines without converting back to MXF or using the Calibrated plug-in.)
Just wondering if I've missed something major....

[Mark Schubb]

THANK YOU!!! (I wasn't on the shoot, so was also dumbfounded they dumped the master files.)

When I posted this problem in several CS5 and FCP forums over the last few weeks, I followed a dozen different suggestions to download free conversion programs, none of which worked. But the free convergent design program seems to have handled it! Thank you Dave!!!

Now, I still have to figure out how to pretend to be the editor on this project...

When I play the clips in the timeline the video breaks up -- occasional blocky noise, jitters, etc. Have I set up the project wrong? Or do MXF files just have too much data for my computer?

(this machine is an i7-870 w/ 8gb ram, but only a single 7200rpm drive at the moment.... all I've edited before was mini-DV tape HDV.)

Thanks again!

Mark

[Alister Chapman]

35Mb/s 1920x1080 is not a normal profile for an XDCAM MXF, they should be .mp4, this may be part of your stuttering problem.

[Martin Kolditz]

I'm using PPro CS5 on Windows 7, and am having a heck of time trying to load these .mov files from the nano. Please help!

It's giving me the "Codec missing or unavailable" message. I've installed CD's File Converter, but will using this to convert the .mov actually recompress or will the conversion be lossless?

Thanks!

[Dave Sperling]

Conversion part should basically be a lossless re-wrapping of the data to MXF.
Not using cs5 myself, and not knowing what bit rate/compression scheme you used (Long-GOP / I-frame), I can't predict your potential problems or success.
You might want to take a look at the C-D NanoFlash forum for any CS5 issues.

[Bart Walczak]

PC can't read XDCAM EX / XDCAM 422 codec wrapped in MOV container. You need to rewrap it to MP4 or convert to other codec. Surprisingly, ProRes is easily read on PC, so this can be a good intermediate. This is a major flaw in Quicktime for PC.

[Mitchell Lewis]

I've had good luck transcoding MOV files to Avid's free DNxHD codec. It needs to be downloaded and installed on both the Mac (for transcoding) and the PC (for editing), but it works great.

Avid | DNxHD Codec - Beauty Without Bandwidth

[Alister Chapman]

The problem is this:

When you re-wrap XDCAM material into a .mov file using the Sony tools, what you create is a "workaround" quicktime file that contains mpeg2 material.

Quicktime does not normally work with any form of mpeg 2 material, it hates mpeg 2.

However FCP from version 6.0.2 includes the Sony XDCAM codec so if you have FCP on you Mac it will understand these unique hybrid mpeg2/quicktime files.

However standard versions of Quicktime do not include the XDCAM codec, so if you try to use .mov's that contain XDCAM on a machine without FCP (PC or Mac) it's going to give you problems. Adobe CS5 on a Mac will open the XDCAM .mov's as it too has the mpeg 2 codec, but it really does not like having mpeg 2 inside a .mov wrapper, it is expecting .mp4's or MXF files so playback is sputtery or slow at best. On a PC you completely hosed as there is no provision for mpeg2 in a quicktime wrapper.

Craig is absolutely right, always, always, backup the BPAV folder, it is your camera master. The same goes for any other type of recording, always backup the entire contents of the recording media. You must keep the file structure complete and intact for many NLE's to function correctly, whether it's XDCAM or AVCHD.

[Mitchell Lewis]

You don't need FCP to be able to play XDCAM EX files. You can download the XDCAM drivers from Sony's website. If you want to edit them in FCP then you're right, you need 6.0.2 or greater.

Just thought I'd clear that up. Love your work Allister! :)

[Alister Chapman]

Hmmm, I'm not so sure. Yes you can play back XDCAM within Sony's tools, but I'm not sure about Quicktime Player for example or any other native quicktime application such as itunes. Otherwise Calibrated-Q wouldn't have needed to bring out their XDCAM codecs for quicktime. I don't have a Mac without FCP to confirm this until I get back to the UK next week.

[Mitchell Lewis]

I stand corrected. I thought we had solved this problem.....but I was wrong. :)

Our graphics department still can't view any MOV files generated from our EX3. So now (thanks to you) I'm going to head to Calibrated Software's website and see what it would cost to install their drivers on our graphic department's computers. Thanks Alister.

But I have to make a statement. Isn't it a little bit crazy that you can't play XDCAM EX footage on a Mac without having Final Cut Pro or Premier installed? What if you wanted to use iMovie or some other editing program? I think this is a major oversite by Sony. They should make the proper QT drivers available to everyone. Heck they should come on a disc with the camera.

Just my $0.02. :)