Where can I get some MXF's to try the new Raylight software?

[Rodrigo]

If you can help me...

Thx in advance

[philnerd]

http://www.xtream.ne.jp/component/option,com_docman/task,cat_view/gid,63/Itemid,68/

Kaku appears to have the raw MXF files from his resolution chart tests in the "MXF format raw files" folder. Everything else in that folder appears to be DVCPRO50 so that won't work.

At the bottom of the links he's got a zip file called "P2 volume content archive". It looks like that should have some 1080i footage.

(Note that you must register with the site before being able to download)

[Jim Arthurs]

At the bottom of the links he's got a zip file called "P2 volume content archive". It looks like that should have some 1080i footage.)

Yes, this is the one I used to test Raylight... thanks for finding it for folks again Phil, too many downloads in the last couple weeks for me to remember! Almost no motion in the two clips that are in that zip, but at least you can go through the motions with them...

Jim Arthurs

[Stevet]

Yes!
It looks like Raylight is going to be very cool.

Where are some raw 1080 MXF files to download?
Any luck anyone?

Steve

[Jim Arthurs]

Hi Steve... in the above link that Phil posted... a zip with all the MXF directories... just grab the actual MXF files when you download it...

Jim Arthurs

[Stevet]

Yes, but when I ran raymaker on the MXF files, they extracted avi files but would not open with Windows Media Player.

Also, the extracted files went from approx. 100MB MXF to less than 25MB avi files?
Why so small?

Did it work for you? Also, I'm a bit unclear on the small raylight utility.
I have an idea how it works based on the documentation, I just want an understanding on how it manipulates the file.

Thanks, Steve

[philnerd]

Yes, but when I ran raymaker on the MXF files, they extracted avi files but would not open with Windows Media Player.

Also, the extracted files went from approx. 100MB MXF to less than 25MB avi files?
Why so small?

Did it work for you? Also, I'm a bit unclear on the small raylight utility.
I have an idea how it works based on the documentation, I just want an understanding on how it manipulates the file.

Thanks, Steve

Did you right-click the .INF file and select "Install" from the context menu? That loads the CODEC on your machine which should then allow the AVI files to play.

[Stevet]

Woops,
I guess it helps to read!
My bad...
RTFM

[philnerd]

Just an FYI for anyone using RayLight, read the NowReadMe.txt file that comes in the raylight zip file and follow the directions carefully. When I first loaded Kaku's clips I thought something was seriously wrong; blocky garbly crap quality is all I could get. After re-reading the file I realized that you have to open the raylight.exe file and click the blue box to set the RayLight quality to "high" to get the full quality of the footage.

[Stevet]

philnerd,
did you find any MXF files, other than the two small examples from kaku.
One was a stagnent shot of a house and and small tree, the other I believe a stadium?

Also, why is the extracted avi file so much smaller than the original?

Steve

[Jim Arthurs]

philnerd,
did you find any MXF files, other than the two small examples from kaku.
One was a stagnent shot of a house and and small tree, the other I believe a stadium?

Also, why is the extracted avi file so much smaller than the original?

Steve

To my knowledge, those are the only two raw clips out there at 1080.

As to the size of files, it's smaller because it isn't a full file, but a "header" containing audio and possibly a low rez proxy of the video. This codec "points" to the real MXF for higher quality settings. It's not a intermediate codec like Cineform, but a reference codec.

Jim Arthurs

[Rodrigo]

well, that's too difficult to understand for someome likne me :D

[Stevet]

Thanks Jim,
So I'm confused where the audio files are?

For example take the 0003gf.mxf file (120MB).

When you extract that file using Raylight, it only
extracts one avi file around 20MB. There's no other
files in the directory it was extracted in.

120MB down to 20MB. where is the rest of the packed data files?

Well, the zip file that kaku had both of the MXF files in, also had a sub directory
with audio files in it.

Help me understand this.

Thanks, Steve

[Jim Arthurs]

Thanks Jim,
So I'm confused where the audio files are?

For example take the 0003gf.mxf file (120MB).

When you extract that file using Raylight, it only
extracts one avi file around 20MB. There's no other
files in the directory it was extracted in.

120MB down to 20MB. where is the rest of the packed data files?

Well, the zip file that kaku had both of the MXF files in, also had a sub directory
with audio files in it.

Help me understand this.

Thanks, Steve

Hi Steve... the trick is understanding that the file that Raylight is creating is not an actual high quality duplicate version of the MXF... it's a reference file, similar to a desktop shortcut, if you will.

It may contain the actual audio and/or a very low quality video proxy that plays back smoothly. When the "low quality" toggle is activated, the codec only draws picture information from that smaller file so playback is smooth. When the "high quality" toggle is used, it ignores the proxy quality picture and grabs frames from the full quality MXF, which reduces playback performance.

I may be off on the details, but I'm pretty sure this is the jist of what's going on.

As to the audio, you got me... I -think- that the audio is embedded in the MXF file itself, which begs the question why is there an additional directory of audio as well?

Jim A.

[Stevet]

Thanks Jim,
now I understand why you can not move your files. That makes sense.

Now if we could just figure out the audio file thing.

We may need to ask the techs at DVFilm this question.

Steve

[mvb]

The audio streams are embedded in the DVCPRO-HD frame data in the video MXF files as well as in the audio-only MXF files. The only case where you need the audio-only files are with the 720-24P format. For 720-24P, the extra frames have already been deleted by the camera from the 60P stream. The deletion of the extra frames also deletes the audio for those frames.

The Raylight AVI's can be treated as regular HD-sized AVI's with uncompressed stereo audio. They appear to the editing system as full-resolution frames and so you can both edit in real time and and render out your final cut at high quality without having to make any changes to the project settings.

I have put a 1280 x 720 24P MXF clip with motion on our website, hopefully it will be enough for people without cameras to evaluate the smoothness of playback and image quality under the three different Raylight quality levels. Go to
http://dvfilm.com/raylight

[identity]

Thanks mvb! The performance of Raylight looks good!

[Jim Arthurs]

Thanks for all you're doing, Marcus... it is appreciated.

I'll purchase Raylight the moment I have my HVX in hand. This will nicely solve the interm problem of using MXF files in Vegas, AE, etc...

Hey, any thought on supporting DVCPRO50 files as well?

Regards,

Jim Arthurs

[mvb]

DVCPRO50 MXF to AVI is working with RayMaker version 1.02, that will be online by Monday. It will also do DV MXF to AVI, and remove 2:3:3:2 pulldown for all formats. Also it can convert audio MXF to WAV so you can access the extra channels of sound from the camera. Thanks to Barry Green for testing a lot of this stuff out for me.

Since Raylight does not yet decode these formats, as an interim measure the Matrox free codec is used for DVCPRO50 and the Microsoft Windows DV codec is used for DV, although if you have Vegas or Premiere Pro they will invoke their own DV codec.

So it looks like just about everything the camera will put out is covered.

[soarprod]

Now all we need is a Batch converter program that will take raylight mxf avi's and convert them into say cineform files :) Heck, maybe I'll use procoder.

[Barry_Green]

The new Raylight 1.02 DV50 MXF update is most delightful. It can convert the files to pure 24p which work in Vegas, After Effects, all sorts of places. Marcus (mvb) is the hardest-working man in show business, and I greatly appreciate his efforts. I took the HVX over to an effects guy's place today to work on some keying tests, and I couldn't have done it without Marcus' help.

[Stevet]

DVCPRO50, YES!

Thanks Marcus!

I'll be buying in soon, no camera yet

Steve

[Jim Arthurs]

Hi Marcus

One question... what about the clips timecode? Will it carry over into the edit as well?

I ask because a potential client is looking to take home footage for a partial on-line/off-line, but wants me to be able to honor his EDL and do final work on the clips on my system...

Regards,

Jim Arthurs

[mvb]

The version of Raylight that works with DVCPRO50 is online now.

It does process timecode and provides it in the AVI header. Some NLE's
can read it like Sony Vegas, but still working on timecode that
is readable by Adobe Premiere.

[soarprod]

Last time I tested the raylight at full quality, like rendering to a wmvhd or uncompressed out, it seemed to have square blockiness in footage - is this resolved now? or was I doing something wrong?

[Barry_Green]

Yes it's resolved, that was one of the things addressed in the latest release version. Try the newest version; Marcus shows examples of footage that put Raylight right up there against Avid and Apple's DVCPRO-HD codecs:
http://dvfilm.com/raylight/raylightRes.htm