Serious Magic Announces the DVCProHD Decoder for Sony® Vegas® and Adobe® Premiere®

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New add-on enables multiple NLE software to read full-resolution MXF files generated by the Panasonic HVX200 camcorder.

September 13, 2006 (Folsom, CA) – Serious Magic, Inc.™ announced today the immediate availability of its Video for Windows (VfW) decoder for the DVCProHD format. Because DVCProHD support is limited for Sony® Vegas® and Adobe® Premiere® Pro users, Serious Magic now provides a decoder that will allow these popular programs as well as other software applications (i.e. Adobe® AfterEffects® and Serious Magic ULTRA) that uses VfW codecs to read these files.

Using the DVCProHD Decoder, video files can be edited natively without the need for transcoding because the format uses intra-frame compression just like DV. The workflow is straightforward; users are not required to convert their video data to another codec. The decoder also is bundled with an easy-to-use software utility for quickly converting native MXF files from the Panasonic camera to standard AVI or QuickTime files. Users of Apple® Final Cut® Pro can transfer the QuickTime file to their Mac for quick and easy editing in a more universal format.

Availability
DVCProHD Decoder is now available for download at $195.00 (MSRP) at SeriousMagic.com.

it is also included as part of the new DV Rack 2 HD. http://www.seriousmagic.com/products...newIn2_dtd.cfm


Gary
Videoguys.com
 
What?!?!
This must be what Barry was talking about...
Ok, so do I understand this properly. I would be able to edit p2 footage natively, without conversion in Vegas? Just can drop it on the timeline and go???
What kind of compression would there be? Is there going to be loss of quality using this?
Wow, I wasn't holding my breath for this, but it sounds like it really could make Vegas totally viable.
What are the potential negatives if anyone knows?
Jason
 
There is no change in the compression or loss of quality -- it's the same DVCPro/DVCPro50/DVCProHD format output by the camera.

The only thing that is necessary is changing the wrapper from the MXF format to AVI or QT so your NLE will accept it, the same thing done by FCP for instance.
 
You have to convert in the same way that FCP has to convert, or Raylight has to convert.

Yes this is what I was hinting at, but I can't say more because I haven't tried it. I thought it would be in the beta version I got, but it isn't.

The reason I have hopes for it is because in Raylight I get about 5fps in high quality mode, and about 11 fps in medium quality mode, but with DVC Rack I can display full-screen 720/60p at full frame rate. So I hope that it provides similar performance in Vegas, which would make Vegas a viable full-screen realtime editing platform. But until I can get ahold of a copy of the decoder and try it, this remains guesswork and supposition.

You could, however, record with DVC Rack and put those files directly on the timeline with no conversion... it only needs to convert files that were recorded on the cards.
 
Barry_Green said:
You could, however, record with DVC Rack and put those files directly on the timeline with no conversion... it only needs to convert files that were recorded on the cards.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's an important distinction -- I've been dropping the AVI files created by DVC Rack (or DV Rack HD) directly into Edius, which has built-in support for DVCProHD, and with the just-announced codec from Serious Magic, you'll be able to do the same thing with Vegas or Premiere if you record using DVC Rack. I suspect the same applies to recordings from the FS-100 that are not in the MXF format.

If you use P2 media, you need to change the container format because these programs don't understand the MXF format.
 
Barry that has made my day. Does'nt look like you can purchase it from the site quite yet...credit card resting anxiously on my laptop.
 
keep in mind that this is part of DV Rack 2.0 HD. Existing DV Rack custoemrs will be able to upgrade to DV Rack 2 HD for just $295.

We're in the process of putting the finishing touches on a super value bundle. It will be the DV Rack 1.0 software with the DV Rack 2 HD upgrade for a really sharp price.

http://www.videoguys.com/dvrack.html

Gary


Gary
 
videoguys said:
keep in mind that this is part of DV Rack 2.0 HD. Existing DV Rack custoemrs will be able to upgrade to DV Rack 2 HD for just $295.

We're in the process of putting the finishing touches on a super value bundle. It will be the DV Rack 1.0 software with the DV Rack 2 HD upgrade for a really sharp price.

http://www.videoguys.com/dvrack.html

Gary


Gary
Click to expand...

Gary,
Over the summer there was quite a bit of discussion about a free upgrade to DVCProHD support for people who had previously purchased DVRack with the HDV Power Pack. For example, see this thread:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=54629&page=7&highlight=free
Would you please clarify how we'll be able to get this free upgrade?
Thanks,
Jeremy
 
videoguys said:
keep in mind that this is part of DV Rack 2.0 HD. Existing DV Rack custoemrs will be able to upgrade to DV Rack 2 HD for just $295.

We're in the process of putting the finishing touches on a super value bundle. It will be the DV Rack 1.0 software with the DV Rack 2 HD upgrade for a really sharp price.

http://www.videoguys.com/dvrack.html

Gary


Gary
Click to expand...


Just to get this straight. I only own HVX and Vegas. If I want to use JUST this decoder, the price for me is NOT simply $195. Is that Correct?
 
snarton said:
Gary,
Over the summer there was quite a bit of discussion about a free upgrade to DVCProHD support for people who had previously purchased DVRack with the HDV Power Pack. For example, see this thread:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=54629&page=7&highlight=free
Would you please clarify how we'll be able to get this free upgrade?
Thanks,
Jeremy
Click to expand...


I was going to ask the same question, as I have purchased HDV Rack (with no HDV camera) waiting for the upgrade.

Boy, I can't wait.
 
LearningVideo said:
Barry,

We are counting on you to try it and let us know what you think!

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Found the demo version and installed it.

Now, keep in mind that my laptop may be below the minimum specs; I'm not even sure what the minimum specs are. I'm running a Pentium M 760 @ 2.00 GHz, which is about equivalent to a 3GHz Pentium 4. So no Core Solo or Core Duo or Core 2 Duo here! So these results are not in any way useful for anyone using a newer machine, because these codecs may be set up to handle dual cores and hyperthreading, advantages that this sluggardly laptop will not show.

First thing I notice is that Serious Magic leaves the movie properties as 1280x1080, whereas Raylight reports 1920x1080. I presume Raylight is doing the upconversion from 1280 to 1920 and just "informing" the system that it's 1920, whereas with Serious Magic I had to manually go in and set a pixel aspect ratio of 1.5:1 in order to get it to work in a 1920x1080x24p project.

Overall, they seem to run about the same. In high-quality mode on Raylight (which is the only mode that Serious Magic offers) they both deliver around 8 fps. Raylight has the additional option of putting it in medium-quality mode which delivers lower-res video but at 2 to 2.5 times as fast, which is a nice option.

That's about all I can determine with my old, slow, laggardly single-core ancient obsolete hardware here. Until I get this stuff upgraded, someone else will have to tell us how it performs on a proper dual-core system!
 
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