Compression and Firewire

G

generalD

New member
Hi,

I'm currently looking to use the AG-HVX200 camera to obtain a series of single still images. But I'm having a few issues that I need to work out before I make the purchase:

1) Compression

  • Does a decoder that can handle the compressed HD data from the camera, available free with the camera? (I'm working on a PC)
  • If not, where would I be able to purchase one?
2) Firewire Vs. USB
  • How does Firewire perform on the PC? I've heard that it can be a little unreliable, is that true?
Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to give. :dankk2:

GeneralD.
 
If you're using Avid or EDIUS then the files are supported natively. If you're using some other editor you will likely need to get either Raylight, or Serious Magic's DVCPRO-HD decoder, or CineForm's product. All have free trial versions.

Firewire works fine for streaming to the PC, but it is not to be used for file transfer. USB 2.0 is to be used for file transfer on the PC.
 
Firewire appears to be better implemented on a Mac, and USB2 better implemented on a PC.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of support for capturing from the HVX to any USB device.
 
USB is for using the HVX as an external card reader on a PC (or for using USB On-The-Go for offloading).

For the mac you use firewire all the time.
 
Decoding

Decoding

Hi everyone,

I'm actually looking to handle the data stream from the camera myself, without the use of a standard editing tool. I want to decode the data from the camera, and encode certain frames into a more 'standard' format (AVI etc.) for future manipulation. The frames must be in a format that I can include a timestamp from an external source i.e. the data format must include individual frames rather than only the changes between frames.

This is why the exact compression used and what decoders can handle this (ideally via. some sort of API) is important. Barry_Green to you feel that the decoder you mentioned before, Serious Magic's DVCPRO-HD decoder, is what I'm looking for?

Again, thank you for your time.

GeneralD.
 
Serious Magic will losslessly translate the MXF files into AVI files. You can then use the Windows DirectShow API to manipulate those AVI files any way you want.

Raylight does the same thing, with the differences being that Raylight requires you to keep the original MXF files, and to keep them in exactly the same location forever. Serious Magic doesn't require that, it makes standalone AVI files. But Raylight has multiple playback speed/quality level options, Serious Magic doesn't.
 
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