Raylight ?

Joe Shaw

Joe Shaw

Well-known member
I'm looking to acquire an HVX200 and I'm a Premiere Pro user. I hoped someone could enlighten me in simple terms how Raylight actually works and what the disadvantages of going that route might be.

My main use for the camera would be short form drama and promos.

many thanks

Joe
 
Raylight works by creating intermediate proxy files from the MXFs. It works quite well.

Disadvantages? It's an extra step. Native support would be better.
 
Let's also specify: Raylight doesn't transcode away from the original MXF data, it preserves it intact. So when you use "blue" or "high quality" mode, you're getting 100% raw original camera data, not a transcode/recompress. Raylight does allow for a low-res proxy too, in the "fastest" or "red" mode, but when it's time to master out your final version you can go back to the camera original and get 100% original raw quality.
 
does it slow the process down much?. If I am already a vegas user, does it make sense to get raylight, as opposed to getting another nle? thanks
 
Like I said, there's an extra step involved, but one you make the conversion, it's editing as normal. So there's a little more time on the front end, but after that, it's drop and edit.

The conversion time depends on the size of the clip, of course. But overall, it's pretty quick.
 
Thanks guys. Makes sense. Souns a bit like working offline, then when your done you online the full res result. I was worried it might compromise the image quality.
 
Film Division said:
Personally, I find using Cineform Aspect HD more effective & easier.
Click to expand...


Between the two products Raylight is the only one that can edit with zero quality loss on cuts and uses the original MXF files for final rendering. It may not be easier to use but it is still quite straightforward, and infinitely more effective on a non-recompressed edit.

Also since the MXF files are used for the final render, any mistakes that were made in the editing process (for example not removing pulldown when you should have done so) can be easily undone. Also Raylight can be used to edit full resolution 1080-line format on a very low-cost, single-drive computer since it has a built-in low-res proxy.
 
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David Jimerson said:
Like I said, there's an extra step involved, but one you make the conversion, it's editing as normal. So there's a little more time on the front end, but after that, it's drop and edit.

The conversion time depends on the size of the clip, of course. But overall, it's pretty quick.
Click to expand...

Does Raylight make editing HD on an underpowered computer more manageable once the files are converted? Or is the main purpose of the software to allow for the use of HD formats that would otherwise be incompatible with some types of editing software (such as DVCPROHD on Vegas)?
 
Both. It allows systems like Vegas and older versions of Premiere Pro to use the files, but the other thing it does is provide a low-res proxy editing version so you can edit the proxies even on a fairly slow computer.
 
Thanks, Barry. That's what I was hoping for.

Would you compare the ease-of-use of working with Raylight-processed HD footage to that of regular SD footage?

I'm just trying to get a feel for how much computing power I need to work with HD footage, since I just purchased an HVX and would like to do some editing on my fairly underpowered PC until I upgrade to a more powerful one.
 
Raylight in proxy mode ("red" mode) could do it, but just be aware that it'll be a very, very, very low-res proxy. A fairly slow system can play back in realtime, but it's not quite the same thing as the "real thing".
 
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