Best way to view capture files on Mac

[pucho]

What is best way to view captured VSP X3 files using a stand alone video player software on a Macintosh?

VideoStudio's capture files even do not play smoothly in Quicktime v7.7 or VideoLAN VLC player even on my Windows' PC.

Specifications from a VSP X3 capture file using open source MediaInfo utility.

Complete name : H:\video capture\uvsYYMMSS-XXX-X.avi
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
Format_Commercial_IfAny : DVCPRO
File size : 50.3 MiB
Duration : 14s 648ms
Overall bit rate : 28.8 Mbps
Recorded date : 2011-03-22 21:07:28 / 2011-03-22 21:07:28 21:0

There are over 6 hours of raw and uncut footage that my co-producer needs to see. But I worry that there will be problems viewing them on her Macintosh. What can be done to VSP X3 capture files to ensure smooth playback on Macintosh? Any clues appreciated. Thank you.

[Ron P.]

Is your co-worker also located in the U.S. ? Also is your co-worker just that, or perhaps your supervisor/boss? This is just a personal observation, if so, why do you have to go through all the headaches of getting into a format that your co-worker can view? Maybe your co-worker should have a PC too, just sayin..

DVCPRO, the big-boys format. Is your co-worker needing this in as much of a RAW format, so editing can be done on that end? Part of the problem lies in the frame rate. I see that DVCPRO uses a PAL frame rate of 25fps. When you test rendered in MOV format did you use 25fps or the NTSC frame rate of 29.97? You need to keep the Field Order (Upper or Lower Field First) for interlaced video, and the Frame Rates. If you reversed the field order or used a frame rate differing from your stock footage, the quality is going to take a big hit.

[Ken Berry]

I did not think Video Studio in any version could actually deal with DVC Pro in any of its manifestations (the vanilla original version, DVC Pro 50 or 100). Certainly Corel does not list it in the acceptable input or output formats for VS X4...:

Input Format Support:

Video: AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, AVCHD™, MPEG-4, H.264, BDMV, DV, HDV™, DivX®, QuickTime®, RealVideo®, Windows Media® Format, MOD (JVC® MOD File Format), M2TS, M2T, TOD, 3GPP, 3GPP2

Output Format Support:

Video: AVI, MPEG-2, AVCHD, MPEG-4, H.264, BDMV, HDV, QuickTime, RealVideo, Windows Media Format, 3GPP, 3GPP2, FLV

But Ron -- I am wondering if you are in this case confusing the frame rate with the data rate (bitrate). DVC Pro originally came with a bitrate like DV of 25 Mbps, but it was certainly in both PAL and NTSC framerates of 25 fps and 29.97 fps. Subsequent versions of DVC Pro added progressive formatting with bitrates first of 50 Mbps then 100 Mbps, and at frame rates of 50 fps or 60 fps. It also comes, of course, in 24 fps since that is what Panasonic originally developed the format for -- to emulate movies filmed with film cameras.

[teknisyan]

What is best way to view captured VSP X3 files using a stand alone video player software on a Macintosh?

As far as I know VS X4 is not compatible with Mac, but you're using a mac I would just suggest that you use the video editing program that is either already installed on your co-producer's if not then you can try installing Final Cut Pro.

[Ken Berry]

Abiel -- they are not trying to use VS X4 on a Mac. They are only trying to view videos captured on a PC using X4 on a Mac.

But my point was whether DVC Pro is compatible with X4, not whether X4 was compatible with a Mac!

[Ron P.]

Not only missed the mark on that, but the whole darn target. Where I was reading about the DVCPRO format, I mistook the bitrate of 25mbps, as frame rate...

[pucho]

Thank you for replies.

Is there an easy way to view VSP X3 footage for review on a Mac?
7 hours of VSP X3 capture files have been saved to an external hard disk drive (HDD). Ideally, I would like to pass the HDD to my co-producer who is computer phobic. She only wants to see footage on her Mac before I start editing.

Footage was created using an Canon Vixia HV-30 HDV camcorder. But footage was shot using DV-Wide configuration setting (16:9) and not using HDV codec at all.

The footage could be transcoded, but I though the Corel community might have more elegant solution. I hope so. Any clues appreciated. Take care.

[Ron P.]

The only information I can provide is from what I'm able to read. Q.T. is suppose to be able to handle numerous codecs, and also that VLAN has been the one software media player that can do so the best on a MAC. However you apparently debunked that claim. Here's Apple's webpage that lists the media formats supported by QuickTime Player. VS is capable of most of those. The big exception being the one you happen to have, DVCPRO.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3775

Of all those, DV seems to be the better SD video file format. However it's my understanding that Apple uses the extension *.dv for what PC uses *.avi. They are both DV but getting one to read the other is the problem. In other words, VS will output a DV video file as videofile.avi, while Apple/Mac will use videofile.dv. You would think that just changing the file extension would work, but it doesn't. There must be some header info written into the files that is not allowing the cross-platform.

Next you could try MPEG-2, or MOV. Depending on my source video files, I've had good results with the MOV container using the Sorenson 3 codec, and the MJPEG. Both should view well on a Mac.

[skier-hughes]

It was shot with an hdv cam, not in hdv, so that should mean it was shot in normal SD, but captured with a DVCPro codec?

I'm afraid with that mix up I'd look at your workflow and start again.

Capture the same as the recording. So record as dv.avi capture as dv.avi. Your colleague isn't going to watch all 7 hours, so I'd cherry pick some sections adn convert to mov as per above and let them watch these bits. Or if they wan't tit all, just stick them all on the time line before going home and hope it's finished by the morning when you come in.