Package
includes the Raylight Plug-in for Sony Vegas, the Raylight codec for Windows,
RayMaker—an application that converts MXF files into AVI files, P2 Maker—an
application that converts Raylight AVI into MXF files, and a control panel for
the Raylight codec.
The
license also includes DVFilm Maker, which is only needed to convert non-HVX200
formats like HDV to Raylight AVI. The download for Maker can be obtained at
dvfilm.com/update
Adds
AVC-Intra support for MXF files. Automatically builds proxies for real-time
AVC-Intra editing when importing the MXF files into Vegas.
RayMaker
can now make AVC-Intra AVI files (32-bit systems only). RayMaker 3.6 has
improved pulldown removal for Variable Frame Rate video, and is also capable of
making ½-size as well as ¼-size proxy AVI’s.
Ultra
1.2 fixes memory usage problems and sub-clip problems in the Vegas 9 plug-in.
Ultra
1.2 displays the P2 UserClipName in the Vegas Explorer window.
Ultra
1.2 Supports Windows 7 32- and 64-bit versions as well as older Windows
systems.
Vegas
9.0 and Raylight Ultra Known Issues—see section 14.
The
Raylight codec has been rewritten for fast playback but still has the same
excellent quality of the original Raylight “Blue” mode.
Metadata
“Slates” are available with the Vegas plug-in.
Up to 4
audio tracks are importable into Vegas.
Some
metadata are translated to “Tape Name”, “Version” and “Comments” viewable in
Vegas Edit Details, clip properties, or Vegas Media Manager.
Requires
a Pentium 4, Athlon 64, or compatible processor. The processor must have the
SSE2 instructions. See Intel.com or AMD.com for details. Raylight checks and
warns you if you don’t have the necessary processor. 1.8GHz speed or higher is
recommended. For editing AVC-Intra, a fast dual-core or quad-core processor is
recommended. Operating system must be Win 2000, Win XP 32/64, Vista 32/64, or
Windows 7 32/64.
No disk
speed requirements if you want to edit in Raylight Red, the low-quality mode,
however a dedicated drive for video data is recommended. The throughput
requirement for running Raylight Red is about ½ as much as editing DV.
No
requirements for DirectX, Quicktime, or other special system software.
No
special requirements for the video editing software, except that it must
support video for windows, and if you are editing 24P movie files, the
capability to set the timeline to 23.976 frames/sec.
Raylight
Ultra has been tested with Vegas Pro 7.0, 8.0 and 9.0. The Vegas plug-in
requires Vegas 6.0 or later version. Raylight Ultra will also work with Sony
Vegas Movie Studio.
The
Matrox and Panasonic codecs are no longer required for Raylight and the
DVCPROHD, DVCPRO50 or DVCPRO formats (PAL or NTSC).
If you
have any existing installations of Raylight remove them with the UnInstall icon
and remove any remaining copies of Raylight applications including the old
RayMaker.
Copy the
RaylightUltraSetup.exe file to the desktop or any folder and double-click the
file to install the application. Raylight now installs into the Windows Start
Menu, DVFilm program group.
Then you
are ready to drag your MXF files into Vegas.
Remember
to re-install Ultra if you ever re-install or upgrade to Vegas 9.
Vegas
users can enjoy the direct import of MXF files into the timeline. In Vegas use
File->Open or File->Import->Media Files. Select an MXF file and click
Open. Or drag the MXF file directly
from the Vegas file browser into the timeline.
The sound track will
automatically be imported if it is located in an adjacent AUDIO folder or the
same folder as the video MXF file.
The
plug-in will recognize native frame size and set aspect ratio correctly if the
“Use Native Frame Size” option is chosen in the Raylight Configuration Screen.
You can
also use the default square pixel format by leaving the option off.
Metadata
“Slates” are available with the Vegas plug-in. Either the first or second frame
of the clip is overwritten with a slate containing metadata from the .xml file
in the CLIP folder of the P2 card or card image. The defaults slate includes
ProgramName, UserClipName, SceneNo., TakeNo, CreationDate, StartTimecode and
Pulldown.
Or you can
opt to have no slate. The slate never appears on MXF files that are a
continuation of a spanned clip. The slate is customizable for experienced
users. To customize your slate, download this file, unzip it, and read the
instructions included:
dvfilm.com/raylight/ultra/CustomSlateHelp.zip
Up to 4
audio tracks are importable into Vegas. If you import a file with the “Import
Tracks 1&2” option, and later decide you need tracks 3&4 instead, or
all 4 tracks, then change the option in the Raylight configuration panel, and
then remove the clip from the timeline and drag it back in from the media pool.
If you had different in- and out- points selected you may need to re-trim the
clip. If you are editing a project where Tracks 1&2 are not used solely and
consistently, you may need to use the “Import All 4 Tracks” option and delete
unwanted tracks after dragging them into the timeline. Changing between the
track import options in the middle of a project may cause unexpected results.
The
plugin will properly skip over 2:3:3:2 pulldown frames from 1080i60/24PA, or
2:3 pulldown frames from 720p60, or 2:2 pulldown from 720p50, if you have a
valid CLIP folder and XML file for the clip. It cannot remove redundant frames
from variable speed footage recorded in 720p60 or 720p50. Ultra cannot remove
3:2 pulldown from 1080i60 format. For removing VFR or 3:2 pulldown we recommend
Raylight MXFX (dvfilm.com/MXFX).
From
Vegas 8 you may export a Raylight AVI and use P2 Maker to author P2 cards.
Non-recompressed editing of MXF files requires that you enable the “Suppress
Recomp” option in Raylight Configuration. Audio MXF files do not import
separately. If you need access to tracks 3&4, use the “Import All 4 tracks”
options on the Raylight configuration panel.
For Sony
Vegas 7 before version 7.0d, the Sony MXF file reader interfered with the
Raylight MXF reader, so you must load the free upgrade to 7.0d available from
Sony before installing Raylight. For Vegas 6 there was no Sony MXF reader. For Vegas 8 and 9 the Sony MXF and Raylight
MXF readers are compatible.
However
if for some reason you need to disable the Sony MXF file reader, either because
some MXF files are not being recognized by Vegas+Raylight or there is an
excessive delay in opening MXF files, here is how to disable it: 1) Exit Vegas,
2) on your system drive open the \Program Files\Sony\Vegas ...\FileIO Plug-ins
folder, and rename the mxfplug folder inside it to mxfplug2. Then restart
Vegas. DO not rename or remove the Sony MXF plugin if you need to import MXF
files from a Sony camera.
AVC-Intra
files are importable starting with Ultra 1.2. Only the Vegas 9 plug-in has this
feature.
For
AVC-Intra, a proxy for real-time editing is created automatically if the “Use
MXF proxies in Plug-in” option is selected on the “Proxy Options” tab of the
Raylight configuration dialog.
Here’s how
it works: when Vegas is started the Raylight control task (purple or red ball
in the Windows task bar) is started as well. When you import or drag an AVC-Intra
file into the timeline, a message is sent by the plug-in to the Raylight
control program to start creating the proxy. The proxy file is a video MXF file
in the DVCPROHD format. The frame size of the proxy is the same as the frame
size of the AVC-Intra file. A progress dialog appears on your screen showing
the progress of the conversion. For AVC-Intra 50 Mbps formats, the conversion
is approximately real-time for fast, dual-core processors. For the 100mpbs
formats the conversion is two times slower. You may continue editing while the
proxy is being made. You may import or drag other clips into the project and
the plug-in will queue up the files to be converted. You can scrub through the
clips, change in and out points, do all normal editing while the proxies are
being made, but playback may not be very smooth depending on the speed of your
computer system. If you do
not want to see the progress dialog, dismiss it by clicking the X in the upper
right-hand corner of the dialog. You have the option of clearing the file queue
when you do that by answering Yes to “Clear Proxy Queue?” Answer “No” if you
want the proxies to continue to be made, but without the progress dialog.
As soon as
the proxy is completed, you will then notice smoother playback for the AVC-Intra
clip. The Raylight plug-in will start using the proxy immediately. If the
make proxy option is turned off when you start a project, and then during
editing you turn the option on, you may need to re-open the project to get the
proxies made.
There
are two rules to remember on switching the proxies on and off during editing.
There is one rule for the 10-bit YUV mode (see section on 10-bit YUV mode) and
one for normal mode:
The
proxy is used only when the Raylight Quality Ball is red. Otherwise the
AVC-Intra original is used. The Vegas Preview quality setting has no effect in
this mode. In this mode, we strongly suggest that the “Mark Proxy” option be
turned on. This will warn you if a file is rendered in Raylight Red.
In this
mode, with 10-bit YUV turned off, it is the Vegas preview setting that controls
the proxy usage. If Vegas is in Preview ½ mode, or in the lesser size modes,
the proxy will be used. In Preview Full, the original AVC-Intra file will be
used. However, you can force the plug-in to use the proxy in all preview modes
by setting the Raylight quality to red.
With the
“Mark Proxy” option turned on, the video will be burned with the word PROXY in
the left-hand corner. This is a good way to let you know if the proxy file is
being used. When you render a final cut of your project, setting the quality to
Raylight Violet will prevent this mark from appearing in your exported video.
The
proxy files are normally stored in the PROXY folder of your P2 card image. If you are editing directly from P2 cards,
you may wish the proxy files to be stored somewhere else. In this case, click
the Browse button in the Raylight config panel, Proxy Options tab, and select and/or create the folder.
If you
ever change the Use MXF Proxy or MXF Proxy Output Folder options in the middle
of an edit, you should save your work, kill Raylight Control (right-click on the ball in the task bar and
select “Exit...”) and restart Vegas.
A proxy
will be remade if you delete it. To force an existing proxy file to be remade,
save your work and quit Vegas. Delete the file using windows explorer. Kill
Raylight Control and restart Vegas.
If you
use the proxies for AVC-Intra editing, keep in mind that the proxy is created
from the entire clip, not just the trimmed clip or the portion of the clip used
in the timeline. Read section below on using the UserClipName features in
Raylight to make this process more efficient.
It is
more efficient to pause and un-pause the camera between takes, and use the
UserClipName feature with Panasonic P2 Viewer or P2 CMS to name your scenes and
takes before editing, rather than leaving the camera recording continuously
while shooting multiple takes. You can also use the “Type 2” metadata to
automatically increment the UserClipName between takes (see camera manual for
details).
Ultra
1.2 now has a feature where the UserClipName is displayed at the bottom of the
Vegas Explorer window. This make it easier to find a selected take assuming
that your takes have been labeled beforehand using P2 Viewer or P2 CMS. These
programs are free downloads from the Panasonic website.
Also,
once the clips are imported into your project, the UserClipName is displayed in
the “Tape Name” column of the project media window, detailed view. You can drag
the “Tape Name” column to the left. You can also sort the list of clips
alphabetically by the UserClipName, or by timecode, or by the metadata date and
time, which appear in the “Comments” column.
For
After Effects, Windows MovieMaker, older versions of Premiere, or other
programs that cannot use the direct MXF file import feature, you must convert
the MXF files or the CONTENTS folder from the HVX200 camera to Raylight AVI
files on your video project hard drive.
Start RayMaker and drag the CONTENTS, or VIDEO folder to RayMaker’s
screen. Click options
to
configure your choices for the Raylight files. In particular choose:
Configure
Raylight: this opens the Raylight Configuration screen.
Select
the output folder for Raylight system files.
Choose
60Hz (American) or 50Hz (Euro) system.
Select
self-contained AVI’s (not recommended for new users).
Select
optional native frame size (not recommended for new users).
If you
have never used Raylight before, stick with the defaults.
Note:
Raylight AVI’s always use tracks 1&2 from the MXF files. The “Import tracks
3&4” and “Import All Four Tracks” options are used by the Vegas plug-in
only. Also the Slate options are ignored by RayMaker. Raylight AVI’s will not
contain metadata slates.
These
choices above must be made before you make any Raylight AVI’s and the choices
can be undone only by remaking the AVI’s.
The
other options including the Quality level, burn-in, 180 rotation etc, can be
changed during playback and do not affect the format of the raylight AVI’s.
Raylight
AVI’s will not work in 64-bit Vegas 9.0, see section 14.
Select
Always Remove if you are shooting in the 1080i/24PA format (2:3:3:2 pulldown).
RayMaker cannot remove pulldown from 1080i/24P format (3:2 pulldown). Do not
use 3:2 pulldown if you want to edit at 24P. Use 24PA (advanced or 2:3:3:2)
pulldown.
Select
Always Remove if you are shooting at variable frame speeds or with 720/24P over
60 format.
Note:
720/24PN (native) format is recommended for shooting 720P/24. This is the most
efficient format and no frames need to be removed. If you always shoot
720/24PN, select Never Remove.
Select
Ask Each Time if you have a mix of formats.
For
silent footage (usually time lapse or slow-motion) the playback rate can be
hard set to a fixed frame rate, usually the same rate as you will use in
editing (for example 23.976 for 24P editing). So for example footage shot at
720/60P can be slowed down to create a 720/24P Raylight AVI.
Normally
the Raylight AVIs will be stored in the same folder as the MXF files. If you
want to put the Raylight AVIs into a different location, choose this option.
Click browse to create and/or select the folder.
¼-size
is the old proxy size and is selected by default. The new ½-size proxy is
recommended for AVC-Intra AVI proxy file editing with faster single- or
dual-core processors. It can also be used with DVCPROHD format. Note that ½
size and ¼ size refer to the encoded frame size, not the file size. File sizes
will vary and for AVC-Intra format the ½-size proxy AVI is often larger than
the original file. The proxy nevertheless will play back smoother than the
original.
Click OK
to save the options.
You can
convert one MXF file alone by dragging it into the RayMaker window.
Once the
Raylight AVI’s are created, DO NOT DELETE, RENAME, OR MOVE the MXF files unless
you are using self-contained AVI’s (see options). Self-contained AVI’s are more
portable and allow the MXF files to be deleted, however they prohibit the use
of the Raylight Red mode which is necessary for slower computer systems or
computer systems with single (non-RAID stripe) disk drives.
Again,
DO NOT REMOVE the MXF files. If you do need to change the location of the
files, or rename the folder or disk drive in which they reside, then new
Raylight AVIs must be created with RayMaker to replace the old ones.
For
720P24/720P25 MXF files, the audio track is taken from the Audio MXF files.
These must be located in an adjacent AUDIO folder, or in the same folder as the
video files.
You will
notice that for ordinary DVCPROHD Raylight AVI’s, the file size is about 1/5th
the size of the MXF file. This is because the AVI contains a lo-res proxy
(proxy means temporary substitute) for the original frame data. The AVI also
contains an invisible link in each frame to the original frame data in the MXF
file. When you playback in Raylight Violet mode, the low-res proxy is not used,
and the frame data always comes from the MXF file. In Raylight Violet there is
zero quality loss. However the file size of the Raylight AVI does not reflect
this high quality because the links don’t take any space on the drive.
When
playing back in Raylight Red, only the proxy data is used. The quality is
roughly ¼ of the original, but the data rate is much lower and the playback is
always smooth, even on a very low-cost computer.
For
self-contained Raylight AVI’s the file size is almost exactly the same size as
the MXF file, less any pulldown or redundant frames that have been removed by
RayMaker.
For
AVC-Intra files at ¼ resolution, the proxy AVI is about the same size or
slightly larger than the MXF file. For ½-size resolution, the proxy AVI is
larger than the MXF file, since the compression method is less efficient than
AVC (but plays back faster).
Raylight
Ultra 1.2 may not play back Raylight AVIs from DVFilm Raylight 3.0. Those AVI’s
must be remade. AVI’s from older versions of Ultra are OK.
The old
4-button Raylight control panel is available for users of DVFilm Raylight 3.0.
The other quality modes that were used in the old system are still functional
if you need them. Raylight Green is functional in Win XP and Vista 32 only (if
the Panasonic P2 Viewer is installed). Green does not work for AVC-Intra.
RayMaker
will also convert audio-only MXF files into WAV files so you can access the
multitrack recording capability of the camera.
RayMaker
will also convert DVCPRO50 DVCPRO and DV MXF files into self-contained AVI’s.
Normally
the Raylight codec is used to play back those AVIs, however you also have the
option of using the Matrox codec for DVCPRO50, DVCPRO and DV, if the “Use
Raylight Codec for non-HD formats” option is deselected in RayMaker. Get the
Matrox codecs by completing the form at
http://www.matrox.com/video/en/support/digisuite/downloads/softwares/codec/
For the
demo version of Raylight Ultra, AVIs using the Matrox DV, DVCPRO or DVCPRO50
format will have a pattern of gray squares over the image. Purchase the release
version of Raylight and remake the AVIs to remove the squares.
The
Raylight AVI’s can be played with any AVI movie player including Windows Media
Player. To control the playback speed/quality settings, double click the
Raylight Control application. This small pop-up can be used to change the codec
settings while using your editing software. Quality setting can be changed
during playback. There will be a 2 second delay before the setting takes
effect.
The
Quality settings are:
Violet -
used for full frame examination and final rendering
Red- ¼ resolution, using the low-resolution proxy
in Raylight AVIs. This mode must be used on lower-end systems like single CPU’s
with slower disk drives, especially when editing 1080/24P/30P. The CPU/disk
speed requirement for Red is similar to editing DV.
Note: Red
is not available for direct MXF import into Vegas, however if you render AVI
previews from your rough-cut MXF timeline at high quality, you can then switch
to Red and continue editing in Red.
Set your
editing system software to use the following settings:
60i
projects (not for transfer to film and not for 24P-DVD)
Frame size
1920 x 1080
Frame rate
29.97
Field order
upper field first
50i
projects (not for transfer to film and not for 24P-DVD)
Frame size
1920 x 1080
Frame rate
25
Field order
upper field first
30P
projects (not for transfer to film and not for 24P-DVD)
Frame size
1920 x 1080
Frame rate
29.97
Field order
“None”
25P
projects (transfer to film, HDCAM-25P or 25P-DVD)
Frame size
1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720
Frame rate
25
Field order
“None”
24P
projects (transfer to film, HDCAM-24P or 24P-DVD)
Frame size
1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720
Frame rate
23.976
Field order
“None”
For more
details see the Raylight Tutorial at dvfilm.com/help. Import the clips and edit
as you would normally. Older, slower computer systems will need the lowest or
Raylight Red setting.
In any
case, the highest quality, or Raylight Violet setting is necessary for
rendering uncompressed full-frame output, suitable for conversion to another
format (like NTSC for broadcast), or for examining/stepping through individual
frames for quality or visual effects work. The Raylight Violet setting may not
work in real time on older computer systems.
If you
have problems getting full speed playback do one or more of the following:
1. Change Raylight speed setting to Raylight
Red.
2. Use a smaller size monitor window. 50% or 25%
normal size are recommended. Smaller is faster. In Vegas use Preview Quality.
3. Make sure your Raylight files are on a clean
non-fragmented drive used only for media. It may help to put the MXF files and
AVI files on different drives if you use Violet.
4. Make sure no other processes are running.
5. Edit at 24P if you shot 24P, the data rate is
20% less than 30.
1. Make sure the display settings are
32-bit “True Color” or 24-bit (“Millions” or “16M” color). Do not use 16-bit
(“high color”) or 8-bit 256 colors.
2. Change Raylight speed setting to Violet
In Sony
Vegas, changing the preview quality from Preview Auto to Preview Full and back
to Preview Auto is sometimes necessary to get best performance from Raylight
after changing the Raylight quality level.
With
Vegas, Raylight will create preview files to show dissolves, color correction
filters etc. at high resolution. Even though the previews are made with high
resolution, you can view them in the lower quality modes.
Make
sure the project settings are 1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720 before using Raylight
previews.
In Vegas
the setting for the previews are in Tools->Selective PreRender Video.
Remember to configure Raylight’s output folder and select Raylight Violet
before using PreRender Video with Raylight.
Raylight
can be used to export an HD-sized Raylight AVI for playback on the
camera.Select export settings of 1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720 as appropriate,
square pixels, DVFilm Raylight compression. Configure Raylight for Ultra
Violet.
Start P2
Maker and drag the resulting Raylight AVI into P2 Maker and select your output
folder options. You can also select to write directly to the P2 card. If you
write directly to the card, make sure you are using a USB 2.0 connection (not
Firewire or USB 1.x) to avoid IO errors.
The MXF
files can also be played back with the Panasonic P2 Viewer.
Set the
Raylight Control to Raylight Violet setting. In the case of a cuts-only edit
the higher quality settings do not matter and just make the rendering process
slower. Be sure the output frame size setting is 1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720 as
appropriate. Raylight cannot change the frame size. Use Raylight compression or Windows Media 9 compression.
Export a
Low-res Movie (faster)
Set the
Raylight Control to Red setting. In the case of a non-recompressed output, the
higher quality settings do not matter and just make the rendering process
slower. But if you have a lot of effects or filters, and you don’t care about
seeing full resolution, using Raylight Red will make the rendering process much
faster. Note that if you playback a movie rendered with Raylight Red, but
playback at Violet setting, the frames will appear black with a text error
message, since hi-res frames are not created under Raylight Red.
Set the
render format settings in Vegas as follows
Best Quality
File type
Microsoft AVI
File format
Raylight Ultra
1920 x 1080
or 1280 x 720 frame size
Field order
as same as project settings
Frame rate
same as project settings (29.97, 25, or 23.976)
Create AVI
2.0 Open DML AVI
Audio
settings 48,000 Hz 16-bit Stereo uncompressed
The
render of the output movie should be very quick, faster than real time, for a
cuts-only edit. For effects rendering under Ultra Violet, expect rendering
times of about 4-20 frames/sec (for 720-24P). Rendering is about 30-50% faster
with a dual core CPU. You can also recompress to another format such as HD,
NTSC, or PAL, DVD, anything supported by your editing system. Make sure the
Ultra Violet quality setting is used in this case for best results. See the
Raylight Tutorial for info on exporting HD DVD (HD WM9) format.
Raylight
Ultra cannot export AVC-Intra format.
The
advanced configuration options in the Raylight Configuration pop-up should be
used by experienced users only. Some of these options have unexpected results
if you are not familiar with them. Here is a description of each one and some
explanation on their use and possible advantages.
For
self-contained AVI’s there is no lo-res proxy built, and you cannot use
Raylight Red. All the video data from the MXF file, minus the pulldown or
duplicate frames, are copied to the AVI file, and you can then delete the MXF
file if desired. The advantages of this method are that the AVI’s are portable
from one system to another wihtout copying the MXF files, they are made by
RayMaker much more quickly, and playback may be slightly faster in Raylight
Violet. Potential problems with using this options are:
1. Your computer disk drive is not fast enough
to play Raylight Violet in real time
2. You mistakenly removed pulldown and then
deleted the MXF file. The missing frames
can
not be recovered unless you made a backup of the MXF file.
3. The AVI file becomes corrupted due to a
hardware fault and you did not save the
MXF
file.
If you
decide to use self-contained AVI’s, be sure to make a backup copy of the MXF
files.
Native
frame size means the DVCPROHD frames are stored 960 x 720 with the 720-line
format, 1280 x 1080 for the 60Hz 1080 line format, and 1440 x 1080 for the
1080- 50Hz line format. This frame size is pixel for pixel the same as the
internal DV format encoding. and these are the frame sizes used by Final Cut
Pro on the Mac for example.
However
some potential problems may occur with this option. The SMPTE spec for
DVCPRO-HD specifies a standard hi-pass filter, and your editing system is
unlikely to apply this filter when the output is converted to square pixel
format (1280 x 720 or 1920 x 1080).
Also,
native frame size requires that non-square Pixel Aspect Ratio be used. Many
editing applications like Vegas do not set the PAR correctly for AVI’s and you
must either edit with squeezed appearance or manually set the PAR.
Native
Frame size is ignored with AVC-Intra files. AVC-Intra files are always played
at native frame size.
If you
edit with native frame size AVI’s, there are Vegas scripts, which can change
the PAR for all your clips at once. Contact DVFilm Support for more info.
This
option draws a red border when using Raylight Red. No border is drawn in
Raylight Violet. This options serves to mark rendered material that was not
done at best resolution, therefore any output which has the borders present is
flagged as ad hoc or preliminary material.
This
option rotates the image 180 degrees (flips it around) for material shot with a
35mm lens adaptor.
This
option burns the timecode into the screen for offline editing. Do not use it
for a final render unless you are rendering a low-res copy for offline editing.
The timecode displayed is always the original timecode from the source file, so
the count will jump on cuts or recompressed frames (such as dissolves).
Note
that burn-in timecode does not work in Raylight Red.
This
option burns in the pathname of the source file on each frame. Use it to show
you where the source material is located for the original MXF files.
Note
that burn-in source file does not work in Raylight Red, or with self-contained
Raylight AVI’s.
Creates
non-recompressed Raylight AVI’s from either AVI’s or MXF files. The codec
calculates a checksum or signature on each frame handed to the editing system.
On compression of frames when rendering a raylight AVI, the codec recalculates
the checksum to see if it has changed. If it has not, then it uses a saved copy
of the compressed frame (the original camera data). This speeds up processing
because the compression step is skipped, and it also improves image quality
because unnecessary recompression is eliminated.
How do
you tell if it’s working? The timecode burn-in of the rendered section will be
the same as the original camera timecode. Otherwise, if the section is
recompressed (for a dissolve for example) the timecode will start at zero.
Suppress
Recompression is not needed when editing from Raylight AVI’s. Supress
Recompression does not work with DVCPRO50, DVCPRO, or DV MXF files. Supress
recompression does not work with versions of Vegas after 8.0.
This mode
features higher quality for both DVCPROHD and AVC-Intra files. The quality
difference is subtle and may not be apparent unless you have very fine
gradients such as with cloudless skies or smooth walls with brightness increase
during color correction. This mode can be turned off for backward compatibility
with older projects. You may notice a very slight difference in contrast
between 10-bit YUV and the original (RGB) mode. Some features of the plug-in do
not work with 10-bit YUV mode: Metadata slate, Raylight timecode burn-in and
image rotate. You can still use the Sony Vegas timecode and image rotate
features.
Raylight
AVI’s do not use the 10-bit YUV mode.
Creates
a watermark in the YUV mode so you can check if it’s working.
If the
DVFilm watermark appears then you are running the demo version of the program.
Purchase the release version and reinstall to remove the watermark.
Any
Raylight files exported from your editing system will have to be re-exported.
Files made with RayMaker will be OK, as-is.
The demo
version of P2 Maker also inserts tiny grey squares, some with the word
“rayLight” in the frame. Purchase the release version, install (run setup.exe)
and remake the MXF files to remove the watermark.
DVFilm is
not responsible for any damage or loss resulting from the use of this program.
Make
sure you try the demo version and test it with your editing system before
purchasing.
·
Raylight
AVI’s cannot be imported or exported into Vegas 9.0 with 64-bit Windows. A
direct P2 export method will be provided for Raylight Ultra later in 2010.
·
Raylight
Ultra does not support the Consumer PAL-DV format with 64-bit operating
systems. If you use Vista 32 or XP 32, you can use PAL-DV format but first
contact DVFilm Support.
·
The
10-bit YUV mode does not support some features: Metadata slate, Rotate and
timecode burn-in.
·
When
you save a project and select the option in Vegas to store the project media,
Vegas will only save the video MXF files, and not the audio MXF
files, nor the XML files that are used by the plugin. This feature should not
be used with P2 MXF files because if the saved project is opened, you will not get
any audio and no pulldown will be removed. To backup your P2 project you should
instead make a copy of all the P2 folders used in the project, and the Vegas
project file, and any other files used in the project.
·
The
Metadata slate will appear to have no data with AVC-Intra MXF proxies that are
stored in the User-defined proxy output folder. Blank out the output folder
option if you use Metadata slate with AVC-Intra proxies, so that the proxies
are stored in the PROXY folder in the P2 card image.
·
With
some video cards and Windows XP, you may notice a slight contrast
difference between Raylight AVI’s exported from Vegas and the original footage.
c. 2010
DVFilm