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Tutorial - Avid DNxHD MXF from Premiere Pro CC Windows to HyperDeck Studio Pro

IMPORTANT: Put “-guess_layout_max 0” before your input in all your FFmpeg arguments for audio channel counts of 8 and below!

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For the REVERSE direction, see my latest tutorial video on DNxHD QT to DNxHD MXF OP1a for Premiere or similar: https://vimeo.com/181025969

Contrary to what I said in this video, DNxHD MXF is no longer a recommended recording mode to set your HyperDeck to. See the latest tutorial video to know why, and to prevent yourself from data corruption nightmares.

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UPDATE! The FFmpeg Zeranoe page now uses standard ZIP files instead of 7zip! A managed system can now extract FFmpeg without getting PeaZip! Skip the PeaZip step and extract ffmpeg.exe using the standard built-in Windows ZIP extractor.

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This tutorial shows how to Export from a Windows 64bit version of Premiere Pro CC or Media Encoder CC to a Blackmagic HyperDeck Studio Pro without touching ProRes at a single point during the process and purely rewrapping the content with no re-encoding.

First, you need to choose the “DNX (bitrate)X” (10-bit) preset from the DNxHD MXF OP1a format. Then, immediately modify the audio tab from “Stereo” to “16 channel” and from 16bit to 24bit. In Video, turn off the “Enable Smart Rendering codec” Render your output as you usually do.

Next, get FFmpeg from Zeranoe’s page: https://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/ Put your ffmpeg.exe in the same folder as your render folder and Shift + Right click to select “Open Command Window Here.” Type “ffmpeg -guess_layout_max 0 -i “(input MXF file name)” -c:v copy -c:a pcm_s24le “(output file name).mov” into your command prompt and press enter.

Copy this render to your SSD. Then rename it under the naming convention Blackmagic uses for their files, which is “CaptureXXXX.mov” If there already exists a CaptureXXXX.mov and/or a CaptureXXXX(V, A1 and A2).mxf file on the SSD, increment your render to the next number after the last existing file number. Recent firmware updates may mean random filenames work as well, but to be sure, follow Blackmagic’s naming conventions.

Set your HyperDeck’s Recording format in the recording menu to “DNxHD QT” and you should be able to now play your renders out. I highly recommend a dedicated playback deck and a dedicated recording deck. DNxHD MXF is no longer a recommended mode to be in for the HyperDeck, which is contrary to what I said in this video, but is very important to know.

As an added bonus, the files produced through this method also work with Blackmagic Media Express, so if you lack a HyperDeck, you can still use a Intensity, Decklink or Ultrastudio as a playout for short clips. Unfortunately, Media Express is a 32bit application and tries to cache ENTIRE FILES in RAM, so longer MOVs will crash the program.

EditReady Updated to Version 2.0 for Panasonic Lumix GH5’s 6K Photo Video H.265 Files, 10-bit 4:2:2 H.264 and More

Transcoding and scopes specialist Divergent Media has released a paid update to its popular macOS-only transcoding application EditReady. EditReady 2.0 adds support for 10-bit 4:2:2 H.264 files and H.265 HEVC files from Panasonic’s Lumix DC-GH5 camera in 4K UHD, 4K DCI and 6K Photo video as well as other video specifications.  …

Less than three weeks ago the folks at Magic Lantern released a hack for the 5d MkIII to enable 14bit RAW capture.  To put that into perspective, Redcode RAW is 12bit, ProRes 4444 is 10bit and the standard 5d capture is 8bit 4:2:0.

I was able to get my hands on some RAW footage from the 5D, and the question came up as to what the best workflow should be to preserve as much color data as possible.  In a perfect world you would use Magic Lantern’s utility, raw2dng and convert the RAW file from the camera to a DNG sequence.  Unfortunately, in it’s current condition, the utility does not create a DNG sequence that is readable in Davinci Resolve, my color suite of choice.  The best explanation I could find for this is a post on Creative Cow stating that the thumbnail information is read as the DNG sequence, resulting in footage that is interpreted as incredibly small.

The main issue here is how to preserve the color work flow if Resolve cannot read the raw data.  It makes it impossible to create edit proxies that are then onlined for color.  So I need transcode this DNG sequence into a container that is readable by the editor and by Resolve.

A few of the candidates I tested are ProRes 4444, DNxHD 444, DPX Sequence, and BMC RGB 10bit.  Initially I loaded the DNG sequence into After Effects and started out by just doing a flat export with default settings (after changing the project settings to 32 bit).  I took the results and put them into Resolve without much luck.  Latitude was poor, and the highlights were not very recoverable.

My next attempt was to flatten the image using the Adobe RAW utility inside of After Effects and then export to the codecs I previously listed.  The results were fantastic.  The latitude was great, excellent highlight recover, and fantastic color.

To recap, my workflow ended up as follows:

Convert RAW data from the 5D to a DNG sequence.

Open the DNG Sequence in After Effects.

Change the project settings to 32bit.

Flatten the DNG sequence using AE’s RAW plugin.

Export to any 10 bit codec (ProRes 444, DNxHD 444, BMC RGB, DPX Sequence).

Edit

Send to Resolve

An interesting side not were the sizes of the converted files:

The old adage "be careful what you wish for" may be true in fairy tales but in real life it can sometimes work out pretty well. In an earlier blog back in January I wrote the following lines:

"My dream machine though is the Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera MKII with a larger sensor (so wide angles are possible) that can shoot 2.5K in RAW and 4K in GoPro's Cineform codec. Even if the price doubled for such a beast I doubt Blackmagic Design would have much trouble selling them."

I even posted a mock-up of the apple of my eye:

My mock-up in January of a dream camera

Well I don't know if Blackmagic Design had been reading my blog but yesterday on day one of NAB 2013 this is what they released:

The Blackmagic Design Production Camera 4K

So I got the logo on the wrong side and it looks like the same designer from Channel 4 in the UK drew up the logo but that doesn't matter, here is a "proper" 4K camera for less than $5,000. To clarify that, you can shoot 4K using a $400 GoPro but not at a broadcast frame rate and the new Blackmagic camera is officially $3,995, but won't work without a fast SSD inside it, oh and a lens would be handy. So let's call it $5K for 4K.

Blackmagic Design have elected not to take up my suggestion of using GoPro's Cineform codec and instead chosen ProRes which is a great format but not when you are using Windows machines. Avid's DNxHD codec has been dropped altogether but if Avid can get their heads out of the sand and come up with a good 4K codec it may be added in a later upgrade. 

A pleasant surprise is that you can shoot compressed CinemaDNG RAW in 4K which for stock material will be fantastic but there is no information I can find about file sizes or how much footage you can shoot in CinemaDNG on a SSD, but with ProRes 4K maxing out at 880 Mbs you only get 36 minutes on a 240 Gb drive. Little caveat here, one bit of the BM blurb says a full version of the DaVinci Resolve grading software is included with the camera but only the lite version is listed in the included software on this Blackmagic page:

Blackmagic Design have dropped the 2.5K resolution that was the main feature of the BM cinema camera, which gave HD editors a bit of leeway for stabilising and shot positioning; now the choice is 1920x1080 or 3840 x 2160 the specification for Ultra-HD. At least it looks like all frame rates including PAL 25p will be working from the start although rather strangely considering the CMOS sensor there are interlaced options in the 1920 resolutions but I can't see this camera being used for sport much.

Although I didn't get the Cineform codec of my dreams I did get my wish for a larger sensor to get wider angles. Below are a couple of grabs from the very useful Abelcine website where you can check field of view for a variety of cameras and lenses. 

The first shows the Super 35mm sensor from the new Production Camera and the field of view using a 35mm lens and on the right is the FOV of the original Cinema Camera. The new camera offers a 39.1 degree angle compared to 25.5 degrees on the original.

The second grab compares the Production Camera (again on the left) with the Canon 5D MKII full frame sensor. The 5D doubles the FOV again with a 54.4 degree so although the new Production Camera gives a much wider view, if you are used to using a full frame DSLR to shoot then you may be disappointed. In fact the new camera is very close to the Canon 7D or Nikon D3100 in field of view.

Within hours of the NAB launch I read criticism of Blackmagic Design retaining the shape of the original camera and the fixed internal battery, but there must have been a huge amount of development to get this form factor and it is also instantly distinguishable from other cameras, which as any marketing student will confirm is a huge advantage. Also like the GoPros, a large number of 3rd party companies have produced vital accessories for the BMCC and these will still be compatible with the new camera.

I think this will be the perfect camera for shooting ultra-hd stock footage and I am extremely pleased that I resisted my urge to order the original camera 12 months ago and can now use another old saying - "good things come to those who wait". Just hope it won't be as long a wait as for the first version; the first cameras are due to ship in July 2013.

Avid “family” Codec*** FCP CodecNotes

DNxHD36  ProRes ProxyBest for film/ video offline, archival for reference, digital asset management (DAM / MAM)

DNxHD115  ProRes LTDVCPROHD-like.  Lightweight, used as a balance between quality and efficiency.

DNxHD145  ProRes 422Television broadcast quality baseline

DNxHD220 / DNxHD220x  ProRes 422 HQ220 is 8-bit.  220x and HQ are both 10-bit, and therefore have greater latitude for color grading and motion effects.