RAYLIGHT FOR MAC 1.07

Requirements

Raylight requires Mac OSX 10.4 or later version, and Quicktime 7 or later version. Any version of Final Cut Pro 5 or later versions can be used. Raylight will run on either PowerPC (G5, G4) or Intel processor.

Insert P2 Card or attach a hard drive, P2 Store, or Firestore device. Start Raylight and click "Scan Once." Raylight will scan the cards or drives for a CONTENTS folder in the root folder, and then create MXF file links in the /Users /Shared /Raylight folder on your system drive. The process should take no more than a few seconds. The links appear as Quicktime files but they do not contain any audio or video data, they are just links (Aliases or Data References) to the data in the MXF files. The links can be opened with Final Cut Pro and can be edited as normal. You can also double-click on the link in Finder to play back the clip in the Quicktime Player.

Pulldown Options

24PA pulldown, also known as 2:3:3:2 or "Advanced Pulldown", can be removed from 1080i/60 and 480i/60 (NTSC DVCPRO50) clips, if the "Remove 24PA (Advanced) Pulldown" option is selected. This pulldown remove feature does not presently work with 3:2 pulldown or with variable frame rate footage recorded at 60P or 50P.

Background Scanning

Checkmark "Scan Continuously" to have Raylight scan all drives every 10 seconds. Raylight will not overwrite existing links to save on system resources and also to not interfere with the use of the links, so this background scanning can safely be used during editing and other video work. Raylight WILL overwrite the links if you do a manual scan (by clicking the Scan Once button.) AND you have the "Overwrite Existing Links" option selected.

Note that starting with vesion 1.07, diagnostic messages do not appear in the "Scan Continuously" mode.

Other Locations

Locations other than P2 Cards may be scanned by specifying the full path in the "More Scan Locations" field. Drag and drop the folder into the field or type it in. If you need another location, click on the end of the line, press return, and drag in the second folder. You can drag in folders that contain CONTENTS, the CONTENTS folder itself, or the VIDEO folder, and Raylight will find the MXF files. If you select "Store Links with MXF files" then the links will be stored in the same folder as the video MXF files. This can make it easier to organize the links, however, the MXF files must be rescanned if the they are copied to another folder or drive. "Store Links with MXF Files" cannot be used (is ignored) on the normal scanning of P2 Cards and drives.

The links created by Raylight may be copied or moved to any other part of your computer, including other disk drives, and they will function normally.

If the MXF files are copied or moved anywhere, however, then you must remake the links by clicking "Scan Once." Use the "Overwrite Existing Links" option if you need to replace existing links with new ones. In some cases an old link will still function but there is a delay of several seconds while the system searches for the MXF files. If this happens in the Quicktime Player, you can save the link using File->Save and the link will be updated.

Limitations of the Demo Version

Note that the demo version does not link the audio, and limits the video link to 10 seconds or less. In the release version, there is no limit to the length of the video track, and all four audio tracks are linked.

Metadata Options

Raylight reads the .XML files in the CLIP folder to get timecode, pulldown, and metadata. The metadata can be viewed in the Quicktime Player "Movie Properties" if you have the Quicktime Pro license enabled, or in the first or second frame of video by means of a video slate generated by Raylight. If the "Metadata Slate" is selected, the slate is written over the first frame of picture so it does not change the length of the clip or affect the soundtrack. If you have the "Frame 2" option selected, the slate replaces frame 2 instead (so that frame 1 will appear as the thumbnail in FCP). If you have a clip that was recorded across more than one MXF file, the slate will only appear on the first file, unless "Always Slate" is selected.

Clip and Folder Naming

Raylight will place the User Clip Name from the metadata in the file name if that option is selected. In the camera select Type 2 metadata so that the User Clip Name will be automatically incremented on each take. Raylight will also put the clips into a folder based on the Program Name metadata item, if "Create Folders by Program Name" is selected, or by the Volume Name (Card Name or Disk Name) if "by Volume Name" is selected. Or both if selected. One suggested use is to use Program Name for the title of a movie, and User Clip Name for the shot number, eg "23A Take ". Another option is to use Program Name for the scene, and simply "Take " for User Clip Name. The camera will append 0001, etc to the name (if Type 2 is selected).

Timecode

Raylight converts timecode from the .XML file into Quicktime timecode. If pulldown is removed, the starting timecode is converted from 30 fps to 24 fps format. Because of this you may see a difference between the starting timecode on the metadata slate and the starting timecode as reported by FCP. For example 15 in 30fps format equals 12 in 24fps format.

Limitations

Do not use Disk Images (dmg) with MXF files to edit with Raylight. There will be a 100% performance penalty due to the way the links are de-referenced by Final Cut Pro and Quicktime, which means you may not have real-time playback. Instead use your MXF files in a CONTENTS/VIDEO folder just as they would appear in a P2 Card folder, and put the CONTENTS folder in the root folder of your system drive, P2 Card, or media hard drive.

Currently Supported formats: 1080i60, 1080i50, 1080/30P, 1080/25P, 1080i/24PA, 720/24PN, 720/30PN, 720/25PN, 720/60P, 720/50P, DVCPRO50 60i/NTSC, DVCPRO50 50i/PAL, DVCPRO50 60i/24PA, DVCPRO50 50i/25P.

Known Issues

Raylight does not work with non-English characters in volume names, folder names, etc. and the folder names must be less than 32 characters.

Some versions of FCP do not install a version of the Quicktime DVCPROHD codec that works with Intel processors and the Quicktime player. For example, if you have FCP 5.0, you cannot play DVCPROHD on an Intel processor, only a G5/G4 processor.

TroubleShooting Guide

Problem: there is a warning about illegal characters. Solution: rename your folder or volume (card or disk drive name) using characters A-Z, a-z, 0-9.

Problem: there is a warning about folder names too long. Solution: rename your volume (card name or disk drive name) using 31 characters or less.

Problem: Raylight does not find any MXF files, and no links appear in /Users /Shared/ Raylight. Solution: make sure the CONTENTS folder exists, and it lives in the root folder (the top folder) of your hard drive or P2 Card. Make sure there are VIDEO, AUDIO and CLIP folders inside the CONTENTS folder. However the "lastclip.txt" file is not required by Raylight.

Problem: Raylight creates the links, and I can see the metadata slate, but the video is all white or all black, or random noise. Solution: delete the link and rescan the MXF files. Make sure each folder in the path to your MXF files has a folder name less than 32 charactors. Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended if you use long file names such as file names with the MetaData "User Clip Name". Make sure you have the DVCPROHD components installed by FCP. They are in the Library/Quicktime folder on your system drive, six files that start with "DVCPROHD" and end with ".component"

Problem: I see the clips and the slate in FCP but not in the quicktime player. Solution: no solution right now for Intel processor and FCP 5.0 or earlier versions. Later releases of Raylight will include the DVFilm DVCPROHD codec for systems that do not have FCP installed.

Questions? Go to DVFilm.com and click on Support, Support Request.

c.2007 DVFilm