Feature Highlights for 3.0
New Quality level Raylight "Green"
Green uses DirectX technology to improve playback speed. Raylight
Green has about the same CPU load as Raylight Yellow but with
full resolution. Decompresses directly to YUV format in Windows
media player for efficient full-screen playback. Full-screen 1080/24P
realtime playback is possible on most Intel P4- and AMD 64-based
systems.
New codec options:
Suppress Recompression - create non-recompressed Raylight AVI's
from either AVI's or MXF files.
Fast Render mode - 2x faster rendering for previews in Green
Auto Mode - in this mode Raylight automatically switches between
Blue, Green and Yellow quality modes, no need to fiddle with the
four-button control panel. Blue is used for full resolution (Preview
Full in Vegas, High Quality or Auto/Still mode in Premiere, and
for rendering) Green used for Preview 1/2-size (Draft or Auto/Running
Mode in Premiere) and Yellow for Vegas Preview 1/4-size playback.
1. Requirements
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. Operating
system must be Win 2000 or Win XP.
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 1/2 as much as editing DV.
No requirements for DirectX, Quicktime, or other special system
software for Raylight Quality levels Blue, Yellow and Red. For
Green you must have DirectX 9.0, a graphics card that supports
YUV overlays (most of them do), and the Panasonic P2 Viewer installed.
To get the Panasonic Viewer, seach Google for "Panasonic P2 Viewer"
or try this link: eww.pavc.panasonic.co.jp/pro-av/sales_o/p2/p2viewer/index.html
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 timelime to 23.976
frames/sec.
Raylight has been tested with After Effects, Premiere 6.0 (at
29.97 and 25 fps only), Premiere Pro 1.5, Premiere 2.0, Vegas
6.0, 7.0d. The Vegas plug-in requires Vegas 6.0 or later version.
2. Installation
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 RaylightUnzip.exe file to an EMPTY folder on your system
drive and double-click the RaylightUnzip.exe file to unzip the
application. DO NOT copy it to a folder that contains an old installation
of Raylight.
Double-click on "Setup" (Setup.exe) to install the Raylight codec.
The codec must be installed to use Raylight, it helps Windows
translate the Raylight AVI movie files for the video editing system.
It's also recommended that you copy the RaylightControl application
and the RayMaker and P2 Maker applications to your desktop for
convenience.
Then you are ready to prepare your MXF files, or drag your MXF
files into Vegas or Premiere.
3. Convert HD MXF files to Raylight AVI
For After Effects 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 congfigure
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.
These choices above must be made before you make any Raylight
AVI's and the choices can be undone ony 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.
Removal Options:
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.
Set Playback Rate:
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.
User Selects Output Folder
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.
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-only MXF files. These must be located in an adjacent AUDIO
folder, or in the same folder as the video files.
Notes on file sizes:
You will notice that for ordinary 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 orginal 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 Yellow, Green or Blue modes, the low-res
proxy is not used, and the frame data always comes from the MXF
file. In Raylight Blue 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 1/4 of the orginal, 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.
Backward Compatibility
Raylight 3.0 will play older format (1.0) Raylight AVIs. However
new AVI's must be made if you want to take advantage of any of
these new features: self-contained AVI, native frame size, improved
Raylight Red.
4. Other RayMaker Capabilities
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 and DV MXF files into self-contained
DVCPRO50 AVI or DV-AVI's respectively. To play back DVCPRO50,
you need the DVCPRO50 codec from Matrox, which is a free download
from their website at
http://www.matrox.com/video/en/support/digisuite/downloads/softwares/codec/
To playback DV-AVI files, your editing system will supply an appropropriate
high-quality DV codec, or you can use the Microsoft DV codec.
DV or DVCPRO50 frames will have a pattern of gray squares over
the image. Purchase the release version of Raylight to remove
the squares.
Timecode - RayMaker translates the HD or DV timecode in the frame
data to timecode readable by Sony Vegas, and sets the Tape Name
to the name of the MXF file.
5. Play back the Raylight AVI's
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 RaylightControl 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
Blue - used for full frame examination and final rendering
Green - full resolution but not 100% quality. Use for editing and previews
in Windows Media Player. Green requires DirectX and a gaming-type
graphics card, and also requires the Panasonic P2 Viewer installed.
Yellow -Half resolution, use for editing at 1/2-frame size preview.
Yellow
may perform better than Green in some circumstances like multilayer
playback. Green will be faster/smoother for real time full screen
playback in Windows Media PLayer.
Red- 1/4 resolution, use the lo-res 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-line formats.
The CPU/disk speed requirement for Red is similar to editing DV.
5. Edit the Raylight AVI's
Set your editing system software to 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.
Computer systems with striped disk arrays, faster processors,
faster display adapters, etc, will work well with the medium,
or Raylight Yellow setting, or with Raylight Green.
In any case, the highest quality, or Raylight Blue 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 Blue setting may not work in
real time, typical frame rates are 10-25 frames per second. Raylight
Green has about 90% of the quality of Blue with real-time playback
on most systems, especially in Windows Media Player. But do not
use Green for final rendering.
6. Problems with Playback
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. In Premiere use Auto 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 Yellow, Green
or Blue.
4. Make sure no other processes are running.
5. Edit at 24P if you shot 24P, the data rate is 20% less than
30.
If you have problems with the quality of playback try the following
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 Raylight Yellow, Green, or
Raylight Blue.
In Sony Vegas, changing the preview quality from Preview Auto
to Preview Full and back to Preview Auto is sometimes neccessary
to get best performance from Raylight after changing the the Raylight
quality level.
In Premiere, the video playback frame cache will sometimes interfere
with changing the quality level. Save your project and restart
Premiere to empty the cache.
7. Previews
With Premiere or Vegas Raylight will create preview files to show
dissolves, color correction filters etc.
at high resolution.
BEFORE RENDERING IN PREMIERE, set the output folder for Raylight
preview files (.rayl). Right-click on the Raylight Control title
bar and select Configure Raylight. Click Browse to select an output
folder.
Note that Premiere is unaware of these preview files. If they
start to take up a lot of disk space, delete
them and remake the previews (see following).
Change to Raylight Blue before rendering the previews. In Premiere,
lo-res images in Premiere's image cache sometimes persist after
changing the Raylight quality level to Raylight Blue for a final
render. If lo-res frames cannot be purged from the cache, save
your project and restart Premiere after setting Raylight to Raylight
Blue.
If you did the preview in Raylight Red, you can redo the previews
by changing to Raylight Blue, then in Premiere select Sequence->Delete
Previews. The previews will go red and then you can hit Enter
to remake them.
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 Blue before using PreRender Video with Raylight.
8. Exporting a Movie for Playback on the Camera
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 Raylight Blue.
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.
Note that with release 2.0, the files will show a red "X" icon
in the camera viewfinder. This does not affect playback quality
and the files will play back normally.
The MXF files can also be played back with the Panasonic P2 Viewer.
Export a Hi-res Movie for Playback on the Computer
Set the RaylightControl to Raylight Blue 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 RaylightControl 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 Yellow or Blue setting, the frames will appear
black with a text error message, since hi-res frames are not created
under Raylight Red.
Export Settings
Set the render format settings in Vegas/ export settings in Premiere
as follows
Best Quality
File type Microsoft AVI
File format DVFilm RAYLIGHT
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 (this option in Vegas only)
Audio settings 48,000 Hz 16-bit Stereo uncompressed, 1-frame interleave
The render of the output movie should be very quick, faster than
real time, for a cuts-only edit. For effects rendering under Raylight
Blue, 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 Raylight Blue quality setting is used in this case for best
results.
See the Raylight Tutorial for info on exporting HD DVD (HD WM9)
format.
8. ADVANCED OPTIONS
The advanced configuration options in the Raylight Config pop-up
should be used by experienced users only. Some of these options
have 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.
Make self-contained AVI
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
Yellow/Green/Blue. Potential
problems with using this options are:
1. Your computer disk drive is not fast enough to play Raylight
Yellow or Green in real time
2. You mistakenly removed pulldown and then deleted the MXF file.
The missing frames cannot 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, please be sure to make a backup copy of the MXF files.
Use Native Frame Size
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.
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 Premiere and Vegas
do not set the PAR correctly and you must either edit with squeezed
appearance or manually set the PAR.
Mark Frames Red/Yellow/Green
This option draws a red, yellow or green border when using Raylight
Red, Yellow or Green.No border is drawn in Raylight Blue. This
options serves to mark rendered material that was not done at
best resolution, therefore any output which has the the borders
present is flagged as ad hoc or preliminary material.
Rotate Image 180
This option rotates the image 180 degrees (flips it around) for
material shot with a 35mm lens adaptor.
Burn-in Timecode
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.
Burn-in source file
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.
Suppress Recompression
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 recalcaultes 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 unneccesary 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 or DV
MXF files.
Fast Render
When this option is turned on, and you have selected Raylight
Green or Yellow, the compressor does not attempt to optimize the
bit storage on each compressed DVCPROHD frame.
This results in faster compression at the sacrifice of some image
quality. The quality is adequate for previews. Some posterization
will be observed in dark areas.
Also in fast render the lo-res proxy is not generated, even if
the self-contained option is turned off. This also saves rendering
time.
Fast render is automatically disabled when you are rendering in
Blue.
Auto Mode
In this mode Raylight automatically switches between Blue, Green
and and Yellow
quality modes.
The criteria is:
Blue - used for rendering and full resolution playback
(Preview Full in Vegas, High Quality or Auto
when still mode in Premiere,
Green - used for Preview 1/2-size (Draft or Auto/when running
Mode in Premiere) and
Yellow - used for Vegas Preview 1/4-size playback. Never
selected in Premiere.
Also Red is never selected in Auto mode. Do not use auto mode if you want
to edit in Red.
9. Raylight MXF File Plug-in for Vegas
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
into the timeline or media bin. The sound track will automatically
be imported if they are located in an adjacent AUDIO folder or
the same folder as the video MXF file.
The plugin 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.
Limitations of the plug-in
1. The plugin will properly skip over 2:3:3:2 pulldown frames
from 1080i60/24PA, or 2:3 pulldown frames from 720p60 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. Use Raymaker to do that.
2. You presently cannot export an MXF file or author a P2 card
directly from the timeline. Export a Raylight AVI instead and
use P2 Maker.
3. Non-recompressed editing of MXF files requires that you enable
the "Supress Recomp" option in Raylight Config.
4. Raylight Red (the low-res proxy mode) does not work with MXF
files in the timeline unless you prerender video (see section
above on Previews).
5. Audio MXF files cannot be imported separately. If you need
access to tracks 3&4, convert them to WAV files with RayMaker.
For Sony Vegas 7 before version 7.0d, the Sony MXF file reader
interferes with the Raylight MXF reader, so you must load the
free upgrade to 7.0d available from Sony before installing Raylight.
Conflicts with Sony MXF file reader
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 7.0\FileIO Plug-ins folder, and rename
the
mxfplug folder inside it to mxfplug2. Then restart Vegas.
10. Raylight MXF File Plug-in for Premiere
Premiere Pro 1.5 and 2.0 users can enjoy the direct import of
MXF files into the timeline. In Premiere use File->Import. Select
an MXF file and click Open. Or drag the MXF file directly into
the project window. The sound track will automatically be imported
if they are located in an adjacent AUDIO folder or the same folder
as the video MXF file.
The plugin 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.
Timecode is read correctly if there is an XML file present in
the CLIP folder. Note that for clips with pulldown, the 24P timecode
that you see in the clip window and the Raylight 30P timecode
burn in you may see (if enabled), agree exactly only on whole
second boundaries. For example 0:15 in 30P (half a second) equals
0:12 in 24P (also half a second).
Limitations of the plug-in version 1.0
1. The plugin will properly skip over 2:3:3:2 pulldown frames
from 1080i60/24PA, or 2:3 pulldown frames from 720p60 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. USe Raymaker to do that.
The plugin can be used with DVCPRO50 or DV MXF files, both PAL
and NTSC, if you have the Matrox VfW codes installed (see link
above).
2:3:3:2 pulldown and aspect ratio are automatically detected if
you have the XML files.
2. You presently cannot export an MXF file or author a P2 card
directly from the timeline. Export a Raylight AVI instead and
use P2 Maker.
3. Non-recompressed editing of MXF files requires that you enable
the "Supress Recomp" option in Raylight Config.
4. Raylight Red (the low-res proxy mode) does not work with MXF
files in the timeline unless you render a preview (see section
above on Previews).
5. Audio MXF files cannot be imported separately. If you need
access to tracks 3&4, convert them to WAV files with RayMaker.
11. General Limitations
If the DVFilm watermark appears then you are running the demo
version of the program. Purchase the release version and reinstall
(run setup.exe) 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.
Questions? Go to DVFilm.com and click on Support
c. 2007 DVFilm
dvfilm.com