1. Raylight Documentation (Windows)

2. Raylight Support Blog

3. Raylight Tutorial (Windows)

Raylight Documentation: Click here to read or print a copy (Windows Version)


Support Blog

Old posts:

6-24-2007

    Raylight for Mac 1.05 is out. It adds timecode and metadata support, and support for DVCPRO50. You can view metadata from the camera in the Final Cut Pro timeline, or from the Quicktime player. Clips can be automatically named from the "User Clip Name" metadata item, and organized into folder names derived from the "Program Name" item.

6-6-7

    Raylight for Mac is here and has already gone through some changes. Raylight for Mac allows direct MXF file editing in Final Cut Pro. Here is the release history:

      1.0 First release
      1.01 Added the ability to scan P2 card data from any folder.
      1.02 Fixed a problem with scanning MXF files from the system drive
      (basically it did not give you a good link).

      1.03 will be released late today to fix a problem with audio on PowerPC workstations (does not affect Intel workstations).

26-May-2007

    The current release folder has been bumped to 301-2 to fix a problem with RayMaker not reading the native size and self-contained options correctly.

25-May-2007

    Adobe Premiere CS3 - Raylight works with CS3, but one customer reports that for the Premiere CS3 Beta, you must copy the Raylight plugin (raylight.prm in the raylight installData folder) to the following folder:

    C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS3\Plug-ins\Common

23-May-2007

    3.0 Birth pangs

    Raylight 3.0 has been updated to 3.01 to fix the following probelms: 1) image rotate feature bug, and 2) MXF plugins do not read the Native Frame Size option correctly.

15-May-2007

    Raylight 3.0 is released. The online documentation has not yet caught up. Please refer to the ReadMe file that comes with the download for latest info!

4-May-2007

    Raylight 3.0 is coming, possibly next week. It will be a free upgrade to all registered users. The main new feature is a new quality level called Raylight Green. Green is capable of 720/24P full-screen high-quality real time playback in Windows Media Player on most PC's, and 1080/24P full screen high-quality real time playback on dual-core systems, for Raylight AVI's.

    For editing MXF files in Premiere and Vegas, it will have nearly the same quality as Raylight Blue but about 2X faster. Blue is still recommended for final rendering. The table here will be updated soon with performance specs for Green.

    Green will function only if you have Direct-X 9 and the Panasonic P2 Viewer installed. Direct X is included with Windows XP and Vista. The P2 Viewer is a free download for owners of the HVX200 camera.


    Use of the Panasonic decoder in Green is an interim measure until we have our hardware-accelerated decoder which will apppear later this year.

12-Apr-2007

    Created a table showing typical performance on a dual-core AMD 64. Coming soon data on Core 2 Extreme.

3-Apr-2007 Release Folder 202-10

    Update to fix a crash on MXF files in Vegas 7.0d. Also added logging to the installer. If you have problems with the installer, please email us with the Log.txt file.

  • Several users report success with running Vegas 7.0d +Raylight in Windows Vista.

13-Mar-2007 Release Folder 202-9

    Reliability improvements to Vegas plugin-- fixed occasional crash on importing MXF files.

6-Mar-2007

    We've created a DVFilm storefront at DVFilmStore.com as a redundant ordering system, mainly in case our website or email service goes down but also for more automation because of the increased number of orders that we receive. Also several new products will appear there eventually like production bundles at a discount price. You can purchase any of our products there right now including Raylight and receive an instant download..

22-Feb-2007 Release Folder 202-8

  • Corrected problem in Ppro Plug-in with missing or corrupted audio track if conformed during video playback

21-Feb-2007 Release Folder 202-6

  • Updated the Premiere plug-in to fix "Codec Not Inited" error after about 50 MXF files into the bin

19-Feb-2007 Release folder 202-5

    Updated the Vegas plugin to:

    • Correct 2:2 pulldown (25P/30P) not handled correctly
    • Fix occasional crash on selecting an MXF file

    Updated the Premiere plugin to

    • Correct same problem with 2:2 pulldown
    • Add checks for low memory condition

16-Feb-2007

5-Feb-2007

    Plugin for Adobe PremiereTM is released!

  • You can drag MXF files directly into your project window. Works with Premiere Pro 1.5 and Premiere Pro 2.0.
  • Pulldown removal, timecode, pixel aspect ratio, DVCPROHD, DVCPRO50 and DV, both 60Hz/50Hz all supported. (DVCPRO50 and DV require the free Matrox codecs installed). Check the ReadMe file included with the Raylight download for the latest info or read more info here.

21-Jan-2007

    New version of the Vegas plugin is online (unzips to folder 202-3). If you have Vegas 7, you must upgrade now to 7.0d before installing Raylight. If you previously had the Raylight plugin working with Vegas 7, do not UnInstall it but install Vegas 7.0d and then install the new Raylight.

    Other improvements: it now removes pulldown automatically, has faster playback in 1/2- and 1/4- size previews, and supports DVCPRO50 and DV- MXF files (if you have the free Matrox codecs installed). Note that by using the plugin the DVCPRO50 or DV is always correctly set for pixel aspect ratio.

5-Jan-2007

    I'm looking now into using the Microsoft DIrectX Video Accelerator to speed up the decoder, since with SSE2/MMX and massive multithreading Raylight is pretty much already at the speed limit for a CPU-only decoder, yet it needs to be faster. DXVA is used for MPEG-2 and WM9 hardware acceleration, and works only with certain graphic chips made by NVidia and ATI, however even so, it is in widespread use.

2-Jan-2007

    Happy New Year! The new plug-in for Vegas has now been tested with Vegas 7. A modification to the Raylight installer was required in order to disable Sony's MXF file reader to allow the Raylight MXF reader to take precedence. The release version is still 2.02, but the download will unzip into a folder called Raylight202-1.

31-Dec-2006

Release 2.02 is online. This includes the plug-in for Vegas and some bug fixes:

  • Fixed excessive duplicate pixels on the exteme right edge for non-native (full frame) Raylight Blue.
  • P2 Maker was not setting the audio MXF file length correctly, this may fix the red "X" on the HVX200 thumbnail.
  • RayMaker had a bug with mixing 1080i60/24PA pulldown removal with native 720/24PN in the same CONTENTS folder.
  • Encodes 1440 x 1080 HDV to Raylight AVI correctly in DVFilm Maker even if the 50Hz system not selected.
  • Bug fixed with exporting long AVI's from Premiere.

15-Dec-2006

    Coming soon - a plugin for Sony Vegas that will allow you to bring MXF files directly into the timeline.

3-Dec-2006

    Released Raylight Decoder which replaces the Panasonic Decoder in CIneForm HDLink. This project came about because of observed problems with the Panasonic DVCProHD decoder and the desire at CineForm to provide the best quality image possible for their customers. Users of the CineForm products can add in Raylight Decoder for $95. A page showing the improvment in image quality is here. Also our own testing shows a reduced size of the CineForm AVI's when using the decoder, presumably due to a less noisy picture. One of our test files showed a 7.5% reduction. The improvement is subtle and is probably most important for customers who are doing critical work like blue or green screen, or a transfer to film.

17-Nov-2006

    Release 2.01 fixes an encoder crash in 2.00.

15-Nov-2006

    Released Raylight 2.0. Many improvements, more info soon. The best source of info right now is the updated Raylight Tutorial and the ReadMe.txt file included with the program.

1-Jun-2006

  • Had a couple reports of NO DATA indication after 30 min of playback requiring a reboot of the computer. Looks like it is a resource leak in the codec. A fix has been tested and is released as 1.05d.
  • Some inquires as to when the P2 authoring will be done. My schedule is free now to finish that work, so it will happen pretty soon. Same goes for multiprocessor support.
  • Take a look at DVFilm Maker's new capabilities, can convert MXF to many AVI and Quicktime formats. Raylight users can convert HDV formats to Raylight AVI. Maker is now packaged free with Raylight.
  • Also we are looking at something to be called Raylight Ultra which will be a real-time super codec requiring dual-core CPU and providing near-uncompressed quality. It will be included in the Raylight package and will be useful for all HD and HDV editing.
  • Also optional self-contained Raylight AVI is in the near future, for those who have plenty of hard drive speed and don't use Raylight Red. Will improve playback performance in Yellow and will also allow you to delete the MXF files or move them to backup drives.

8-May-2006

  • Version 1.05c is now online for RayMaker, required to fix a bug with Firestore MXF files. Also automatically detects and skips over repeated frames when capturing other frame rates (e.g.30P, 24P etc) in a 720-60P or 720-50P data stream.

1-May-2006

  • Version 1.05b is now online for RayMaker, required to fix a bug where 25p, 50i or 50p AVI's had the wrong frame rate.

4-Apr-2005

  • Version 1.05a is now online for RayMaker, required to fix a bug in the soundtrack for PAL DV. Also both the demo versions and release version now include an un-installer application, Uninstall.exe.
  • Please take a look at our new Raylight Tutorial and email us for suggestions for improvements. We hope to soon provide more details on authoring Windows Media 9 DVD's which seems to be a great way to publish your HD movie. They will play full screen and full quality on any Windows XP system, and you can put a 100-min 1280 x 720 24 fps movie on one 4.7GB disk.

28-Mar-2006

    The problem with 720-25P has been resolved. Release 1.05 is now available for download.

27-Mar-2006

    A problem in release 1.04 has been found with 720-25P, it will crash RayMaker. It's easily fixed but do not use this mode with Raylight until you update to the fix in 1.05 later this week.

23-Mar-2006

    1.04 is released! It has 3-4X faster playback in Raylight Blue and 4X faster rendering of Raylight Previews and Raylight AVI's. It has support for European 1080-line formats (including 1080i50 and 1080-25P). Raylight Yellow is 25% faster. The P2 card authoring feature has been pushed back to a release sometime in April.

3-Mar-2006

    1.04 is coming

    We are working on speed improvements and some needed features. The new release, 1.04 will have about 2x better rendering speed in Raylight Blue. The playback rate in Raylight Yellow will be about 25% higher. Also release 1.04 will hopefully have the 1080i50 support and the ability to make MXF files which can be played back on the camera.

    There's been a lot of feedback on the playback rate of Raylight Blue and Yellow and concern that it is not real time on laptops and smaller computers. Only Raylight Red is guaranteed real time on these systems. To get real time playback in Raylight Yellow, not only do you need a moderately fast CPU like a 2GHz Pentium 4, you need to have a fast hard drive as well, probably a dual-stripe SATA RAID at least (which is not expensive). The data rate for 1920 x 1080 HD is toughly four times the data rate of DV, and regular disk drives cannot handle that. If you don't have a RAID then Raylight Red is the best choice because it uses the low-res proxy and the speed of the disk drive is not critical. Very soon we wil publish a table showing expected playback rates for typical systems.

11-Feb-2006

    Release 1.03 New Features:

    Added capability for RayMaker to convert DVCPRO-50- and DV-containing MXF files to AVI. This feature requires that you have installed the free Matrox DVCPRO50 codec. Eventually the Raylight codec will handle this format directly, but in the meantime the Matrox codec appears to be accurate, stable and fairly fast. Some known issues, do not try to set the codec properties from Premiere Pro 1.5, it will crash Premiere. Also Vegas and Premiere assume that the pixel aspect ratio of the footage is 1:1. We have provided a Vegas script that will mass-modify the pixel aspect ratio of all the clips in your Media Pool to either .9091 (4:3 screen) or 1.212 (widescreen). Right-click->Save File As to get it here, rename to SetAspectRatio.js and copy to your Program Files/Sony/Vegas 6.0/Scripts folder.

    Added capability for RayMaker to convert audio-only MXF files to WAV files.

    Added capability for RayMaker to grab audio from the audio-only MXF files when converting 24P and other formats, which do not have the complete audio embedded in the video stream. The audio MXF files are expected in an adjacent AUDIO folder or in the same folder as the VIDEO files.

    Added timecode processing to RayMaker. The timecode in all formats is now readable in Sony Vegas. Still working on timecode support for Premiere.

    Improved the decompression to remove jagged edges that were observed by some users of the software. Check here for a new comparison between Raylight, Avid and Apple codecs.

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