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MillimeterHave You Hugged Your Metadata Today? Part 1
Mar 10, 2008 12:00 PM, By Jan Ozer
Panasonic 32GB P2 card
It’s going to be an exciting NAB Show for Panasonic. Not only will P2 cards be available at 32GB capacity (with 64GB on the horizon), the company will show AVC-Intra technology with full-raster 1920x1080 capture at 100Mbps—a great upgrade from the native 1280x1080 resolution used in DVCPRO HD 1080. Adobe also has a new bauble for the DVX crowd, specifically native MXF (Media eXchange Format) import from P2 cards, with editing and MXF export in Adobe Premiere Pro 3.1.1 and MXF editing from After Effects.
Why is MXF so important? As our distribution and archival efforts shift increasingly towards digital, the concept of metadata—or descriptive textual data that accompanies the audio and video captured by our camcorders—becomes much more important. After all, if you can’t find the video you’re looking for, it has little value. MXF, an XML-based “container” format that I describe below, incorporates metadata, and it is used by Panasonic to store video on the company's P2 cards.
So here’s the agenda for this month. In the first segment, I’ll take a closer look at Panasonic’s P2 storage cards and the MXF format, describing the advantages of solid-state recording. This will help those unfamiliar with P2 understand how 32GB and 64GB cards will extend these unique benefits to practices that capture video 60 minutes at a time, rather than 60 seconds.
In the second installment, I’ll work through Adobe’s new P2 workflow, which can import and export MXF data and edit directly from and write MXF data directly onto a P2 card. Although it's not perfect, I think Premiere Pro’s MXF-centric paradigm provides a great template for how the industry will work with MXF going forward. Certainly Adobe’s role in editing and digital distribution via Flash guarantees that Adobe will play a significant role in how metadata will be preserved and utilized going forward. To keep this from becoming an Adobe advertorial, I’ll also describe how Apple Final Cut Pro handles P2 data, which in several ways is more elegant than Adobe’s current implementation.
A couple of apologies up front to stave off the hate mail. Installment 1 of this month’s newsletter is entirely focused on the P2 newbie; if you’re familiar with the format, you’ll get a good refresher, but little else. Regarding installment 2, I know that other video editors can import and export data from P2 cards—perhaps some more competently than either Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro. I chose to illustrate this capability with these two programs because I’m familiar with them, and because of their market share.
If you use another program that handles P2 more adeptly, please write in and let me know how. Be as detailed as possible, especially relating to costs and the complete workflow (import/editing/export) and I’ll do what I can to get your emails posted.
