Mike Jones Digital Basin
cinematic media rinse cycle

Dont believe the Hype - JVC caters to the petulant child in the backseat

JVC have announced a new camera - the GY-HM100 - and in doing so they have delivered a profound display of pandering and backward thinking.

The key marketing point of the GY-HM100  is that its solid-state recording writes files directly into Quicktime wrapped files using the *.mov format.  The ?IDEA? is that by being already wrapped up as Quicktime the files can go straight into QT based applications, namely final cut pro.

Sounds logical enough right? Well let me articulate why this is the technology equivalent to changing your travel plans for all the adults in the bus to suit the whims of the immature petulant child in the back row....!

The recording format of the JVC is 35mbps, Long GOP  Mpeg2. if that sounds familiar then you shouldn't be surprised because 35mbps Long GOP Mpeg2 is XDCAMEX as used by Sony in their Ex1 and EX3 cameras. Of course JVC want to play the stupid pseudo-proprietary game that everyone else plays so rather than just call it XDCAMEX they call it something unique and talk flamboyantly about their 'unique codec technology'  when really its just plain old Mpeg2 like most of the bloody world! They've pulled this stunt before  with HDV which they called ProHD but which everyone with half a brain just new as ordinary 720p HDV.

But that isnt the truly stupid bit. Whilst Sony are just as guilty of having their own hit list of proprietary crap, the beauty of XDCAMEX is that its all open - Mpeg2 is open standard and the file format wrapper they use for XDCAMEX is the universal, SMPTE ratified *.mp4

But JVC dont want to just write Mp4 files using Mpeg2 35mbps, No, instead they write the same 35mbps Mpeg2 directly into QT wrappers as MOV files. They claim this is so there is ?No image degradation by re-wrapping?.

Now lets just be clear about a few things here because this shit REALLY gets up my nose. RE-WRAPPING DOES NOT DEGRADE THE FILE! Re-Wrapping is simply the transfer from one file format container to another.

Let me say it again for those that missed it and continue to perpetuate this myth -  RE-WRAPPING DOES NOT DEGRADE THE FILE! Re-Wrapping is simply the transfer of the same contents from one container to another.

Re-Encoding is re-compression and so ?can? result in loss IF (and its a very big IF) it is a lossy codec being used - Which no one with half a brain would do anyway; you would use a lossless intermediate - Component YUV, Animation codec, Cineform, Avid DNxHD, ProRes and good old Uncompressed amoung a myraid of others.

So if you have XDCAM EX mp4 and re-wrap the same codec essence to MOV there is absolutely ZERO loss of quality because the internal essence is untouched, its just transferred from one box to another. Similarly if you are Transcoding from say HDV or XDCAMEX to a lossless intermediate format such as ProRes, Cienform or Avid DNXHD there is likewise NO loss of visual quality  because you are transcoding Up into a lossless format using a higher colour subsample. (indeed there are quality gains to be made doing this when processing effects and colour grades in intermediate formats of higher color space) JVC's talk of 'preserving first generation quality' is utter horseshit and they know it - they just assume you're too stupid to know it!

For example Cineform?s HD Link application can almost instantly re-wrap from AVI to MOV - zero change to the Cienform codec essence, just packaged in a different box. And there are numerous similar tools and processes - such as those used by Final Cut Pro in its Log and Transfer utility.

When O when O when will the companies stop abusing these ideas of ?re-wrapping? and ?transcoding? to suit their marketing purposes.??? When will they stop disseminating and propagating mis-information when it suits their needs to do so...?

Apple were the major perpetrators of this crime just a short time back  where all the advertising for Final Cut Pro  stated loudly that FCP was ?superior? because editing was ?native? with no loss with ?transcoding and re-wrapping?. Then low and behold they finally got their shit together and got a viable efficient lossless format in the form of ProRes into the market and suddenly changed their tune - Native is bad, Lossless Transcoding is best to preserve quality..! And everyone cheered like good little lemmings. Why is it that Apple advertising so often reminds me of George Orwell?s 1984 and the continual re-writing of the dictionary and of the news after the fact to suit their needs of the present...?

So many companies are guilty of this manipulation that JVC now just seems to be joining the long list.

But that's not where my ire ends... O no sir! Let us ask the question, why would JVC need to write files direct in proprietary MOV wrappers instead of the open formats used by everyone else for these compressed formats? Answer, So Final Cut Pro users can edit the files Natively without having to re-wrap them, like EVERYONE ELSE has been doing for the past year or or three!

Of course this would have the overwhelmingly ignorant body of Final Cut Pro users cheering wont it? And yet this act by JVC is nothing more than catering to the technical flaws in Final Cut Pro that the Apple developers seem either incapable of rectifying or unwilling to do so in order to protect and prop up the QT framework which is being assulted on all fronts by more efficient non-proprietary formats.

Let us be clear..... Final Cut Pro is the ONLY major NLE on the market that actually NEEDS to re-wrap non QT formats into MOV wrappers. When you capture HDV to FCP its wrapped as MOV instead of the open standard Mpeg or M2t that EVERYONE else uses. When you move XDCAM EX to FCP it has to be re-wrapped out of MP4 and into MOV. When you work with XDCAM in FCP it has to be pulled out of MXF into MOV and likewise when you work with DVCProHD from P2 it has to be pulled out MXF and dropped into MOV. Why? Because FCP is so horribly format inflexible that it simply cant read or work with anything  unless its natively wrapped in MOV....! It would seem that JVC have changed the way their cameras works purely to cater to FCP's inadequcies. (I aknowledge that there is a consistency and uniformity in having an all-QT/MOV workflow that has appeal to many, but it would seem that FCP already has this covered wiith their very efficient re-wrapping tool for those who want QT uniformity. So why cant FCP do both as every other NLE can. Vegas, Premiere Pro, Edius, Avid can all work with open shooting formats formats as well as with Quicktime so there seems no logical reason why FCP cant do this as well - either the programmers are inept or Apple has a QT protectionist agenda at the expense of logic!)

JVC claims the superiority of being able to drop files straight from the JVC GY-HM100 onto the timeline of FCP and yet  Premiere pro can drop Mp4, MXF and even RED R3d files straight from the camera to the timeline and away you go, most often in real-time - Likewise Vegas is the most format agnostic NLE on the market avi, mov, mxf, mpeg, mt2, it doesnt care they all coexist natively on the time line - Even Avid too, whilst having its preferred formats, is well versed in mixing wrappers and reading native files.

So the ONLY logical way to read this move by JVC is that it is designed purely and solely to placate FCP users and cater directly to the technical inadequacies and failings of the Final Cut Pro code-base. Because anyone editing with tools other than FCP has ABSOLUTELY NO NEED OF THIS FEATURE!

The only editors who will care will be FCP users and of these they will sing their rejoice from one of two- camps;

Either....
a) they realize and recognize the significant and long-standing  flaws in FCP but like the uniformity of an all MOV format workflow and so will enjoy the small blessing that JVC is catering specifically to their outdated needs. Certainly a vaild point of view.

Or
b) they will rejoice out of pure ignorance, led by the nose once again out of the fickle absurdity of corporate advertising. Believing what they are told they will go away sit at their edit bays in blissful ignorance saying to themselves ?Wow, I don't have to re-wrap my files anymore. gee whizz isnt Apple the greatest...?

I fear there are far too many in the later camp and that just makes me depressed, that creative artists have become intellectual slaves to the siren call of  marketing spiel....

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Just as a foot note. If you have read the above and feel spurred on to write a volley of defense at how much you love Final Cut Pro, do me a favour and take your love elsewhere. I have a decade of using FCP and work with it everyday. I know it?s blessings and curses better than most. This is not about whether MOV files are good or bad or whether re-wrapping is right or wrong or the new JVC camera is great or not, it?s not even whether FCP itself is good or not, its about the absurdity of cooperate marketing. It?s about filmmakers and editors getting their act doing what Chuck D told us all to do a long time ago  ?Dont Believe The Hype?. Final Cut Pro users more than any other software-brand delineated group need to stop drinking the cool-aid and demand better from Apple. You deserve better.

Posted at 01:42PM Jan 12, 2009 by Mike Jones in general  |  Comments[10]