Calibrated Software IMX Decode User Manual

User Guide

Calibrated Software, Inc.

www.calibratedsoftware.com

Your rights to the software are governed by the accompanying Software License Agreement. Please read the entire User Guide and Software License

Agreement before installation, ordering or use. By installing, ordering or using this software you are agreeing to the Software License Agreement.

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Calibrated{Q} IMX Options application contains the following source code:

The OpenGL Extension Wrangler Library Copyright (C) 2002-2008, Milan Ikits <milan ikits[]ieee org> Copyright (C) 2002-2008, Marcelo E. Magallon <mmagallo[]debian org> Copyright (C) 2002, Lev Povalahev All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

 Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.  Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the

documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

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THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

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Contents

GETTING STARTED ..................................................................................................... 6

Overview ............................................................................................................................................................................. 6

DEMO MODE Limitation ..................................................................................................................................................... 6

Known Issues and Limitations ............................................................................................................................................ 7

QuickTime Gamma ............................................................................................................................................................. 8

Important note about 8-bit YUV colorspace ........................................................................................................................ 8

Performance ....................................................................................................................................................................... 9

Supported Formats ........................................................................................................................................................... 10

Windows Requirements and Installation .......................................................................................................................... 11

Installing on Windows .............................................................................................................................................. 11

Uninstalling on Windows .......................................................................................................................................... 11

MAC OSX Requirements and Installation ........................................................................................................................ 12

Installing on Mac OSX .............................................................................................................................................. 12

Uninstalling on Mac OSX ......................................................................................................................................... 12

Special Note: IMX NTSC MOV files created for FCP ....................................................................................................... 13

Special Note: Adobe CS Performance Enhancement ...................................................................................................... 13

Special Note: CatDV ......................................................................................................................................................... 13

Quick Note: Final Cut Pro and FC Studio Applications .................................................................................................... 14

GLOBAL OPTIONS ..................................................................................................... 15

Overview ........................................................................................................................................................................... 15

Options Interface ............................................................................................................................................................... 15

Version .............................................................................................................................................................................. 16

License .............................................................................................................................................................................. 16

YUV Matrix and Gamma Settings ..................................................................................................................................... 17

Quick Setup .............................................................................................................................................................. 17

YUV to RGB Matrix .................................................................................................................................................. 17

Report Source Gamma As ....................................................................................................................................... 18

Match Destination Gamma ....................................................................................................................................... 18

Default Platform Gamma .......................................................................................................................................... 18

Chroma Sampling .................................................................................................................................................... 18

Important Note about QuickTime Gamma Settings ................................................................................................. 19

Performance Options ........................................................................................................................................................ 20

Colorspace Watermark ..................................................................................................................................................... 20

FourCC Output Support(Advanced) ................................................................................................................................. 21

Important Note about FourrCC Output Support ....................................................................................................... 21

Enable 8-bit YUV ...................................................................................................................................................... 21

Enable High-Precision YUV ..................................................................................................................................... 21

Enable 16-bit RGB(A) .............................................................................................................................................. 21

Enable Avid IMX Support ......................................................................................................................................... 21

IMX NTSC Reverse Fields (Advanced) ............................................................................................................................ 22

SOFTWARE LICENSE ................................................................................................ 23

Software License Agreement ............................................................................................................................................ 23

After Purchase - Software License Instructions ................................................................................................................ 23

Refund Policy .................................................................................................................................................................... 23

TROUBLESHOOTING ................................................................................................. 24

Seeing a white or black screen after installing ................................................................................................................. 24

DEMO MODE watermark still visible after licensing ......................................................................................................... 24

Misc. .................................................................................................................................................................................. 25

VERSION HISTORY .................................................................................................... 26

Getting Started

Overview

Calibrated{Q} IMX Decode is a multi-threaded QuickTime Codec(Decode Only) that enables you to view QuickTime IMX Movies in QuickTime Player and other 3rd party applications that support QuickTime.

Please see the Supported Formats Section in this Chapter for information regarding supported file types and formats. The Calibrated{Q} IMX Decode Options application sets Global Options for use with the Calibrated{Q} IMX Decode codec

(see Chapter: Global Options).

IMPORTANT: This version of software (v2.0 or greater) will require a new Software License and an upgrade fee if you had purchased a Software License for a previous version.

DEMO MODE Limitation

When run in DEMO MODE, Calibrated{Q} IMX Decode will show the Calibrated{Q} IMX Decode Logo as a watermark over the video – this is the only DEMO MODE limitation. In every other way, Calibrated{Q} IMX Decode is fully functional. Using the software in DEMO MODE is for testing only and should not be used for commercial purposes.

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Known Issues and Limitations

The following known issues and limitations are associated with Calibrated{Q} IMX Decode codec:

 Calibrated{Q} IMX Decode will crash if run on a computer system that does not support SSE3 instructions which

were introduced in Pentium 4 processors circa 2004 (see the Windows Requirements section).

 In extremely rare circumstances, IMX video frames can have errors in the MPEG2 stream – these MPEG2 errors

can cause crashes and/or artifacts when trying to playback or view the video.

 IMPORTANT: Please read the section ‘Special Note: IMX NTSC MOV files created for FCP’ in this User Guide

when dealing with IMX NTSC MOV files where the MOV file-wrapper is ‘tagged’ as having ‘Lower-Field’ first or

Undefined fields.

 Playback of files is dependent on both the speed of your CPU and harddrive, as well as the application that you

are using the movie files in. Please note that Calibrated{Q} IMX Decode can be used in a wide-variety of

applications; however some applications do not use the QuickTime SDK in an optimized way (i.e. the Software

Developer's Kit that applications use to integrate QuickTime) which would cause a notable decrease in playback

performance in those applications. Before purchasing a Software License, please test the software in DEMO

MODE using your own computers and applications to ensure performance is suitable for your particular workflow

needs. Using Calibrated{Q} IMX Decode in DEMO MODE is fully functional (including performance speed) except

for the watermark over the video. Please see the ‘Performance’ section for more details.

 CATDV: If you experience any problems in creating proxies and/or playback in CatDV, please enable Protected

Mode in CatDV. To enable 'Protected Mode', go to the CatDV Preferences and select 'Media Playback' and then

check the option 'Protected player: Use separate QuickTime helper process'. Playback performance is a little less

smooth in ‘Protected Mode’ but it will be more stable. Also, in newer version of CatDV you may wish to also

disable ‘scrub audio when dragging play head’ in the ‘Media Playback’ CatDV Preferences to make scrubbing in

CatDV faster.

 When using IMX MXF files in conjunction with Calibrated{Q} MXF Import: If you are working with MXF files

where the audio is stored in its own separate MXF file (i.e. Panasonic P2, Ikegami GFCAM, Avid, Sony SAM) it

can help in CatDV to enable the Audio Small Segments in the Calibrated{Q} MXF Import Options application.

Please see the BETA Features - Audio Only MXF Segment Size in the Calibrated{Q} MXF Import User Guide for

more details.

 BETA Only Support for 10.9 (Mavericks) - QuickTime Player X and Finder Preview in Mavericks do not work with

our software. The workaround for QT Player X is to install QuickTime Player 7 and use that for playback. You can

download QuickTime Player 7 from Apple here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL923 and it will install into the

/Applications/Utilities folder and can co-exist fine with QT Player X on the same computer.

 Mountain Lion (OSX 10.8). QuickTime Player X may show the DEMO MODE watermarks over the video if you

are licensed due to the license file being ‘sandboxed’ by OSX 10.8. This issue is being investigated – the

workaround is to install QuickTime Player 7 and use that for playback. You can download QuickTime Player 7

from Apple here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL923 and it will install into the /Applications/Utilities folder and can

co-exist fine with QT Player X on the same computer.

Page | 7

QuickTime Gamma

QuickTime Gamma Correction (by Default ) is TURNED OFF – we have found that this is what the vast MAJORITY of users prefer – however in certain applications this can produce rendered video that is slightly brighter/darker than the source video usually when rendering to another QuickTime codec - to correct please TURN ON QuickTime Gamma Correction. Please see the Gamma Settings in the Global Options Chapter.

Important note about 8-bit YUV colorspace

Calibrated{Q} IMX Decode supports decoding to 8-bit YUV422 (the colorspace that IMX is encoded in) - however it is up to the application using Calibrated{Q} IMX Decode to request 8-bit YUV422 colorspace. Many applications that support importing MOV files only request 8-bit RGB(A) 444(4) colorspace, which requires a colorspace conversion of YUV->RGB in the codec – which slows down performance. Please see the Colorspace Watermark in the Global Options Chapter to see which colorspace on application is requesting, and also see the Enable 8-bit YUV, Enable High-Precision YUV, and Enable 16-bit RGB(A) in the Global Options Chapter to learn more about the various colorspace support.

Page | 8

Performance

Playback of files is dependent on both the speed of your CPU and harddrive, as well as the application that you are using the movie files in. Please note that Calibrated{Q} IMX Decode can be used in a wide-variety of applications; however some applications do not use the QuickTime SDK in an optimized way (i.e. the Software Developer's Kit that applications use to integrate QuickTime) which would cause a notable decrease in playback performance in those applications. One of the main reasons that Calibrated{Q} IMX Decode will perform slower in some applications is if the application is requesting video frames to be decoded in the RGB colorspace and not in the YUV colorspace. IMX compressed video will natively decode to YUV but if an application requests RGB video data then Calibrated{Q} IMX Decode must decompress the frame to YUV and then convert the YUV to RGB data which then takes more CPU time.

Before purchasing a Software License, please test the software in DEMO MODE using your own computers and applications to ensure performance is suitable for your particular workflow needs. Using Calibrated{Q} IMX Decode in DEMO MODE is fully functional (including performance speed) except for the watermark over the video.

 If playback is NOT realtime in QuickTime Player, your computer might not be fast enough to playback the video.

This could mean either the CPU is not fast enough, the hard drive is not fast enough, or a combination of both.

 If you're playing back the video in an application other than QuickTime Player, the third-party application may not

be optimized to playback MOV files or the third-party application may not be taking advantage of optimizations in

Calibrated{Q} IMX Decode for realtime performance.

 If you are playing the MOV files from a (i) DVD-ROM or Blu-Ray ROM disc, (ii) USB 2.0 external harddrive, (iii)

FlashDrive, (iv) Compact Flash Card or (v) another type of removable storage or camera card media then

playback performance would not be reliable, and playback could be extremely choppy. It is recommended to

playback media from a 7200RPM SATA harddrive( preferably 2 or more harddrives striped at RAID0) that’s either

a local harddrive(s), or if an external harddrive then have an (at the minimum) eSata or FireWire800 connection.

 If you are on Windows, using our software is not supported on a Virtual Operating System (i.e. using Parallels or

VMWare) and performance could be much slower in a Virtual Operating System.

 If you are on Windows, playing files off of a MacFormatted Harddrive could also decrease performance. It is

recommended to use harddrives with a NTFS file system on Windows computers.

 If you’re using an Adobe CS5.0.3/5.5.0 application – please see the Section Special Note: Adobe CS5.0.3/5.5.0

Performance Enhancement in this User Guide to increase performance in Adobe CS5.0.3/5.5.0 applications

 You can also improve performance for applications that request frames in the RGB colorspace by enabling the

‘MT YUV->RGB’ or ‘MT-X YUV->RGB’ option – see the Section Performance Options for more details.

 CATDV: Please see the section ‘Special Note: CatDV’ in this User Guide for information about performance.  When using IMX MXF files in conjunction with Calibrated{Q} MXF Import: If you are working with MXF files

where the audio is stored in its own separate MXF file (i.e. Panasonic P2, Ikegami GFCAM, Avid, Sony SAM) it

can help in CatDV to enable the Audio Small Segments in the Calibrated{Q} MXF Import Options application.

Please see the BETA Features - Audio Only MXF Segment Size in the Calibrated{Q} MXF Import User Guide for

more details.

Page | 9

Supported Formats

.MOV File Formats *

Please note that .MOV files must be using an Apple FourCC tag Calibrated{Q} IMX Decode supports decoding IMX video from the following .MOV files: IMX NTSC & PAL .MOV files at 30 / 40 / 50 Mb

.MXF File Formats*

(For Windows or Mac computers without FC Pro/Studio/Server)

When Calibrated{Q} IMX Decode is used in conjunction with Calibrated{Q} MXF Import, IMX MXF Files can be viewed and used in applications such as QuickTime Player and CatDV, see the Calibrated{Q} MXF Import User Guide (PDF) for more details. Please note that Calibrated{Q} MXF Import and Calibrated{Q} IMX Decode are separate products and

each product requires its own purchased Software License.

IMPORTANT: Please read the section ‘Special Note: IMX NTSC MOV files created for FCP’ in this User Guide when dealing with IMX NTSC MOV files where the MOV file-wrapper is ‘tagged’ as having ‘Lower-Field’ first or Undefined fields.

*Playback performance can vary widely in different applications depending on how an application uses QuickTime, and running the software in a virtual OS is not supported. See Performance section for more details.

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Calibrated Software IMX Decode User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual