Feature request: 5D3 1x3 5.7k raw card spanning files mlv+mxx playback MLV Apps

[huyct666]

Feature request: 5D3 1x3 5.7k  raw card spanning files mlv+mxx playback

Hi, i usually dont keep mlv file. On set, i open mlv file with mlv app, setting to uncompresss cinema dng and just export to a new location on my external ssd, it looks like a non processing export, very fast, just like unzip something. And afterward, i delete the mlv file and be able to play the cinema DNG realtime in davinci resolve

I recently got a 5D3 and loving the card spanning feature. and the problem is i cant load both mlv and the mxx onto mlv app to export or drop frame playback. I first had to copy the mlv and mxx from both cards into the same location first before i be able to load the whole thing on to mlv app

Is there any solution for this?

[Danne]

What do you mean? You need the show file structure to read the content? Why do you want to export only from the .MLV file?

[huyct666]

oh with the dng sequences, i could play it realtime in davinci right away, so i dont keep the mlv files

[names_are_hard]

We chatted about this on discord, and since it was a feature request for MLVApp, suggested it get filed on forums.

The problem here is that huyct666 has card spanning enabled, and MLVApp can't process the files without them first being moved into a single dir.  That means copying all files to a single location, which is slow.  It would be a clear improvement if that step could be avoided.

Possibly this could be achieved by having MLVApp support an optional second dir (during import?  I don't use it), or auto-detecting the files are card-spanned (I don't know if this is possible). 

[Danne]

You mean transcoding straight from cards to the drive? Fastest solution would be creating a location with symlinks and then transcode from there. Actually already exists some scripted simple workflows around this.
Edit: It is faster copying MLV content first to a ssd drive before transcoding though.

[names_are_hard]

You mean transcoding straight from cards to the drive?

Sure, why not?

Fastest solution would be creating a location with symlinks and then transcode from there.

Why is this faster than having MLVApp work with the files direct from the drives?  It's the same thing but the user doesn't have to do anything.

Actually already exists some scripted simple workflows around this.

Yes, but why can't MLVApp do this automatically?  We know it can't *now*, but that's why it's a feature request.

Edit: It is faster copying MLV content first to a ssd drive before transcoding though.

Is it?  Why?  Either way it has to read all the files from the card.

[Danne]

Transcoding straight from the card is to slow in my opinion. Also running two cards transcoding in parallell would probably make things even worse.
If not transcoding footage from cf and sd I don't see any other reason to why this should  be possible. Of course nice if it could be done directly in MLV App .

[names_are_hard]

Why should it be slower than copying *the same files* off the cards, and then processing?  The same data needs to be read from the same place.

[Danne]

Transcoding with mlv_dump is heavy work from what I recall. Doing it from internal drive works faster.

[names_are_hard]

Have you measured it, or are you guessing?  I haven't measured, but I'd guess after being read, each file is cached, and no writes need to happen to the card.  If so, the card reads won't be a bottleneck, and it'll be the same speed either way.  If the output file is written to the card, that would suck, but I assume that's optional.

[Danne]

You're probably right. Didn't measure at the time testing which was a very long time ago. I do know I have a pretty slow sd-card so maybe that was bottlenecking back then.
I guess coding MLV App letting the user select both memory cards or maybe drag both cards onto the app could be the starting point to activating/creating spanned card paths.