Community member Paul Sinkovich got in touch to give us the heads up on a workflow he now uses with a free app - MXF4mac Player from Hamburg Pro Media, which will open and play nearly any flavour of MXF files, even in full screen. It will also control 8 tracks of audio, the frame rate, Movie Time, Source Package Timecode, Frame Number and Data Rate. 

The MXF4mac Player can open most MXF variations. It supports XDCAM HD, AVC-Intra, DNxHD, HDV, 

Uncompressed SD/HD, Uncompressed Avid 10 bit, DVC-Pro HD, IMX-D10,DV, Meridien, Sony Proxy and more. 

Optional Plug-Ins for DCP and JPEG2000 support and it is compatible to QuickTime movies and other formats (e.g. .mp4, .mov, .avi, .m4v, .wav, .aif, .aiff).  So in a post workflow that is becoming more and more tapeless and MXF becoming part of the delivery format this is a very useful tool.

However the free MXF4mac Player on is own isn’t enough, you need to buy an ‘in app’ purchase (Avid take note) called TC Sync which then allows you through MIDI Time Code (MTC) and MIDI Machine Control (MMC) to sync Pro Tools and the MXF4mac Player together so that you aren’t asking Pro Tools to handle the video.

Paul has working for 30 years in the Television Industry mainlu on News and Sport.  He was Senior Editor at CH7 News Melboune, Australia until he went freelance in 2000

He now mainly works from home corporate videos mainly editing and sound although he occasionally comes out to be second camera on some gigs.  

He has been a musician since his teens playing guitar mainly with some keyboards. He has written music pieces for both TV and Radio and is a member of APRA (Australian Performing Rights Association.)  

He mainly uses FCPX and Pro Tools now but he also owns and uses Avid Media Composer 7 and FCP7 and uses Pro Tools to work on the audio, add the fx and music.  Once he is happy he takes the stereo mix back into his NLE to join it up with the pictures. Paul says…

“Pro Tools has become just as important to me as my NLE.  I can’t think of a better way to enhance my video edit than using Pro Tools.  It just gives the video that extra edge.”

In part 2 Paul will explain and demonstrate how he uses MXF4mac Player and the in app plug-in TC Sync in his workflow.