P2toMXF

A native macOS app that merges Panasonic P2 card clips into self-contained MXF or MOV files — without re-encoding.

Why This Tool Exists

Panasonic P2 cameras record in MXF OP-Atom format, where video and each audio channel are stored as separate files:

CONTENTS/
├── VIDEO/
│   └── 0001AB.MXF        ← video only
└── AUDIO/
    ├── 0001AB00.MXF      ← audio channel 1
    ├── 0001AB01.MXF      ← audio channel 2
    ├── 0001AB02.MXF      ← audio channel 3
    └── 0001AB03.MXF      ← audio channel 4

This format works well for NLE editing, but many MAM systems, archive solutions, and broadcast workflows expect MXF OP1a or MOV — a single self-contained file with video and all audio streams interleaved.

P2toMXF converts OP-Atom to OP1a/MOV without re-encoding. Video and audio remain bit-for-bit identical; only the container changes.

Why Not Just Use FFmpeg?

FFmpeg's MXF muxer fails with P2 AVC-Intra content due to frame size padding mismatches:

[mxf @ ...] track 0: frame size does not match index unit size, 568320 != 568832

P2toMXF solves this by using the BMX toolkit (developed by BBC) which has manufacturer-specific lookup tables for Panasonic's padding scheme, then chains to FFmpeg for concatenation.

Features

• Merge & Concatenate — Combine multiple clips into a single output file
• Individual Export — Rewrap each clip to its own self-contained file
• Batch Queue — Queue multiple conversion jobs for sequential processing
• Multi-Card Loading — Load all P2 cards from a parent folder at once
• Output Verification — Quick or full decode tests to verify converted files
• Timecode Preservation — Maintains original P2 timecodes
• Time Estimation — Historical speed tracking for accurate conversion estimates
• Sleep Prevention — Keeps Mac awake during long conversions

Output Formats

Format	Container	Use Case
MXF OP1a	.mxf	Broadcast, MAM, archive
QuickTime	.mov	NLE editing, general use

Requirements

• macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later
• Apple Silicon (arm64) — Intel builds possible but not pre-built

Installation

1. Download P2toMXF-1.1.dmg from Releases
2. Open the DMG and drag P2toMXF to Applications

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/Xpycode/P2toMXF.git
cd P2toMXF
open P2toMXF.xcodeproj

Build with Xcode 16+ (Cmd+B). All dependencies (FFmpeg, BMX) are bundled.

Usage

1. Load a P2 Card — Click "Load P2 Card" or press Cmd+O
2. Select Clips — Check the clips you want to convert
3. Choose Settings — Pick output format (MXF/MOV) and mode (Merge/Individual)
4. Set Output — Choose destination folder and filename
5. Convert — Click "Merge" to process immediately, or "Add to Queue" for batch processing

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Cmd+O	Open P2 card picker
Cmd+A	Select all clips

Technical Details

The Pipeline

P2 Card (OP-Atom)    BMX              FFmpeg
┌─────────────┐   ┌──────────┐    ┌──────────┐
│ VIDEO/*.MXF │──▶│bmxtrans- │───▶│ concat   │───▶ Final
│ AUDIO/*.MXF │   │wrap -t   │OP1a│ demuxer  │     MXF/MOV
└─────────────┘   │op1a      │    └──────────┘
                  └──────────┘

1. BMX rewraps each P2 clip (1 video + 4 audio files) → single OP1a MXF
2. FFmpeg concatenates the OP1a MXFs → final output (stream copy, no re-encoding)

Bundled Tools

All tools are bundled inside the app (no external dependencies):

Tool	Version	Purpose
FFmpeg	8.0.1	Concatenation, verification
bmxtranswrap	1.2	OP-Atom to OP1a rewrapping
mxf2raw	1.2	MXF inspection

Performance

All operations use stream copy (no transcoding):

• BMX rewrap: ~30x realtime
• FFmpeg concat: ~60x realtime
• Typical throughput: 16 clips in ~1-2 minutes

Building BMX from Source

If you need to rebuild BMX:

brew install cmake uriparser expat
git clone https://github.com/bbc/bmx.git
cd bmx && mkdir -p out/build && cd out/build
export CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/expat;/opt/homebrew/opt/uriparser"
cmake ../../ -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build . -j$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu)

See CLAUDE.md for detailed bundling and code signing instructions.

Project Structure

P2toMXF/
├── P2toMXFApp.swift          # App entry point
├── ContentView.swift         # Main UI
├── ConversionViewModel.swift # State management
├── Models/
│   └── P2Clip.swift          # Data models
├── Services/
│   ├── P2CardParser.swift    # P2 XML metadata parsing
│   ├── FFmpegWrapper.swift   # FFmpeg integration
│   ├── BMXWrapper.swift      # BMX toolkit wrapper
│   ├── QueueManager.swift    # Batch queue management
│   ├── VerificationService.swift
│   └── SpeedTracker.swift
├── Views/
│   ├── QueueListView.swift   # Queue panel
│   ├── ClipRowView.swift     # Clip list items
│   └── ...
└── Resources/
    ├── ffmpeg                # Bundled FFmpeg
    ├── bmxtranswrap          # Bundled BMX
    ├── mxf2raw
    └── lib/                  # BMX dependencies

License

MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

Third-Party Licenses

• FFmpeg — LGPL/GPL (ffmpeg.org)
• BMX — BSD 3-Clause (github.com/bbc/bmx)

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please read the technical documentation in CLAUDE.md before submitting PRs.

Acknowledgments

• BBC BMX Project for the excellent MXF toolkit
• FFmpeg for the multimedia Swiss Army knife
• App icon by NanoBanana