XDCAM import CBR or VBR?

Aloha,
Just got a new Sony EX 3, read the manual, watched the video tutorial -- now I want to import and I'm asked a question by FCP that wasn't addressed in any of the reference material. The plan is to shoot 1080P30 -- now that I have something to look at, which of these import settings should I use. I saw in the video that you can use XDCAM Transfer to ingest -- I don't understand why you would want to use something else when FCP comes with the appropriate codec already installed. Am I correct in believing that one should ingest the format you shot? Now I see that there is XDCAM and XDCAM HD 422 as well -- WTF? Wouldn't best quality ingest be uncompressed? Or, should I use one of these others????? Please HELP!!!

Hey Chris

>I saw in the video that you can use XDCAM Transfer to ingest -- don't understand why you would want to use something else when FCP comes with the appropriate codec already installed.

Its not a codec thing its a "transfer" thing ... in the case of Sony's XDCAM formats, transfer is a strict data copy process, there is no transcoding going on regardless of whether you use FCP's Log and Transfer or Sony's XDCAM Transfer app.

Backgrounder: First off, XDCAM EX camera formats have not always been around, preceding that was professional XDCAM SD/HD camera formats and Sony's XDCAM Transfer app was developed to support log and transfer to/from those cameras/decks/media. When the XDCAM EX camera format was later introduced then Sony added support for that format/media to their XDCAM Transfer app. What their app does is to enable you to copy the "essence" (the audio / video data) from the original media file into a quicktime media file container (or "wrapper" that is compatible with FCP. Then later still they developed a Log and Transfer plugin for FCP that allowed you to use FCP's own Log and Transfer interface to copy and "rewrap" the media (but it only works with XDCAM EX camera media, not XDCAM SD/HD). Now later still, Apple have support for copying and rewrapping the media from EX cameras built directly in to FCP7's Log and Transfer interface (or so I understand ... I don't work with XDEX, I work with XDHD).

>Am I correct in believing that one should ingest the format you shot?

This is your choice. With Log and Transfer from your EX it is always a direct media copy so it will always import in the format you shot, however you can always post process this file if you choose. XDCAM EX (and HD) is an MPEG2 based encoding format very much like HDV and many folks do not like to work with this format if for no other reason than the processor intensive nature of the codec. Transcoding to an alternative working format, or "intermediate", is your option. Another option is to use FCP's Log and Capture tool, together with a suitable I/O device, to capture from the camera's baseband output direct to an intermediate codec. The best optimized intermediate currently available for FCP is the Apple ProRes 422 codec

>Now I see that there is XDCAM and XDCAM HD 422 as well -- WTF?

Sure, there are plenty of codecs and formats out there in the big bad world ... but that is not what you have shot, nor what your camera is capable of shooting. Stick with the camera native codec, or transcode to and/or work in ProRes as your intermediate.

>Wouldn't best quality ingest be uncompressed?

Yes, best quality is uncompressed but your camera has already compressed it, nothing you can do now will change that. Yes you could transcode to "Uncompressed HD" but all that will do is change your file sizes (massively so) and bring your edit system to its knees, it won't make that image quality from your camera any better.

>Or, should I use one of these others?????

No. Your best choices are :

1) Ingest as XDCAM EX and work natively.
2) Ingest as XDCAM EX and work natively w/ renders set to ProRes.
3) Ingest as XDCAM EX but work with that footage in a ProRes timeline.
4) Ingest via an I/O device as ProRes and work natively.

Hope it helps
Best
Andy

Cripes, Andy. Your post was almost as long-winded as one of mine.

Chris, on top of everything Andy said, the first thing you should do to maximize the quality of your footage is don't shoot 30p. That should be step one.

Brilliant answer Andy

Nice. Thanks for the breakdown, Andy. For some reason, I haven't been able to work with the XDCAM EX/ XDCAM HD formats during ingest. I always miss the ingesting part for XDCAM footage. So I'm kinda curious about whether the Sony's XDCAM transfer tool is better or the FCP log and transfer tool.

There's one more option I can add:

1) Ingest as XDCAM EX and work natively.
2) Ingest as XDCAM EX and work natively w/ renders set to ProRes.
3) Ingest as XDCAM EX but work with that footage in a ProRes timeline.
4) Ingest via an I/O device as ProRes and work natively.

5) Ingest as XDCAM EX, and transcode that to ProRes in Compressor.

I am working with XDCAM EX footage now, didn't manage to do the ingest. But when I started, they've already ingested as XDCAM EX, so on day 1, I edited with XDCAM EX, setting renders to ProRes, but on my way out, i set up Compressor to transcode all the rushes to ProRes (created a droplet so it doesn't add a "-Prores" extension to the name). Next day I re-linked all of that to the ProRes transcodes.

Compressor apparently keeps the metadata required to re-capture from tapeless sources. Media Manager does not.



www.strypesinpost.com

Jeff Harrell Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Chris, on top of everything Andy said, the first
> thing you should do to maximize the quality of
> your footage is don't shoot 30p. That should be
> step one.

I disagree with this, specially as a blanket statement. I usually shot 1080p30 as well. Apparently I'm not the only one who feels this way as Doug Jensen of VortexMedia says the same on his training DVD. It really depends on your target though.
________

720p60 for best temporal resolution for sports

1080p24 for Blu-ray and easier convert to PAL although I personally don't like the lower temporal resolution.

720p24 will actually give you most bits per pixel but I generally see no significant benefit. This is can be good though if you're going to be doing a lot of overcrank 720p24/60

1080p30 for file and web distribution an non sports (aka lower motion). It certainly would be a problem for Blu-ray though. This is what I shoot most often. When editing in standard def timeline this also gives me lots of room to reposition, crop, zoom, pan. My delivery is usually file, web, sometimes editing in standard def. These projects are not destined for PAL or Blu-ray.

720p30 might seem an odd bird but it's often the target size of HD web delivery. I've used it for digital signage as well.

Shooting Progressive will also result in very good chroma keys despite 4:2:0 codec.

Avoid shooting interlace as it seems somewhere along most workflows you'll find you have to deinterlace from some delivery and that adds time and your subject to the potential deinterlace issues. Of course one could shoot 1080i60 if your target is HD Broadcast delivery for many stations (a few channels use 720p60).