XdCam Limitations and question re input

We've made the shift to XdCam and are now acquiring all our media at 35mbs.

After struggling to get the workflow to, well, work I have come to the following understandings of the limitations of the format. Hopefully spelling these out will help some folks in a similar boat (funny the Sony sales folks didn't provide this information.)

1. If you want to work in FCP in HD but output to a DVCam deck via firewire you will need to conform as well as render the material. Conforming takes a verrrry long time.

2. If You want to downconvert on input you have to log and capture the disk and thus lose the 'advantage' of using file transfer to transfer the clips.

3. If you want to downconvert and work in SD then later recapture the material in HD you also have to capture rather than transfer the material.

4. To be able to capture (as opposed to transfer) the material at HD you need to use a Kona (or alternate) card.

5. The Xdcam deck will not pass through a video signal from the timeline for monitoring purposes (like any DVcam deck or camera will).

I can live with the need for a Kona card, but I guess I will have to abandon what attracted me to the XdCam in the first place, which is the file transfer as opposed to log and capture.
But if I could just transfer the timecode information from the disk without the actual clips and then batch capture the material I'd feel like the workflow was at least close to what was promised in the sales pitch.
So that's the question - anyone know of a way to do this?

P.S. The XdCam image is gorgeous, the camera is great to work with, the disks are superior to tape as a storage medium IMHO , so overall I am satisfied with the purchase.
But as for the workflow - don't believe the hype.

G Inglis,

We've been using the IMX format since the begining... when it was on tape. Switched to the XD-CAM discs when they became available, but in standard def only.

I agree with all of your points. I too was initially enamoured by the concept of "file based" ingest. Unfortunately, this simply doesn't work in the classic off-line/online scenario.

Yes, it's a great format. Yes the discs are cool. But, no, as of today, you really can't take advantage of the file based transferring when you employ an off-line to on line workflow.

No, I don't know of anyway to acheive what you were promised.

Mark

This should go in the FAQ I'd think. You have read the Apple PDF on XD-Cam workflow, right?

Might be a couple tricks in there.

[www.apple.com]

Look under White Papers

Michael Horton
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I know this is a work around, but if you are have a Kona card, why not transfer and edit your material at 35mb in HD, then do a real time downconvert and record back to your DV or other SD format?

-Vance

That may work for G Inglis, in our case we average about 3500 HOURS of material per show... with at least of few shows active.

Mark

Mark-

3500 hours per show. Is that per series or per 1 hour of air?

What offline compression are you using? How does that work with the SD disk cameras?

-Vance

Per series: 26 half hours.

We use off-line rt. Photojpeg (small) , 340 X 280 (I think).

Playin via firewire, use Off-line RT as your capture codec.

Mark

I knew reality had a big ratio, I just never knew how big. I'll bet you guys are a favorite stop for the media salesman!

-V

I visited Mark a few months ago and Bunim/Murray is stacked with tapes a mile high. It's nuts how many tapes there are.

Michael Horton
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Yeah I have read the Apple white papers and not found anything overly helpful, it is pretty basic information.

I've worked out a way to use part of the file transfer process and do what I want (remember this is so we can work and output in SD but easily go back and output in HD. We also want to be able to bring in specific clips in HD to take advantage of the scaling possible):

1. Import the proxies through the Sony software.
2 Import the proxies into FCP.
2. Rename them and add logging info etc. (You can't work with them as of yet - I hope this becomes possible soon, it seems like a no brainer to me.)
3. Make clips offline and delete files.

This leaves you with a batch capture list that you can use to capture at SD via firewire or at HD via your capture card.