XDCAM EX Workflow?

I thought I read a discussion here recently about "safe and sane" procedures when dealing with this format. I have the Sony clip browser application and driver installed on my machine. I'm not clear about whether to use it first or does FC somehow have to be up and running at the same time or.....
I only found 1 discussion in the FAQ listing so far.


FC 3 suite
Mac Pro tower
MacBook Pro with express 34 slot. (yes, the slot that went missing on later models).

1. Install the SxS driver on your laptop.

2. Use the Log and Transfer plugin.

3. Transcode to the ProRes flavor of your choice. ProRes 422 (LT) is a good choice.

Ignore Sony software, or use it to copy files to backup drive before using L & T?

You need the Sony l&t plugin to ingest via l&t.

But as DM said, use either the clip browser or the xdcam transfer utility to copy your footage onto an archival location (can't remember which of these utilities does this). But this Sony tool can perform a file verification on transfer.

Then l&t into FCP.



www.strypesinpost.com

Err.. Jeff, I don't think you can transcode xdcam ex on ingest.

And yea, Shane has a tutorial on this...

Here it is:

[mobi.creativecow.net]



www.strypesinpost.com

This is a new camera and it's my first attempt at log and transfer. I just downloaded the XDCAM plug-in for final cut from the sony website.
anyone know why I'm getting this message? I'm selecting the BPAV folder I imported via USB from my EX-1r.

final cut 7

Well, in my tutorial, if you watched it, I say that XDCAM CANNOT be transcoded as you ingest it. It comes in natively only. BUT, since that isn't working, use the Sony Clip Browser software to bring in the footage. It will come in as XDCAM.

Did you back up the FULL CARD? Or did you only grab one file? Two files? You need the full structure in order for FCP to work. Not sure what you need for the Clip Browser....give it a try. There's a link to download it on the one provided for my tutorial.

Import the XDCAM footage, but DO NOT edit in an XDCAM timeline..sequence setting. Edit in a ProRes sequence. Yeah, you'll get a render bar, but you can see and work with the footage fine, just render when you are done. Unless you have ONLY XDCAM in your sequence. Then you can edit in that format. But if you add any other format, or stills...use ProRes. I have struggled with more than my share of XDCAM and HDV sequences that have other formats mixed in, and that causes horrid instability in FCP. It's the GOP format that is the issue.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

The BPAV is the full file, copied from the S x S card. I transferred the clips via USB from the camera. The clips all view fine in the cameras viewfinder. There are 2 mixed codecs on the card. Test footage in DVCAM and a 1920 x 1080 HQ clip.
After the camera shows as a drive on my desktop, I open it and copied the file to my media drive. (the media drive is one of my internal drive bays). Open FC, L & T , search for the BPAV folder, select it and the message shows....

Is there a tutorial link that's not a mobile app?

My tutorial isn't a mobile app. It is a video on a website. The link Strypes provided is that tutorial, but here it is again:

[library.creativecow.net]

But that is for Log and Transfer. For the Sony software...a quick search of YouTube got this:






www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

And note, that the card has more files on the card other than the BPAV. If you want FCP to work, you need to grab ALL of them. Copy ALL of them into a new folder. And name that folder. Don't change the name of ANY of the files from the SxS card.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Wasn't at my computer yesterday, hence the mobile link.

If you are unable to ingest via L&T and you are told that the directory structure is invalid, here are the common reasons:

1. Invalid directory structure- Make sure the files are properly copied from the card and the directory structure is intact.

2. Naming the subfolders- This is the point Shane mentioned. You need to pop the SXS folders into a named folder, do not change the names of the subfolders or FCP will not recognize it.

3. Not installing the L&T plugin. L&T will only recognize the footage if the Sony L&T plugin is installed. Here is the link (and is probably the only link that Sony updates):

[support.sonybiz.ca]

There is also the XDCAM transfer utility, which will also rewrap your footage into .movs, so that can come in handy.
The Sony Clip Browser lets you copy the files from the SxS card (you also need the SXS driver) and does file verification.



www.strypesinpost.com

>Import the XDCAM footage, but DO NOT edit in an XDCAM timeline..sequence setting. Edit in a ProRes sequence.

Ideally, transcode everything to ProRes. You can batch transcode in Compressor, and it will maintain the metadata on the clip, allowing you to recapture from your original XDCAM mags if required. Just make sure you keep the same file names. Usually what I do is I start editing on an XDCAM EX timeline with renders set to ProRes, then I let the transcoding start at night, then come back the next day to relink the footage to the transcodes, and continue editing. The most painful part of XDCAM EX is always the exporting. Shane has some painful experiences with this and I take extremely long coffee breaks when I am exporting XDCAM EX. Exporting is usually dramatically longer and you need to render either XDCAM EX or ProRes (unless you were rendering to XDCAM EX). Sometimes you get pixelation if you render things like supers into XDCAM EX, so you always render your final masters into ProRes, because XDCAM EX is a bad mastering and intermediate format.

I have edited XDCAM EX on my laptop. In fact, I did a multicam edit with a mixture of XDCAM EX and HDV (don't ask). That wasn't a very long project and I didn't have time to transcode. Editing was largely alright for the three days on the project, and I was surprised I could multiclip XDCAM EX and HDV. I had to reboot occasionally to refresh the RAM whenever I started getting green frames in the FCP canvas, which became more frequent towards the end of the edit. But I totally do not recommend it, as I have heard of people getting a lot of crashes on FCP when they bravely attempt to cut XDCAM EX natively for long form projects on extended duration.



www.strypesinpost.com

thx for the reply's gents.

Just a clarifier, I purposely navigated to the BPAV folder, copied from the S X S 16 gig card when I attempted to create the L & T session. Within this folder are several others but I did not touch them. I selected the "top" folder BPAV, which contains the others, within L & T search and the error message comes up.

I'm looking forward to trying your suggestions about workflow. Just gotta get past the injest issue. Hoping not to have to use Sony's clip browser but instead L & T plugin.

for all of you "outdoor lovers" here's another fun primer on workflow as well.....This is just what I did.....

Re: the Z systems tutorial. I've just got to say, LOL!

Love it when the MacPro ejects from the desk.

-Russ

Best tutorial evar!


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Here's a sample XDCAM EX folder structure:


Left most is the reel name. That's the one you can change, then do not touch the rest of the files, and make sure you have that entire structure.



www.strypesinpost.com

Thats brilliant!

Michael Horton
-------------------

Man! That's totally blogworthy. I'm posting that!



www.strypesinpost.com

OK, I'll post what my folders' inerds look like. Not the same as this one but maybe will lead to a fix. Won't be able to post it until tonight. Want to re-mention that I only selected the top level BPAV folder to open in L & T. Not anything inside of this folder...

That tutorial was classic.

I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Shaky cam and the sound was really well done.

Brilliant tutorial. We should start doing more extreme tutes. Maybe one of us could do an AVCHD workflow while poking a grizzly with a cattle prod, or something on r3d LUT metadata while jumping a shark on a motorbike..

Yet another variation on the workflow.

Use ClipBrowser with CRC On to copy from cards to hard drive. CRC On makes sure copy matches source so that you don't get a bad copy.

Use XDCAM Transfer to wrap to MOV. Then import into FCP. Alternately you can use Log & Transfer.

I set my timeline to edit in EX Codec and renders in ProRes. I have MacPro early 2008 and have no stability problems. Renders are fast during editing (renders set to ProRes). Final Export is certainly slower compared to I Frame codec. Doing this on laptop could be painful but on desktop I don't find it a major issue.

If you have CalibratedSoftware EX MP4 plugin you can import and edit directly without having to wrap to MOV.

The reason you are getting the error is that you have DVCAM files and those are not recognized as part of the BPAV folder structure.

BTW always make an additional backup of the BPAV folder as they are your camera masters. I use ClipBrowser's ability to split them to fit them on Blu-ray discs. What I end up with is BPAV on Blu-ray. BPAV and EX MOV on hard drive.

Great idea Jude. Since you are a girl and all best have Nick Meyers do the motorbike thing. Perhaps you can do Color Grading on a Grand Canyon Mule? Side saddle is best.

Michael Horton
-------------------

Oh, you're so getting punched for that next time I'm in town.

How to edit multicamera while riding in a motorcycle sidecar? Or while on the back of a dirt bike on a back country trail?

Ooooo... How to compress for DVD while on a coast guard cutter chasing down drug traffickers!


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Heh, even an audio version of that would be funny.

"SO, YOU OPEN COMPRESSOR.."" dug dug dug dug dug 'There they are - get closer!' 'AND THESE ARE THE PRESETS.." dug dug dug dug '.. got a gun..! watch .. BLAM! arrrgghhh! My leg! My Leg!.. "BUT YOU CAN MAKE CUSTOM SETTINGS IF YOU PREFER.." dug dug dug

That's why Jude doesn't like showing her face. She likes kicking other editors' asses, so she's always hiding a shiner.


www.derekmok.com