Canon XF Utility CD not available from Canon!!!
 

I own both a Canon XF305 & a Canon XF105. I have done some shooting for a colleague who edits on Adobe Premiere & wanted to install the Canon XF Utility so that he can import the clips. I discovered that this only an upgrade is available for download from the Canon website which requires that you already have the utility installed. My CDs are at my place in France at not accessible at short notice so I called Cannon support last Monday 13th June. They couldn't help but escalated the call & promised me that I would be contacted. I had a voicemail yesterday afternoon (Thursday 16th June) when my mobile phone had no signal from Canon UK support saying basically that they could not provide me with a replacement CD & that I was SOL. The phone number was withheld so I cannot call the guy back. I have updated my support call online to express my dissatisfaction (to put it mildly). I could understand if a token charge were made to provide a CD. What I cannot understand is why Canon support would be so unhelpful. In the first place why isn't the utility available for download? I simply cannot see any licensing or copyright issues that Canon shouldn't have covered. It appears that while they will repair the camera under warranty or fix accidental damage or sell you other accessories if you lose them e.g. remote control if you lose or mislay the one CD that is shipped with the camera then you are stuffed. It appears that even though you spend nearly £10000 on Canon gear, join their Canon Professional Network then if you are careless enough to have lost your software CD then they have no answer for you. What a crock!

BTW This is not a cry for help to loan a CD as my wife flies in today with a copy. This is however a note of warning of what to expect from Canon Pro Support if you lose that utility CD.

Re: Canon XF Utility CD not available from Canon!!!
 

FYI, the XF Utility is not required for importing clips from the XF cameras into Premiere Pro CS5/CS5.5. :)

Re: Canon XF Utility CD not available from Canon!!!
 

But isn't it require to stitch together, without dropping a few frames, long takes spread over several files?

Re: Canon XF Utility CD not available from Canon!!!
 

Spanned clips does indeed appear as one (1) shoot inside XF Utility, but AFAIK there is no feature to export it to one (1) physical clip. I tried Export To MXF and did also try to copy the spanned clip to a new card i created using Create Virtual Media as well but the media it copies is always the spanned clip as individual clips. If it is possible to export spanned clips to one (1) shoot, please enlighten me because i would love to be able to have that feature. :)

CS5.5 handle spanned clips while CS5 does not.

It is strange though that XF Utility cannot be downloaded from Canon. It's a great software and makes it easy to manage the media so it should be able to get easily. I will contact Canon regarding this. :)

Re: Canon XF Utility CD not available from Canon!!!
 

I just checked on the website & it seems that Canon support closed my call even though I left a long response detailing how unhappy I was with the fact that they couldn't help me at all. This is really not good enough. Does anyone have a contact for a real person at Canon that I can complain to about how they seem to think it's OK to treat so shabbily a customer who has spent a lot of money on Canon video gear?

BTW For anyone else who finds themselves shafted by Canon's total lack of support a copy of the XF Utility CD can be found elsewhere on the web.

Re: Canon XF Utility CD not available from Canon!!!
 

I'm really sorry to hear your story. It's enough to make you switch to another brand.

Maybe Sony?

Poor show Canon, a really poor and unintelligent response to a totally reasonable request.

But as you have pointed out the resource you were looking for is available on the net. Or maybe down at the car boot sale ?

The cameras are very good and this should be matched by the same standard of customer care.

Re: Canon XF Utility CD not available from Canon!!!
 

Here's what I have done: I've put the Utility installer in a Dropbox folder. Then, all I have to do is invite a client into that folder, where s/he can download the utility.

In fact, I can't find my original CD anymore. So I'm really glad I did this!

Re: Canon XF Utility CD not available from Canon!!!
 

From what I've been told by Canon, they have to pay a license fee to the editing companies for every disc they produce.....so, at this time, they are not mass producing them to hand out to anyone, just the ones they pack in with the cameras. They are aware of the complants and are working on a solution.

Jim Martin
Filmtools.com

Re: Canon XF Utility CD not available from Canon!!!
 

Evidently Canon aren't even prepared to sell me one at a profit to punish me for my stupidity in mislaying this precious CD.

Re: Canon XF Utility CD not available from Canon!!!
 

It's a Canon thing. I remember the same complaints about finding Zoombrowser if you didn't have the disc. I don't quite understand, but it's deep in their DNA.

ps I remember with Zoombrowser you could download an update, then unzip the .exe it to find the installer for the original program, but this doesn't seem to work with this one.

Re: Canon XF Utility CD not available from Canon!!!
 

I think the issue is due to license fees Canon need to pay for the MPEG2 Decoder that installs when installing the XF Utility. One fee/download is what Canon don't want to pay. I may be wrong.

Re: Canon XF Utility CD not available from Canon!!!
 

I ran into this problem with a client in another state. To edit my video on their FCP, I made a copy of XF Utility and sent it to the client - this was Canon's solution. But I had to make a Mac copy for my client to use on their Mac; a PC copy wouldn't work. My client, for whatever reason, simply could not make my XF video work in their FCP. It took over a week to fix this issue.
I was so pissed, I considered selling my XF305 and going back to Panasonic or Sony. I still might, as this problem may occur again. I love my XF305, but I cannot afford to have clients upset with me.

Canon, you need to address this issue.

Re: Canon XF Utility CD not available from Canon!!!
 

Not necessarily helpful, but here's Chris Hurd's feedback on the subject of replacing this utility: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/canon-xf...-download.html

That was in August 2010. No change, huh?

Grazie

Re: Canon XF Utility CD not available from Canon!!!
 

Sadly Chris Hurd's suggestion to Contact your regional Canon office for a free replacement CD. doesn't help. I have had another call & an email from Canon support & there is no way that they can provide a replacement CD with the XF Utility. Apparently the software is only licenced from a 3rd party for Canon to produce one CD for each XF camcorder that Canon manufacture. There are no other CDs. It is not possible to buy a replacement CD. If your CD becomes unreadable due to a manufacturing defect Canon cannot replace it. The only way to get another CD is to buy another Canon XF camcorder.

I had as they say a full & frank discussion with the support guy. I shall be escalating this higher up the food chain in Canon but this situation just beggars belief.