Sony Mac Transfer Tool V2.1 available today
 

Sony have put the new version of the Mac transfer tool up on the web site today.

www.sonybiz.net/xdcam

Anyone using this yet? Feedback? Bugs?

I've been a beta tester for the past 3 weeks. The only thing I have found to watch out for is that it works a bit differently in clip logging. As soon as you set an in point, the new version generates a subclip in the import list. The out point defaults to the end of the clip until you physically set one.

The old version waited for you to actually hit the plus button to add a subclip after marking your in/out points. In the new version, hitting the plus button starts a new subclip from the current playhead location. It's not that big of a deal after you get used to the new workflow.

The new version also uses a newer database so it will need to convert your clips from the old version and it's not something you can undo if there's a problem.

Lots of goodies, including printing out a thumbnail list in PDF format. It seems from past experience that Sony UK likes to put stuff out there a bit sooner than Sony America as the US branch likes to shake down the software a bit more before putting it up for grabs. With that said, enjoy, but be prepared.

Full Leopard compatibility is not assured. From the installer readme...

-gb-

I whish Sony would show one face to the customer, and have one download area, and NOT be competing with itself as to who releases the software first, the UK or the US.

Looking forward to that Leopard release, but NOT holding my breath as they missed the release with this new update.

the new auto subclip behaviour is indeed a bit strange, also odd is that whilst one can name the disc and the clips we can't name the subclips (can't imagine in what developer mindset that was not an obvious omission)

The most annoying thing is that I upgraded to Leopard and now can't access the disc in the finder, but I can see it in Disk Utility with the option to Unmount! But it's not mounted in Finder!!!!!

Any ideas?

I can confirm the same thing is happening to me.

Also, within the transfer application, it will see the disc and load the proxies and can import the full resolution material. However, it doesn't correctly interpret the disc volume name that I have for the disc.

Like Roddy says, you won't see the disc icon show up on the desktop, nor will it appear in Finder. Also, proxies I had on this disc that were imported prior to the new version do not display correctly in the transfer app.

The new proxies get imported with 320x240 resolution and it appears to be using an anamorphic stretch in the software for 16:9 display.

The proxies imported under the old version show as 427x240 and will show up in the viewer as though you had digitally zoomed in and part of the frame is missing with a stretch applied making everything look fat.

I viewed the resolution info with the 'Get Info" on the actual proxy files in the library/application support/Sony XDCAM Transfer folder.

In short, don't use the new version with Leopard!

Now the question is, how does Version 1.1 do with Leopard? Anyone? Bueller?

-gb-

One of the first things i wanted to check (because its been a living hell for me) was how it handles those situations when the specified Import location's target volume is not mounted (previously that would give you a buggy prompt to reset the import location, see http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=96216)

Well, its kind of fixed so I should be happy, but they've done a really shoddy job of it :/

Scenario 1: cache location set to startup disc, import location set to external disc, then launch and use the software without that disc attached
The software is perfectly happy to function without the targeted import location volume present. When you choose to Import you're prompted that the target location is missing, and you're given the option to "Look" or "Don't Look"
If you hit "Don't Look" then you get a second location missing message (duh! but didn't I just get that error already?) which you have to acknowledge before you finally get the preferences window so that you can actually reset the Import location. The original Import request has been cancelled by this point, whether you like it or not (and thats actually the "fix", because now even if you don't reset the location the software doesn't actually create the new directory anyway).
Q. What's with the point with the double error message? There are no other options along the way so why not change the bizarrely titled "Don't Look" button to a more obvious "Reset Location..." or similar, and have that directly proceed to open the Preference window.
If you hit the "Look" button then XDCAM Transfer rescans for the targeted location ... and if it doesn't find it it bloody well resets the location for you, without your permission or instruction! What???? Don't get me wrong, a rescan button is great. It gives you the chance to mount the right media drive and then continue with the selected import. But this kind of unilateral action is bizarre. After rescanning the bus, if it doesn't find the target location, it just goes ahead and resets your Import location to the root of your system drive (/) and imports the selected clips to it. It doesn't tell you that its changed the import location, it just does it all in the background (a minute ago it was giving me more error messages than I needed, now its giving me the silent treatment!) ... it will remain set to the wrong (root) location until you manually open the Preferences and reset it again yourself.

"Look" and "Don't Look"? (what, is this software for 5 yr olds?) It should have "Reset...", "Rescan" and "Cancel" buttons.

Scenario 2: Both cache location and import location set to external disc, then launch and use the software without that disc attached
The software is perfectly happy to function without the targeted import and cache location volume present! What??? How does it know where to cache my files or find the existing cache? It doesn't. Sony unilaterally makes the decision for us, immediately resetting the cache location to the default (~/Library/Application Support/Sony XDCAM Transfer). Again there is no warning that this has just happened and the user will not know that the app will be using the new (default) cache setting unless or until its noticed and manually reset to the correct location in the application preferences.


They've known about this for a long long time, so one assumes this would appear to be there best solution? Very disappointed :(