XDCAM clips from a MAC to a PC

[Chris Medico]

Originally Posted by Jon Braeley

Is there any reason you cannot create a new folder on the laptop - MacBook Pro in my case, and then just drag the BPAV folder into this - bypassing the clip browser?

Thats what I have been doing. I then work straight from FCP with this folder.

That would work if I had the original files from the cards but I didn't shoot the stuff and the cards have since been wiped. The shooter has sent me only the mov files from his mac on a hard drive.

What I would like to do is find a way to extract the audio in the mov files so I can bring it into the pc and edit. Right now I can do this with the video but not the audio.

Otherwise its going to take shipping the files back to him and asking him to re-wrap them with the mac version of the clip browser. I would rather avoid that if possible.

[Paul Kellett]

I need to get some EX1 files from mac to pc, i see that i need to use the mac to export as mxf, fine, but how do i move the files ?
What i mean is a hard drive formatted on a pc can be read on a mac but a mac can't write to that hard drive, a hard drive formatted on a mac can't even be seen by a pc so how do i move the files after exporting mxf with the mac ?

There's a fair few gb of footage so i don't really want to be burning dvds for the transfer.

Sorry if i'm asking basic questions but i'm not very mac literate.

Thanks.
Paul.

[Peter Kraft]

Just recently found the Calibrated{Q} XD Decode is a multi-threaded QuickTime Codec(Decode Only) that enables you to view QuickTime XDCAM HD , XDCAM EX, and HDV Movies(.MOV Files Only) in QuickTime Player and other 3rd party applications that support QuickTime.

Calibrated{Q} XD Decode supports the following Apple .MOV encoded files:
HDV: 1080i30, 1080i25, 1080p24, 1080p25, 1080p30, 720p60, 720p50, 720p24, 720p25, 720p30
XDCAM HD (35Mb VBR): 1080i30, 1080i25, 1080p24, 1080p25, 1080p30
XDCAM EX: 1080i30, 1080i25, 1080p24, 1080p25, 1080p30, 720p60, 720p50, 720p24, 720p25, 720p30
XDCAM HD 422: 1080i30, 1080i25, 1080p24, 1080p25, 1080p30, 720p60, 720p50

This allows to view EX footage via QT both on Mac and PC.

Link for download and more information: Calibrated Software

Hope this helps

P.

[Chris Medico]

Originally Posted by Paul Kellett

I need to get some EX1 files from mac to pc, i see that i need to use the mac to export as mxf, fine, but how do i move the files ?
What i mean is a hard drive formatted on a pc can be read on a mac but a mac can't write to that hard drive, a hard drive formatted on a mac can't even be seen by a pc so how do i move the files after exporting mxf with the mac ?

There's a fair few gb of footage so i don't really want to be burning dvds for the transfer.

Sorry if i'm asking basic questions but i'm not very mac literate.

Thanks.
Paul.

You'll need to format the hard drive as FAT32 and then the MAC can write to it. The files will be limited to 4gig in size. You shouldn't have any EX1 files longer than this anyway since the camera breaks the files at the 4gig limit.

If you want to do the conversition on the PC side you can follow the instructions here - http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/sony-xdca...s-windows.html

[Peter Kraft]

To circumvent the FAT 32 limitations, go to the Paragon Software's webpage:
PARAGON Software Group - partition manager, drive backup, hard disk partitioning

They offer a utility which lets you read and write to NTFS formatted HDs with a Mac.
Very handy, very helpful.

Hope this helps P.

[Sean Seah]

Dxv5 is the CODEC required. Only Calibrated xD works so far but playback is choppy! For Mac, install Perian+ Perian XDcam on non FCP machines. Works very well on MBP.

[David Esp]

I successfully used MacDrive 7, a Windows app that allows a Windows machine to understand a Mac-formatted (HFS+) external usb drive. With that installed I was able to use the standard Windows Explorer to drag an EX-type ".mov" file (FourCC "xdva") into an NTFS-formatted drive.

Of course, having got it there, I encountered the same troubles as others (above), namely it wouldn't play in QuickTime. More importantly, it wasn't accepted by my NLE (Sony Vegas 8.0c). I guess another possibility would be to use the CineForm codec/format, as I already use it for other purposes. Have requested a trial of the Mac version.

[Edit]: Tried using ProRes, for which a free Windows decode-only codec exists. Had success exporting it from FCP>File>Export. On Windows, imported it to NLE (Vegas) without first installing the ProRes codec and it was recognized, though the levels and colors were not what I saw on the Mac. Imperfect but good enough to work with. Tried similarly exporting to ProRes via FCS's Compressor, but the result was not recognized by the NLE.

[David Esp]

From a 720p50 sequence (having EX footage shot as 720p50)

Tried:
FCP: File > Export > Sony XDCAM: Format=MXF

Failed with error message:
"The preset 'XDCAM EX 720p50 VBR' is not installed on this system"

I don't know if a "preset" in this context is anything I can create myself or whether it is something proprietary etc.

I already installed the various plugins from sonybiz, they were needed in order to "capture" the same 720p50 EX footage (via Log&Transfer). Seems like the ability to import doesn't guarantee the ability to export.

[Alister Chapman]

It may be that you can't put EX 720p50 in an MXF wrapper using FCP export. I have not tried this myself. I use ProRes files on my PC and Vegas 8 all the time and the colours are accurate.

[Craig Seeman]

I had no problem exporting 720p60 to MXF from FCP 6.0.5. Don't forget you must change your sequence settings to Dual Mono as stereo MXF audio is not supported.

[David Esp]

Craig,

I have FCP 6.0.5 also. For 1280x720, the existing settings (templates/profiles) have just about everything except 50p. That is, 24p, 25p, 30p and 60p.

I ran into the MXF stereo audio issue - a very self-explanatory error message popped up. After that, I simply disabled audio in the compression settings as it was not needed anyway.

Alister,

Thank you for your reassurance that ProRes works OK with Vegas. At least that tells me my goal is achievable, and I will experiment further. For smooth editing, I had made the FCP sequence settings the same as my footage, namely "XDCAM EX 720p50". Hence to get ProRes I did not simply render to "Current Settings" and had to create a suitable setting by modifying the closest-matching existing ProRes setting. I assume that was the correct thing to do.

Regarding Levels, I will check again more carefully in case I made a mistake. One thing I do notice in FCP is that the Settings (for sequence/rendering/compression) for "Video Processing" have a "Process Maximum White as" option, default="White", other possible value="Super-White". I guess the latter allows the superwhites through rather than clipping them at 235. Keeping them is good, as they can be rolled-off to personal preference etc. in the NLE.

[Craig Seeman]

I have FCP 6.0.5 also. For 1280x720, the existing settings (templates/profiles) have just about everything except 50p. That is, 24p, 25p, 30p and 60p.

My FCP setup certainly has 720p50 option. It's in Easy Setup for example. Something is amiss with your system.

[David Esp]

If there is anything wrong with my system then I'd certainly like to be sure so I can fix it. Below, I show more precisely what I experience. If any of this looks wrong, or indeed looks right, that would provide a more certain starting-point than I have right now!

I have Sony XDCAM EX footage on the timeline (in Sequence). This is how the Sequence is defined:-

FCP Browser: (Sequence) > (RightClick) > Settings:
1280x720, HDTV 720p (16:9)
...
Compressor: "XDCAM EX 720p50..."
I guess I could change that to "Apple ProRes 422" - would that be a good idea?


Next, to check what Easy Setup option has been selected for it:-
Final Cut Pro > FCP > Easy Setup:
Format: Sony XDCAM EX, Rate: 25.00 fps, Use: Custom Setup
Sequence Preset: HDV - 720p50
...

I guess the "HDV" bit confirms the previously (June 3rd, 2008, 09:51 PM) stated suspicion that this gets used for EX, as opposed to any EX-specific codec. I know I'm not the only one to have been disorientated by that.

Now I do:-

File > Export > QuickTime movie:
Click on the "Setting:" value ("Current Settings")
A list of possible settings appears. On my system, the "Apple ProRes 422" entries in that list do not include "1280x720 50p 48kHz".
Should such an item be there in a properly configured system?

Incidentally, in
Final Cut Pro > User Preferences > Render Control:
The "Codec:" value is "Same as Sequence Codec".
I see that it is possible to change this to "Apple ProRes 422 (HDV, XDCAM HD/EX only)"
Would that would be a good idea?

[Craig Seeman]

Make this very simple.

Create a new sequence.
Drop 720p50 clip on sequence.
A popup will ask if you want the sequence to match the clip format. Click Yes.

You really don't need to make it any more difficult than that.

[Craig Seeman]

Final Cut Pro /Easy Setup . . ./Use
then select 720p50.

If all you need to do is start the car you don't need to build a combustion engine.