XDCAM EX Clip Browser does not deliver
 

I have been trying unsuccessfully to view all my clips one next to the other in one play using XDCAM EX Clip Broser and I could not find the way to do it.
The very awkward way I found using this application is to play one clip, then click on the next one and son on, which is quite an awful way to vew all the clips we saved on the directory of the hard drive.
Can someone tell me if I can use this application to view all the clips of a directory, with full screen without having to jump from one clip to the next ?

There isn't a way that I know of. You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to jump from one clip to the next, but I don't know of a way to have them all play consecutively one after the other.

The Clip Browser also has pretty lousy playback quality. No deinterlacing and poor down/up-scaling. My recommendation is to use VLC-player to look at several clips after each other. You can make a search for all the MP4-files (or sift in Vista) in your BPAV folder and then place them in a playlist in VLC. Be sure to download the latest version of VLC-player to get both audio and video.

Thanks! This is a useful suggestion

i suppose if you want to take clip browser by its literal name, it is used to browse clips - one at a time as we all know. i just check a few clips individually on cb and it has been fine, but i have not viewed them consecutively. the best use for cb is to back up the bpav folder and contents to other storage mediums.

francois, you are right in its 'non delivery' for what you are after, but i use it as a shot selection and copy program.

best wishes

In fact I am trying to find the best workflow when managing my clip generated by the XDCAM EX1 camera.
For the time being this is what I do when I am out of home in a vacation trip.
1) Copy the clips into an external hard drive connected to my laptop using the Clip Browser (I was told not to do it by simplying copy pasting the BPAV directory using Microsoft Explorer. Is that right?)
2) Once this is done, I burn the contents in a DVD double layer (as long as the size does not exceed 8 Gb. If it does, I proceed with a folder split, but found the Clip Browser very lousy doing it (it splits the clips in a totally random basis or by file size instead of by date, so it becomes very messy when managing these clips afterward).
3) When back home, I plug in this external hard dribe to my MacPro and use XDCAM Transfer application to convert all these clips in Mov format to be stored in a second hard drive dedicated to that (one folder by month, therefore sorted by chronology).
4) When I am ready to import the clips in FCP for mounting a video, for the time being I am choosing the XDCAM Transfer application to choose the clips from the first hard drive (which contains the BPAV folder) and import the ones I want into my MacPro internal hard drive in the FCP project folder. But the ideal solution would be to browse the files already converted in mov format stored in the second external drive, but can find a way to do it in my MAC (the Mac Finder does not let me see all the clips with their respective thumbnail like it is possible with Windows Explorer.

Can you recommend a better and more efficient workflow?
Can you recommend the right application where I can display all the mov clips (like a slide sorter) to choose the ones I want to put in my FCP project?

1) Yes. Use the Clip Browser to copy clips. It's much safer.
2) Another option is to buy Roxio Toast. If you BPAV directly is too big to fit on one disc, the software will span onto as many discs as necessary. This works really well. But personally, I just archive to portable 500GB hard drives.
3) Exactly what I do.
4) Why not just few the clips in the Finder using Cover Flow? Just select the folder you want and then click the Cover Flow icon. I've attached an example using JPG images, but it works the same way with MOV's.

Francois,

I have found that Adobe Bridge is the best software for viewing clips. I couldn't edit with Final Cut Pro without it -- that's how important it is to me.

I have it opened 100% of the time on one of my monitors when I'm editing. I can drag and drop clips into the timeline right from Bridge. I can playback clips inside Bridge, sort the clips, see the thumbnails, etc. without actually making them part of the Project unless I want them to be part of the Project.

My only complaint is that Bridge doesn't show me as much of the metadata as I would like to see. Perhaps Apple will add that in the future.

I don't know if you can buy Bridge by itself, but it comes bundled with Photoshop and all of the Adobe Suites. Don't tell Apple, but I would have paid $500 just for Bridge if it didn't come free with the other software.

Bridge is the software you seek.

Well, Adobe Bridge is, as you said, a good solution. But I have spent all my budget already buying the Final Studio Pro 2 to have FCP6 and all other softwares going with it, and would not be keen to spend another $500 to have something including Adobe Bridge.
I also heard that another solution would be to buy the new MAC OS Leopard and there is a browser function where yolu can display all the clips, like ACDSee is doing with Windows. Is that true?

Yes, this could be a possibility.

Glad to hear it works for you Doug, my version of Bridge will not display the clips. Windows, CS3 etc. also have CS4 but haven't felt the need to install it as yet

Vincent,

You might want to check to make sure everyting is running correct on your machine.
I've been using Bridge with XDCAM for almost three years, long before I upgraded to CS4.
Maybe it requires the latest version of QT, or something?
I'm not an expert, I just know it has worked for a long time.

Francois,

Bridge is included free with Photoshop and I have no idea how you can create professional videos without having Photoshop on your computer. What do you use for graphics if you don't have Photoshop? Having FCP without Photoshop would be like having a camera with no tripod.

Let someone else do the graphics ;-)

To only way I've found to view all clips sequentially: XDCAM transfer to .mov, then import all clips into FCP, highlight all clips and drag them into timeline sequence, hit play.