XDCAM EX in Premiere and After Effects CS6

[Mitchell Lewis]

Been a long time since I posted to this forum. Glad to see it's still around. We've been using our EX3 camera and FCP for the last 3 years without a hitch. Never lost any footage or really had any problems. (hope I didn't just jinx myself by saying that)

But now we're slowly switching from FCP to Premiere on our Apple editing systems and that has created some problems.

Adobe doesn't seem to see the advantage of rewrapping XDCAM EX footage into MOV files like FCP did. They like to promote the fact that you can simply start editing. No converting necessary. This "feature" works great in Premiere because there is a built in Media Browser you can use to view your XDCAM EX footage without seeing all the crazy subfolders that make native XDCAM EX footage. But if you try and view the same footage in After Effects, if only gives you the option to import "clips". So for example if you want to import 30 clips into an AE project, you have to go into each BPAV sub folder and select them. This is a tedious and unnecessary process.

We don't want to transcode all the footage as this would talk many hours compared to simply re-wrapping it. We liked the rewrap feature built into FCP 7.0 where you'd end up with a bunch of MOV files. Is there a way to do this with Adobe CS 6 projects? Maybe with the Adobe Media Encoder?

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Doug Jensen]

Why not use Sony's "XDCAM Browser" or the newer "Content Browser" utilities to rewrap the clips to MOV? I've also just moved over to Premiere CS6 from FCP7 and that's what I do. It's the same exact workflow I used with FCP since I never liked the "Log & Transfer" function within FCP anyway. Very easy.

[Dave Morrison]

Hey Doug, where is the option in Content Browser to "send to Premiere" or whatever they call it? I see the FCP option but I too have moved to Premiere.

[Doug Jensen]

You use the same workflow for Premiere that you use for FCP. Just because Sony calls it "Import for Final Cut Pro" doesn't mean the re-wrapped file can't be used with Premiere. Just ignore how they have the function labeled.

BTW, there's a 16 minute excerpt from my PMW-200/160/150/100 training DVD on Vortex Media's website that explains the XDCAM workflow. It costs 5 bucks to view, but it might save you a lot of frustration if you're having trouble with the workflow. http://www.vortexmedia.com/STREAM1.html#TH9

[Dave Morrison]

Doug, is there a similar way to rewrap footage from my FS100 and bring it into Premiere? Or, if Content Browser won't do it, what would you suggest using?

[Mitchell Lewis]

Thanks Doug. (great to hear from you!)

I guess I'm a little embarrassed. I didn't think the new Content Browser would let you rewrap clips like XDCAM Transfer used to do. I thought all you could do was transcode to another format. I guess I need to read the directions for the application.

Oh yeah....where are the Content Browser directions? lol!

(thanks Doug....hopefully we'll figure out it some how)

[Mitchell Lewis]

Okay, I found the "Import to Final Cut Pro" command. (weird place for them to put it)

But the app gives me numerous error messages:

- Final Cut Pro doesn't seem to be found on your system (shown immediately after I choose the command)
- Choose what app you'd like to open with (shown after it's done re-wrapping the clips)

I guess I need to dig into the preferences a bit to see if I can stop some of the error messages.

Thanks again Doug. :)

[Zoran Vincic]

Just rewrap to mxf (file - export - mxf for NLE's) and don't scratch your head too much.

[Jack Zhang]

Regrettably, you still need FCP7 and Quicktime 7 installed to use the import to Final Cut Pro since it relies on those libraries.

No guarantees that after the pro codecs are uninstalled, that the video would still work with CS6. If it's pointing to the Apple Pro codecs, it's likely you can't use it with CS6 if those are not installed.

You're going to have to keep both on the same system to guarantee success with this method.

[Gary Huff]

On top of what Jack mentioned, Premiere now has to use a creaky, aging, QuickTime engine to decode XDCAM Ex when it's re-wrapped to .MOV, so that may impact your editing performance somewhat.

[Mitchell Lewis]

Zoran: Hmmmm..... I assume that's under File>Export? I thought all of those options transcoded the files? If it rewraps, that would be a great solution.

Jack: Forgot to communicate this part to you all... We did purchase Apple Compressor so that installed the "pro codecs", just not Final Cut Pro.

Thanks for all the great advice so far! :-)

[Mitchell Lewis]

Gary: So you're saying that Premiere may perform better when using the native MP4 files verses using the rewrapped MOV's? Interesting.... I guess I'll have to do some tests.

[Doug Jensen]

Just to clarify, since Mitchell said he already had FCP it is safe to assume he already has the necessary codecs installed on his machine. But if someone does not have FCP, then, as Jack points out, rewrapping to MOV may not even be possible.

My experience so far with using XDCAM MXF and MP4 files as rewrapped MOV files inside Premiere CS6 has been nothing but ideal. I have no complaints. In fact, I'm not an expert on Speed Grade yet (probably never will be), but it appears MXF files cannot even be used, so rewrapping to MOV is pretty much mandatory for those files.

[Eric Addison]

As a long time Premiere user and EX3 shooter, you'll get better performance from editing the native files. I wouldn't re-wrap them into .mov files.

No question that After Effects needs a Media Browser as well, but here's a possible work around: Import all your clips into Premiere. Open After Effects, and create a new comp. Go back into Premiere and highlight all the clips in the bin you want in After Effects. Select Copy, then back in AE, select Paste and all the clips should come over.

So long as you don't plan on moving the files around, this should work and AE will find the clips everytime you open it up.

[Dennis Hingsberg]

Originally Posted by Mitchell Lewis

Been a long time since I posted to this forum. Glad to see it's still around. We've been using our EX3 camera and FCP for the last 3 years without a hitch. Never lost any footage or really had any problems. (hope I didn't just jinx myself by saying that)

But now we're slowly switching from FCP to Premiere on our Apple editing systems and that has created some problems.

Adobe doesn't seem to see the advantage of rewrapping XDCAM EX footage into MOV files like FCP did. They like to promote the fact that you can simply start editing. No converting necessary. This "feature" works great in Premiere because there is a built in Media Browser you can use to view your XDCAM EX footage without seeing all the crazy subfolders that make native XDCAM EX footage. But if you try and view the same footage in After Effects, if only gives you the option to import "clips". So for example if you want to import 30 clips into an AE project, you have to go into each BPAV sub folder and select them. This is a tedious and unnecessary process.

We don't want to transcode all the footage as this would talk many hours compared to simply re-wrapping it. We liked the rewrap feature built into FCP 7.0 where you'd end up with a bunch of MOV files. Is there a way to do this with Adobe CS 6 projects? Maybe with the Adobe Media Encoder?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Here's how I do it. Open Finder in MAC, or Explorer in PC, and conduct a search for the files by name prefix or even file extension. You can keep your search within BPAV so that the results are specific to the files from that shoot.

Once your search is completed (takes a few seconds) just highlight/select all the clips you like and simply drop them into your project area in AE, or Premiere.

Works like a charm.

;)