Is it okay to use MXF files directly?

[Steve Hontz]

I have a Canon XF 105 & 305. My workflow is to just stick the CF cards in my computer and copy the entire Contents directory to my hard drive. Using the Set Virtual Media function in the CF utility, I can quickly view the clips and look at the camera meta data.

When I want to edit in Sony Vegas, I just use the Windows Explorer search function to search the Contents directory for MXF files. This gives me the list of the files, regardless of the subdirectories, in the proper order, and I can just drag the entire list in one move right into the timeline in Vegas.

Someone on the Vegas forum said I should never do it this way - that I should connect the camera to the computer and download the files that way, as it will properly assemble the pieces together. They said by copying the MXF files the way I am, I may get pieces that don't line up properly at the boundaries (especially since the camera is breaking single clips into 2GB chunks.)

Quote: "If you don't concatenate first then you run the risk of introducing glitches at the chunk boundaries. A second or subsequent chunk does not start at an I-frame necessarily, so the preceding frames could be garbled"

That has not been my experience; all the chunks on the timeline have always butted up against each other properly, and I haven't noticed any issues. Does the camera do something to insure that each chunk begins and ends properly?

[Chris Medico]

Yes, it is OK. I see no issues with your workflow. Mine is very similar.

I copy the entire contents of a memory card onto the drive in my edit system. I make folders for each project and under the project folder make folders for music, video, graphics, etc. Each memory card is coped into its own folder under "video". I use the AMA features in Media Composer to directly access the video in the folders where I copied the files from the memory card.

[Al Bergstein]

Steve, there is an export function in the utility to export to MXF that strips out the metadata and simply exports the files. It's much more useful to have all the files one by one without the file structures. . Try it out.