Dear Mark,

Our only concern is satisfying our customers.

Customers
 

Dear Dan:
I'm sure. I was referring to how insurance companies often sue back money they have to pay out. It was in response to Andrew Stone's post. I'm not lying awake at night wondering who's going to take legal action against CD. What about making money ?

Dan,

Thanks for this most welcome development. You guys are the best in the industry at listening to your customers... and doing something about it. This is just one in a very long list of examples. I respect your wishes to keep the menu options down to a minimum but in this instance, this is a good and balanced decision. And I am good with waiting for it until it can be pragmatically worked into your development flow.

Be well...

Hi Mark,

I don't think our view differs that much on either the approach to source files or the insurance/film guarantor matter. But if I do get this straight (I may misunderstand this) Aaron wants to be able to stripe the auxilliary time code to the source files on the Compact Flash card?! As I said inferred earlier, going into the compact flash cards and adding stuff after the fact is adding significant risk (not to mention the issues of media fragmentation brought up by the CD individuals). But hey, viva le difference! Seems to me it should be done at an intermediary step, on a hard drive, after copying the source files has taken place.

If there is a prevailing reason to do this I would like to know other than simply a shortcut or to save on hard drive space.

I am also willing to bet, if someone posted on the LAFCPUG forum that an editor forgot or didn't unlock the files a huge forum style pile on would occur and they certainly wouldn't advocate working off the camera cards.

FCP Post Issue Clarification
 

....Hey Andrew: No, fundamentally we are in agreement, only, there is a misunderstanding with why he wants it unlocked from source recorder media. I will leave it to Aaron himself to clarify, but I understood from his earlier post in this thread (Read back to the first one and then down a bit - sorry forgot post number) - he was referring to a peculiarity in the way the FCP application handles source TC from the XDR/Nano recorded CF card media. Apparently, both Aaron and his editor were experiencing a general failure in FCP to write Auxiliary TC data to file in an editing project due to the *locked status* of the source CF card media out of the recorder. Aaron was pointing out that if he could have unlocked XDR or Nano recorded CF cards out of the unit, then he could save an enormous amount of time preserving the Source TC data within the Auxiliary TC data save in FCP. Does this make sense ? This is what I understood (Aaron please correct me if I got this wrong). In any case, no worries Andrew :-) All is well :-)

P.S. Let's be totally fair to Convergent Design by stating this is not due to a specific deficiency within their Flash XDR or Nano Flash recorders, this seems to be related more to a specific peculiarity within FCP, *which may be circumvented by CD adding an unlock menu option within a future firmware release.

Hi there

Iam new to this forum.. I have a nano for my HDX900.. Iam not an editor...

CD is very good at listening to customers.. which is great.. but if they have to add every function.. to every malcontent who sits arounds with nothing better than to think of what the nano cant do.. .. with every camera on the planet.. or everytime someone makes a mistake.. come on really .. everyone has some shots on their rushes that dont work.. so now we have to have an option to delete them.. have a bit more confidence in your work.. we are going to have massive menu,s .. the nano is good because its simple..

The nano is never going to be perfect.. just as all camera,s could have some extra function that they dont..
I vote against the menu,s becoming bigger than Dennys..

I agree with Andrew.. dont dick with the cards.. whats next .. why cant the nano give us real time legal advise.. :)

My reality
 

My reality is that I need to trim files from the card, or the drive I dump footage to, in the field. I have had some issues dealing with this in the field, on a mac. It should not be a problem to remove some bad takes before dumping footage. If I have to wait around for bad takes to be offloaded, find them and then delete them, I am wasting time and money. Going to the source is my best bet when I am in a hurry. Unlocking the files makes good sense to me.

That is my workflow, on occasion. It is not dicking around, nor is it a lame request. It simply is a needed function and it seems like there are several people who need this to happen, including myself.

My clients don't have patience for me wasting time and money... if they did, I would deal with it and use whatever workarounds were necessary. The Nano is a great tool for me to save my clients time and money... so removing obstacles is a good thing.

I appreciate that CD is addressing the issue and providing an option. Thanks!

Hi Mark as a FCP editor I agree with you "the peculiarity in the way the FCP application handles source TC from the XDR/Nano recorded CF card media." This is not a deficiency in the Nano/XDR but it is an issue with FCP.

I am so impressed with FCP and its peculiarities that I am in process of looking for a new NLE system the MacPro 8 core is now running Windows 7.

Avid Media Composer 5.0 All The Way 1
 

....Hi Lance: Go Avid Media Composer 5.0 because not only will it run on your MAC OS (Even Snow Leopard Now !), it will handle all your FCP Projects and Pro Res 422 HQ files natively ! Media Composer will now handle QT files from the Nano/XDR in Long GOP ! You don't need to record in.MXF anymore. Stay in FCP compatible QT.

This is the kind of explanation I was looking for to justify the ability of editing material on the cards. Completely reasonable in today's workflow with probably a good percentage of nanoFlash users.

Hi Mark,
Thanks for that info on AMC I do have some other questions on a NLE system for Nanoflash/XDR files which this may not be the place to ask see the Thread " NLE Advice for Nanoflash/XDR Work Flow".

Fair enough.. but I do worry that within a year the menu,s will be massive.. as every self interest item has to be included if you make enough noise on this forum.. I thought the nano was a recording device that is attached to camera,s ... simple as that.. not an editing device.. down load.. then do your editing..deleting.. etc.. just my 2 cents

Just adding another .02 cents to the discussion.
Though I just about never erase anything, I think it's reasonable to have an 'erase last take' option - although I'd like it to have at least an extra layer of verification so an over-zealous button presser doesn't eliminate anything vital. Thie 'last take erase' option would eliminate the 'shoot my foot' or 'I pressed something and the red lights are on' bad takes,
I think trying to eliminate anything other than the last take is a BAD IDEA -- especially on a device that doesn't have a video playback screen built in. If someone wants to be selective in their transfers, they should use a system where they can transfer only the takes they select from their cards. There are other design/ software engineering issues that I'd much rather have C-D dealing with. This is something that can be kept on the back burner for a while.

my penny....
 

I would start with thank you to CD for listening to us and implementing the unlock option in the NF menu.
The topic about that, should be over. Its clear what we are going to get with the next firmware update.

On other hand, my believes are that some of us are pushing the envelope with requests that do not apply to everyone and are not an issue to some (not talking about lock/unlock). What I am saying is that people do not wanna change the way they work and that is a window for many creative requests, but also, for some unnecessary requests. Somehow that, the problem they experience became CD problem.

In Aaron's situation with the editor, I try to look at it at any posible way to justify the mistake as a CD foult, and all of the people I've asked for an opinion came with one answer - the information to the editor was not complited. I am an editor and I know how important the information is and I demand that. Working with big Canadian and Hollywood productions and knowing the animosity between Camera and Sound, you know what I am getting to.... information is the key. That has been said, on small budget productions, that "information" is the King.

So many cameras out there, so many different people with so many different needs in different situations, CD could not posible keep up with all the request from all over the world. NF, the way it is right now its more then good... almost perfect!
just a penny..