Snow Leopard and ProHD Clip Manager not working properly

[Anthony Shera]

I know that not many people will have this issue because most people with Macs don't use the MP4 mode and therefore have no need to use JVC's ProHD program. However I do use the MP4 mode because I tend to use mainly Adobe programs for my video work.

Anyhow, I have noticed after updating to Apple's new OS "Snow Leopard" that while the JVC Clip Manager program still displays the thumbnail images of any video files contained on the SD cards, it will not play those videos in the preview window. Double-clicking on the file does nothing.

I've already contacted JVC about this, and guess I'll just have to wait for an update.

[Tim Dashwood]

Watch this tutorial, then download version 2.10.0 of Sony's XDCAM Transfer software. Sony updates their version regularly and if you look closely JVC's version appears to just be v1.0 of Sony's. I have not personally tested Sony's version in Snow Leopard but I would think you will have a better chance of full compatibility.

[Anthony Shera]

Okay thanks Tim, I'll try that now. I wasn't aware of Sony's clip manager program, but it looks a lot better!

Excuse my ignorance, but I assume that the re-wrapping process has no effect whatsoever on the footage itself (e.g. quality)? It occurred to me that this should solve my other Snow Leopard issue, which is that I haven't been able to get Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro to let me import progressive JVC MP4 footage without freezing. I can import interlaced JVC footage no problems, but progressive footage freezes both Adobe programs every time. Any progressive JVC footage that already exists (such as in older projects I created in Leopard) plays back fine. It's just the importing process that fails.

Two more questions -- why is is that MOV files that the JVC creates directly (when you change the setting in the camera itself) can't be imported into Adobe programs? And if I Download this Sony program along with all its plug-ins, will I be able to record directly in MOV format and drag-and-grop those files into Premiere as in FCP?

[Tim Dashwood]

If Premiere (or whatever) is installed on the same machine that FCS 2 or 3 is on installed on then XDCAM EX MOV files should work because the XDCAM component for Quicktime is already installed.
If you are trying to play those clips on a machine that doesn't have FCS then you will need to download the open source XDCAM EX component for quicktime.

See this tutorial for detailed install instructions.

And yes... rewrapping doesn't affect the quality.

[Anthony Shera]

Thanks for your instructions. While XDCAM Transfer enables me to re-wrap files and play them back, there is the rather unfortunate problem where thumbnail images will not appear for any of the clips. Apparently,

Sony support has advised that unfortunately Snow Leopard is not currently supported by the current versions of XDCAM related softwares from Sony. Since this is a very recent release from Apple that involves significant change to the Mac OS it may take several months, perhaps winter or spring for full Snow Leopard support from Sony. The exact schedule is still TBD. It is therefore recommended to continue using the most recent release of Leopard to maintain smooth operation of the XDCAM software within the Mac environment.

In other words, if you use XDCAM EX, DO NOT upgrade to Snow Leopard. Of course all of the above is completely inexcusable on Sony's part since developers have had ages to get their programs compatible with Snow Leopard. The lack of thumbnails makes XDCAM Transfer totally impractical and for all intents and purposes unworkable, because you continually get the message

Error: The clip thumbnail could not be saved to the cache as it was an unrecognised format.

[Steve Mullen]

Originally Posted by Tim Dashwood

See this tutorial for detailed install instructions.

Tim, in the brief section on iMovie in your Tutorial ---you say XDCAM EX is always transcoded to AIC. That's only true if you click Optimize. I'm using iMovie with XDCAM EX and as you can see the Event has XDCAM EX clips. (Although I have FCS2 installed.)