Mastering to XDCam HD (Time Efficiency) at DVinfo.net
DV Info Net

Go Back   DV Info Net > Sony XAVC / XDCAM / NXCAM / AVCHD / HDV / DV Camera Systems > Sony ENG / EFP Shoulder Mounts

Sony ENG / EFP Shoulder Mounts
Sony PDW-F800, PDW-700, PDW-850, PXW-X500 (XDCAM HD) and PMW-400, PMW-320 (XDCAM EX).

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old December 6th, 2007, 04:42 PM   #1
Regular Crew
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Richmond, VA
Posts: 165
Mastering to XDCam HD (Time Efficiency)

For quite some time now we have been mastering our half-hour shows back to XDCam HD disks via HD-SDI (Kona 3) in real time (simply playing back off the FCP 6 timeline and crash recording to XDCam HD in HQ mode). We got in the habit of doing this because the FAM mode took so long. Our machines are dual-3Gig PowerMac G5s. Is the FAM method significantly faster now with the Intel Macs? Can anyone give me a real world scenario (time-wise) of mastering a 30 minute show back to XDCam HD via FAM on an Intel quad core?
Dan Brazda is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 6th, 2007, 08:35 PM   #2
Major Player
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posts: 418
Ive been FAMing back IMX50 timelines on a Macpro recently, its rather slow..

Have been going back to a V1 deck, so no way of crash recording out of the machines LHe card... What i'd give for a 1500 with SDI on this project.

I really wish Sony would put FW800 in their decks, 400 is to slow for a professional deck. I haven't checked but does the new HD1500 deck have 800? or is it still 400..

I'd stick to doing assemble edits.
Joe Lawry is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 10th, 2007, 01:18 PM   #3
Inner Circle
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Bracknell, Berkshire, UK
Posts: 4,957
But firewire 800 won't make any difference to the transfer speed. The write speed of the drives is only around 80Mbps. I find transfer of XDCAM material to disk to be faster than real time so I have no complaints. A 30 minute XDCAM HD show excluding renders takes about 20 mins. Obviously if there are a lot of complex effects to render it takes longer. I would be very wary of the quality of playing back un rendered or non-native material from the timeline, especially if you are then re-encoding to 35Mb XDCAM HD in the deck. This really isn't a workflow I would use as it's adding un-necessary compression steps.
__________________
Alister Chapman, Film-Maker/Stormchaser http://www.xdcam-user.com/alisters-blog/ My XDCAM site and blog. http://www.hurricane-rig.com
Alister Chapman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 10th, 2007, 02:00 PM   #4
Telecam Films
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Washington DC
Posts: 723
Also, look for the recently released PDW-U1 XDCAM USB stand alone drive. It reads at least 2X faster than existing XDCAM / XDCAM HD decks and cameras. Also, the new F335, F355 and F75 decks are outfitted with the same drive mecanism as the U1 and you should notice similar improvements in read speeds with those devices too.

Thierry.
__________________
Thierry Humeau, DoP
Télécam Films
www.telecamfilms.com
Thierry Humeau is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 10th, 2007, 08:20 PM   #5
Major Player
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posts: 418
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alister Chapman View Post
But firewire 800 won't make any difference to the transfer speed. The write speed of the drives is only around 80Mbps.
Ah, correct, i'd completely forgotten about the so called 'drum' speed as i have heard it refered too.

As i understand the U1 will only have 1 'drum' where as like its little brother(1500) the HD1500 will have 2?
Joe Lawry is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 13th, 2007, 06:57 AM   #6
Regular Crew
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Richmond, VA
Posts: 165
Haven't tested it in a long time so I did just now and Alister's times hold up with us here now as well. I guess the software upgrades have had an impact? We're now mastering back to XDcam faster than real time.

Last edited by Dan Brazda; December 13th, 2007 at 08:57 AM.
Dan Brazda is offline   Reply
Reply

DV Info Net refers all where-to-buy and where-to-rent questions exclusively to these trusted full line dealers and rental houses...

B&H Photo Video
(866) 521-7381
New York, NY USA

Scan Computers Int. Ltd.
+44 0871-472-4747
Bolton, Lancashire UK


DV Info Net also encourages you to support local businesses and buy from an authorized dealer in your neighborhood.
  You are here: DV Info Net > Sony XAVC / XDCAM / NXCAM / AVCHD / HDV / DV Camera Systems > Sony ENG / EFP Shoulder Mounts

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

 



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 10:46 PM.


DV Info Net -- Real Names, Real People, Real Info!
1998-2024 The Digital Video Information Network