Master Back Onto Xdcam - Avid Xpress Pro/vegas
 

Hello,

I have a (quite silly) question concerning mastering back onto xdcam.
I have got Avid Xpress Pro and Sony Vegas but on the first sight I am not that happy with the Vegas system. The thing however is, that Avid doesn´t support mastering back onto XDCAM at this stage.

So what I wanted to ask is whether there could be a way of importing XDCAM HD media into Avid, edit the thing on the AVID and then export as an MXF file, import MXF on Vegas again and then master back onto XDCAM. This may sound absolutely ridiculous in terms of "good workflow", I know but it was just a thought of a possible workaround. Hopefully Avid will support XDCAM HD mastering soon anyway and I will however things go have to upgrade to Media Composer or completely switch to FCP. But for the moment I´m looking for a complicated way to make a useable master copy. I´m also thinking of buying a blu-ray burner and export the thing on a blu-ray disk.

What do you think?

Thanks a lot for your thoughts,
Emanuel

There have been discussions on the Avid forums that the new version of Avid Xpress Pro and Media Composer will both support mastering back to disk. The demo version is out among those who are testing the software. I don't know what the final release will bring, but I would hold on for a while and you may be pleasantly surprised.

Xdcam Discs
 

Will older XDCAM DISCS work in the 330 & 350 cameras?

Simple answer: Yes.

Storage XDCAM HD clip
 

I am new in this forum so I am grateful to be welcomed here.
I come from DVC Pro and Avid world, but I intend to move to XDCAM HD ( F 350 ) and also FCP, but I am unfamiliar with it.
I have 2 questions concerning FCP :
- Could you store a stereo or 5-1 clip edited with FCP on a XDCAM HD disc ?
- if your goal is to produce Blue ray and SD DVDs from a clip mixing DVC PRO and XDCAM HD shots, is it possible with FCP ( no problem with Media composer ) ?
Thanks for your help.

Why would you move from Media Composer to FCP?

Troubles with Firewire Line Protector "Kramer PT 1 FW"
 

Hello,

does anyone of you guys use the "Kramer PT 1 FW". The PT-1FW is a line protector for FireWire signals. I bought one and tested it out for the first time today. Usually (direct input via firewire/FAM) everything works just fine, but as soon as I plug this thing in, my computer won´t let my XDCAM F-350 be recognized correctly on my PC. As soon as I unplug the Kramer PT1 and plug the firewire in directly, everything´s fine again. I was just wondering, whether anybody of you had similar troubles with this unit.

Thanks,
Emanuel

F900 banding?
 

I've got an F900 sitting next to me,with a zeiss 4-20 digi zoom, running HD SDI out of a miranda DVC-800, into the SDI port of a Panasonic HD monitor, all are running off AC power. When an object is placed in the foreground, and out of focus, even slightly, two things are happening:

banding; arguably subtle, but there nonetheless,

and a slight color shift at the edges, particularly in black or white, akin to chromatic aberration?

Both effects get worse the farther out of focus the object is thrown, but even slightly out of focus this looks awful.

Anybody have any ideas?

Guess, is that it's your white shading, go into maintenance menu page 1 and adujst your white shading (and black shading) and you should be able to get rid of your chromatic abberation. The other thign to check is your back focus. Zoom in on something focus, back out and then adjust the back focus, let me know if this solves anything.

(p.s. techincally this isn't AFFORDABLE 3 chip high definition) ;)

Please coach me
 

Last night I was doing a test about interval recording with my F350
My settings were HD SP/30p.

I have FCP 5.0, iMac dual core 2GB ram 250GB HD and 256MB video ram

In PC I have Adobe Premiere 1.5 dual core 2GB ram 400GB HD, 512 Video Ram

I want to download those files into my editng system and do some basic editing.

Can you tell my best workflow and software settings in any of the above machines to do my job.

Thanks in advance.

William Osorio

First update to FCP 5.1.4, get XDCAM Transfer 1.1 (for free at Sony), then follow this link:

http://bssc.sel.sony.com/Broadcastan...whitepaper.pdf

Its in there.

Fujinon XS17x5.5 and HSS18x5.5
 

Hi to all of You!

Does anyone have experiences with both Fujinon lenses? The XS17 costs about 7.000 EUR and the HSS18x5.5 about 12.000 EUR in Germany. Both do not have an extender. Today a made some trial shots with the HSS18x5.5, but I do not know anyone who has a XS17x5.5.

Are there optical differences or is the only difference the zoom factor?

Matthias

There are optical differences according to my local Fujinon tech. The HSs series lenses are the premium quality hand picked glass. The XS series OTOH, are not. He told me it's possible you can get an XS series lens that will be as good optically as the HSs series, but it would be a random luck of the draw. This is why the price of the HSs lenses are higher.

-gb-

i have the same problem. It is very annoying. I bought it to protect my camera/ computer from dodgy firewire power surges but it is useless!

Fiwi DV Out ->HD Files
 

Hi everybody,

I am wondering if this workflow could work:

Filming HD 35MBits Footage

Capturing "DV" via Firewire Out (NOT FAM mode) - with ?!? Software

Editing SD - as you are used to...

IF the customer asks for HD - throw in the Discs and replace captured footage by HD files.

?
_______________

The idea behind is: At the moment most projects are SD. If shot in HD , the NLE spends quite some time converting to SD - so why not using the "old capture method" for directly working with correct DV files.

The question is if there is any software out there able to replace the DV captured files with the correc MXFs...

?

I know... this is very specific, but I am just curious..

ULi

You can do that. I have done it. However, recapturing the HD files to replace the SD might be a bit tricky. Depends on what software you use. But I pretty much capture everything in HD 35 cause I know I can come out the FW port in AV/C mode, even cropping to 4:3 in camera as it comes out if necessary. The only downside is that what comes out in this manner is DVCAM 25 4:1:1.

You're almost better off shooting in HD, import using FAM, then you can downconvert to SD using better codecs than DV25. That would also help maintain higher picture quality for an SD DVD output.

-gb-

Display Clip Number
 

I read the manual and cannot find a way to display the Number of the clip being recorded on the field monitor.
I think it would be much easier to write down the clip number instead of the timecode to mark out the good takes.
It would also be easier for the editor to find the right material if we would give him Clip numbers instead of timecode as he accesses the camera via FAM mode and sees the clips as numbered files.
Anyone knows a trick that I haven't learned?

I think you are able to see the clip name on the camera LCD only not in the field monitor.

Low Light 350 Definitely NOT a Problem
 

Never mind. The people on this site are...well let's just say point well made by them. The 350 is an excellent low-light camera given an understanding of light, lens and camera.

Heavy Vibration from the F350
 

One thing I've noticed in the demo F350 that I'm using is vibration, especially through the tripod handle. It is actually severe and distracting. I can physically hear in from the camera as well. Is this normal? Makes me wonder if it will show in the pictures.

I notice it most when there are clips have been yet to be recorded(freshly formatted disk). Is it hunting for a clip? On my shoulder, I don't really notice it.

Depending on where the camera is writing on the disc, you occasionally can feel a bit of vibrations but these have never affected the picture.

Thierry.

New CamRade Cases for XDCAM this NAB2007
 

CamRade will be releasing new products this NAB 2007 for the Sony XDCAM HD 330/350 camcorders. New cases released will be Rain Suits, Snow Suits, Desert Suits, Cam Suits (Body Gloves), and Cambags that you will have an option of the standard CamBag or a BackPack Transporter style.

CamRade, like Porta Brace, is made of 1000 Stitch cordura. Their Rain Suits are designed with a flexible, soft material, complete with vinyl windows. They are noted to be " The Quietest in the Industry."

TapeWorks is a dealer for most of the case manufacturer's in the market. TapeWorks noticed CamRade products last NAB 2006 when CamRade first displayed their product line here in the US. CamRade is based out of the Netherlands. Due to the quality of their product line, and the fact that TapeWorks can provide CamRade's Product line to the client for less $$$ than some of the competition, TapeWorks has been fully supporting their line. If you are interested in seeing the quality of their products, then please visit us at NAB 2007 this year as CamRade and TapeWorks Texas Inc will be working the show! You can locate us in booth # C7817

If you require a Free NAB Exhibit 2007 pass, please contact TapeWorks and we can provide a VIP Pass Code to you!

For more information on CamRade, visit www.camrade.com or http://tapeworkstexas.com/camrade1.html
You can also contact TapeWorks Texas Inc toll free 866-827-3489 and one of our sales representatives would be happy to assist you!

I hope to see you in Vegas!

Best Regards,
Scott Cantrell
TapeWorks Texas Inc - HDVinfo Sponser
866-827-3489
scott@tapeworkstexas.com

Problem when playing back a sub-clip list
 

I have noticed a bit of a flicker across the monitor screen,(sort of like a dropout) when playing back an edited(in camera) group of sub-clips out of the SD video out. It happens to the current clip playing when the camera begins loading the next clip into it's buffer(I can hear the disk assembly grunt as it gathers the next clip). Anyone seen anything like this?

It doesn't do it if I play from the main clip list, only the a sub-clip list and it mostly seems to occur on clips that are heavily trimmed. The camera I am using is a demo F350, and I doubt that it has the most recent firmware.

Is there a way that I can determine which version it is running?

Peter

I don't recall how to display the version on the earlier firmware, but if you pull up the clip menu from the thumbnail display, look for clip lock and clip delete functions. These are only present with the newer firmware (version 1.56 or later).

In fact, if you have the newer firmware, there will be a ROM Version menu page in the Maintenance menu.

-gb-

XDCAM HD in Cincinnatti, OH ?
 

We need a shooter in Cincinnatti, OH for next Thursday (18th) and 1/2 a day on Friday for PBS documentary.

Write back ASAP, Thanks

Bob

Error 34
 

Hi folks, I keep getting error 34 trying to import highrez from XDCam file tansfer i've checked all the settings but still wo'nt import does that happen also on export? Cheers!

FAM over long distances...
 

Well, just thought I'd report on my experience... I just received my PDW-F70 deck, which will sit two rooms away from my edit bay (in the studio control room). I would rather not deal with sneaker net, so I decided to try something.

I purchased a Gefen firewire extender, which allows extending firewire over fibre.

I put the deck in FAM mode, connected everything up... and it works like a charm. I only transferred a couple of things so far, but works perfectly.

...just thought you would just like to know.

Thanks Mark. I was also thinking about bringing the camera online via firewire and marking it as a shared drive so that it would be visible to my network. If you are good at setting up VPN, this could possibly used for remote access to the files over the internet.

-gb-

Dynamic Range of F330/350 in stops
 

Was curious if anyone knows the dynamic range of the F350 in stops. I'm trying to do some apples to apples comparisons in terms of latitude. How does this compare to the other cameras in this price range?
thx

2/3" XDCAM worth the wait?
 

We've looked at all of the HD formats out there, and we keep coming back to XDCAM as the best fit for us. The work flow is outstanding, and potentially looks even better with FCP 6. XDCAM also allows us to physically put footage on a shelf, and that ability to easily archive is very important to us.

However, Sony kind of "muddied the water" this year at NAB by announcing their coming 2/3" camera line. I was told that the image block of the new camera will be the same as the high end HDW-F900 cameras. Also, the 50 Mb data rate sounds very enticing as well.

Most people on this forum seem to be very pleased with their XDCAM gear. I strongly suspect that the new camera will NOT be as feature rich as the F350. Sony got through NAB without going into a lot of detail about the specific "bells and whistles" on their new camera. But the raw specs....larger pickup chip, increased data rate, increased resolution, recording at 4:2:2 instead of 4:2:0, increased recording time on dual-layered media...sound really good.

What are the general thoughts....will the MPEG HD 422 cameras be worth the wait?

Don't forget they will probably cost a lot more too. I think the 2/3 inch camera sounds great, but the 1/2 inch cameras are incredibly good value and the PQ is excellent. It's accepted by a lot of broadcasters already and that is only going to increase as the HD changeover continues.

I agree about the workflow, having your disks on the shelf is a great comfort!

XDCAM HD and slow-mo footage
 

I posted a similar question on the general HDV section, but wanted to be a bit more specific with the XDCAM-HD users...

I've got a client that needs some HD footage shot of a controlled environment explosion. This is NOT for broadcast and does not need to be of that caliber. It does need to be usable though for trade shows etc... shown on an HD monitor.

The questions I have are as follows:

1) Will XDCAM HD be able to handle the brightness of the explosion better than 25 mB/sec HDV cameras?

2) What would be the best approach with XDCAM footage in getting 1/5 to 1/10 speed slow-mo. I assume high shutter speed, but what else? Software manipulation?

Thanks in advance for your input.

Stuart

Answer to #1 is yes. Simply because you have a lot of manual control over the image and you have larger sensors with higher dynamic range than current HDV offerings.

Answer to #2. You can overcrank to 60P in camera, then playback at 24P which is 2.5x slower. To go down as far as 1/10 or 1/5, you'll have to do additional work with software.

-gb-

xdcam hd and xpress pro
 

when editing xdcam hd material on xpress pro without a mojo, does it playout a downconverted signal through the computer firewire port? in other words, what are the monitoring capabilities other than the composer monitors? with a mojo, do you get realtime downconversion to dv25 through Mojo's DV out? iam using a MCA a drenaline and am not sure what xpress pro abilities are in this.

thierry

Is there a model number for the 2/3" XDCAM HD yet?
 

Does anyone know if the new 2/3" has a model number. Just trying to do a search on it for for more info.

Peter

XDCAM Writeback on MAC based AVID?
 

I´m thinking of buying a new computer for my editing work. I love Apple machines but because of having worked on a PC (Avid) for many years now, I don´t quite know that much about the new Mac machines. I just know that they look really good and have great performance. Just read in an article that writeback was supported in 5.7 on pc and mac.

thanks,
Emanuel

renaming clips ?
 

Hi to all,

I am wondering if the cam still plays it if the clips have been renamed by a computer (is that possible by FAM?).
(please dont ask why, its too difficult to explain ;-) )

I know that the proxies would have to be renamed in the same manner + ext.

Can the file names be changed?

ULI

Time Lapse video Approved
 

Hello guys, after working for several days with my settings on my PDW-F350 finally my product will show.

http://footage.shutterstock.com/video.html?id=35266

From now, I will be doing some other stock footage projects to be sold on that website.

William Osorio

Congrats
I knew it was good.

Richard

Export multichannel audio MXFs (SD)
 

Hi to all,

what programs support export to multichannel Audio MXF?

I want to render masses of HD MXF files (4ch audio) to SD MXF files (4 ch audio too).

Do Edius / FCP / whatever support this?

what about batch export (of a bunch of clips or regions)?

Thanks

ULI