With MXF export files, is it really necessary to keep BPAV files?
 

I am rather new to the tapeless solid state thing, and I am loving it. But I am having a hard time understanding why I would need to keep the BPAV files after I have exported them to MXF files. It eats up a lot of storage, and I know storage is getting cheaper by the day. I would appreciate some good reasons why I should keep or dump the BPAVs.

BVAP are your original files, and one HD and one optical copy should be made as a backup.
Otherwise if something happens, and one day it will, you will be out of luck.
Doug J. excellant Vortex media DVD training disks are a must, and will answer most of your questions including this one.

Once I verify my MXF file, I delete the BPAV folders. Absolutely no reason to keep them at all, save for maybe some metadata which the NLEs don't seem to support anyway. I do recommend making backups of the MXF file after conversion and verification though.

If someone can present a solid argument to saving the BPAV folders I'd love to hear it.

Perrone,
It's only the mxf files that are useful to me (Avid Media Composer), but the other day someone needed some of my stuff for a Final Cut Pro edit. I was able to help out, because I had the original BPAV folders. If I had sent this person a copy of my mxf folder, would it have worked? I wondered about this but didn't try it.
Cheers, Malcolm

I'm more worried about losing support for proprietary formats (Sony MP4 and BPAV). At least MXF has more support, though I'm surprised that EX1 MXFs from ClipBrowser aren't read universally.

The MXF files seem to be read by a great many of the common NLEs. I know of none that support the native format. Therefore, the MXFs have far higher value to me than the original files (which are only usable with the clipbrowser software).

But again, if someone has good arguments to the contrary, please present them.

The one caveat to not saving BPAV folders is strictly for AVID users. If you export via CB2 to OPAtom(AAF), Avid will not relink or reimport OPAtom files. You' re only backup capability is via those BPAV files.

I don't see why I need to keep them either. I back up the Quicktimes that are made by the XDCAM transfer tool. I figure all I need are the Quicktimes to edit with. Even if I switch platforms, every edit system can handle Quicktimes. Though I'm open to hear why the BPAVs are needed to be backed up! To me, it's easier to back up the QTs and import QTs when needed to edit. I back up to single layer DVDs. I can divy up the QTs in any order from a 16 GB card to fit on 4 DVDs, to back up a 16GB BPAV seems to me to be more difficult.

I'd sure like to hear if I'm doing it wrong though!

Doesn't keeping the BPAV folder retain the best future compatibility rather than QT (I currently archive both, I'm a FCP user)? If a year or three from now someone wants to use my footage in an Avid or Vegas project (or a future version of FCP for that matter), wouldn't the original camera data be best? I'd love to know if not so as to save some archiving work!

I wish ClipBrowser would preserve the dates.

I agree.
Seems that it would be like saving good JPG's instead of saving the original raw files on DSLR's. IMHO

A jpg is a completely different beast than a camera raw file. No comparison to the MXF/MP4 EX1 files at all.

Personally, I convert to MXF, verify all is well then delete the BPAV folder. I see no reason to keep it. Again, if someone has a GOOD argument to why we should keep it, I too would like to hear it.

No, it's more akin to saving raw files to 32 bit PNG. Exact same files, with the exact same information, but in a more universal format. There is no information lost going from the BPAV folder to MXF.

Does FCP support MXF files? I see no reason to go there, as the quicktime files are my workflow on all platforms, and I can never see FCP not able to support QT. Is there a quality loss in sticking with quicktime vs. MXF?

I don't know that FCP supports the native files.