Doug,
I check it again and I am still able to use Clip Browser to view a BPAV folder on the user data folder on a disk.
Driver 2.2.1
Firmware 2.205

And yes you are correct on the XDCAM transfer app. You can not drill down to the BPAV folder on the disk.

Doug,
Transfer times are really slow on the U1 from a USB drive as well as from the 7200 sata drive on my laptop. You can command only 1 task at a time. Still kicking it around.

Dennis,

With a little help from Chris at Sony I found out that I was wrong in my earlier post this afternoon (which I deleted). EX is completely compatible with EX files.

Clip Browser:
With Clip Browser you have to go to the preferences, choose the General Tab, and click the "UserData" radio button. Clip Browser will then look for BPAV folders and EX clips on the optical disk. The other radio button option is "Clip". If you leave the preference for "Clip" then Clip Browser will only see XDCAM MXF files on the optical disk and not the BPAV files.


XDCAM Transfer:
Clicking on the XDCAM disc icon in the Source window will only reveal the XDCAM MXF files. However, if you twirl the triangle icon that is shown just to the left of the disc icon, then the BPAV folders inside the UserData folder will be revealed.

It's hard to explain without images. I'll try to post a few screen grabs when I have the chance.

Anyway, the bottom line is that XDCAM optical is going to meet my needs for archiving native EX clips. It's not the most cost-effective way to do it, but it's going to be rock solid.

Doug,
Playback on the U1 drive using clip browser is NG, the U1 does not read fast enough. So perhaps this method is as you say. Just another place to secure the SxS media. My interest is in the Nano EX possibilities. Record 50MB LGOP and drag files to U1 Disk clip folder. Ill know more tomorrow.

We were both wrong. Misery loves company.

One more thing to know:

XDCAM Transfer will only see the BPAV folders if the folders aren't nested too deep.

This is OK:
Optical Disk / UserData / Card1 / BPAV
Optical Disk / UserData / Card2 / BPAV
Optical Disk / UserData / Card3 / BPAV

This NOT OK:
Optical Disk / UserData / DAY1/ Card1 / BPAV
Optical Disk / UserData / DAY1/ Card2 / BPAV
Optical Disk / UserData / DAY1/ Card3 / BPAV
XDCAM Transfer will not see the BPAV folders if they are buried at this level.

Doug,
Thank Chris for me. Yes transfer is ok, and plays back, but I need to update browser to see radio button.

On my system it is fast enough. I can playback 35 Mbps 30P clips without any stuttering or other problems on MacPro tower. No problem at all.

D,
what about transfer times. Are you experiencing the same. HAve you tried 34 buss out to U1?

I haven't timed anything yet, and I don't have a feel for the speed because the BPAV folders I've been testing with are rather small.

No time to test tonight. I've got to get out of here to set up for a 7AM shoot we have in morning. I'm, really behind schedule. The earliest I could do a speed test would be Tuesday.

Doug

Transfer times
 

Doug
The transfer time to copy an EX file to the User Data folder on the optical disk is 0.6 realtime. So a 16 (14.?)gig card with 57 minutes would take 34 min & :06 sec. Not practical on set but OK. One bad note. You can not stack up Finder copy tasks and walk away if you needed to copy more than one card. Dropping files into the User Data folder is one task at a time, but you can multi-select Folders with BPAV files and drop and walk away.

One other route is to use the Media Concept Plug in for Clip Browser 350+$$. Basically convert EX to 422 50Mb to optical disk. You end up with 422 color space (Does not improve image, but helps in compositing), and Proxy video for EX files. Sounds great except it takes 5x realtime.

My ideal way is to record on the EX SDI HD on a Nano flash at 50Mb, and copy them to the clip folder on the optical disk. Alister has put some time into this and so far we have not come up with a way. Still pushing. I'll try Chris and see where it goes.

Nano Workflow has been continued below
 

Hi Dennis,

I finally had time to test the speed of writing files to the PDW-U1.

To transfer 17.1GB of clips from the internal HD of my MacPro to the "UserData" folder of a 50GB optical disk took 36:01.

I don't think that is too bad. What speeds have you experienced?

Doug, when you wrote back from your Mac to the U1, was this under Snow Leopard? I'm experiencing problems trying to do just that.

Luc,

No. I have not updated any of my Macs to Snow Leopard. I'm not aware of any benefits it would give me to do so, and there seem to be plenty of people having trouble with it.

Are all your drivers up to date? Don't ask me what those version numbers those should be. :-)

Doug

Hi Doug. Yes, I updated all the drivers, but I remember I once read something about incompatibity between Snow Leopard and writing back to XDCAM Pro disk. I just cannot find it anymore, so I was hoping somebody here would know more details.

I hate myself for updating my Mac Pro to Snow Leopard. I did so, because some friends were advising me to, bragging about 'higher speed' and 'more features' they got out of it. But ever since I did the upgrade, my Mac is not only slower, but I've ran into restrictions on different levels. Lesson learnt: next time I'll wait at least a year, and even then...

I've been an idiot, because I knew this from the PC world: I've worked with Windows XP for almost 10 years, without ever upgrading (?) to Vista. I just thought that with Apple the upgrades would be more reliable. BAD mistake, as I know now.

So now I have this beautiful PDW-U1 unit since yesterday, but it does only half of what I bought it for.