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EX3 files not working in final cut
Daughter is putting a film together in college for a class. we rented an EX3 Sony HD cam to film. Finished filming and had little time to return camera so I took it with me, stopped at home and pulled the whole file folder off the card (about 13 gb’s) Did not do anything but drag and past the folder to my windows machine. Files on the card were 4 folders: .fseventsd, .Spotlight-V100, .Trashes, BPAV and another looks like document named ._.Trashes
Inside the BPAV folder which is the only one I could open in windows were the folders: CLPR, TAKR, CUEUP.XML and MEDIAPRO.XML
She needed the files so I took just the CLPR folder which has all the clips she filmed and put them on a portable hard drive.
She is now at school and starting to edit and is crying because when she opens the files none of them look High Def as they did when looking at them on the camera. She was told to get a plug in or file from the sony site that would work in final cut. The files play in final cut but still do not look HD. Can anyone help her in what she could be doing wrong or offer any advice? Because she does not have all the files that where on the card be the issue? In one of the 150 folders inside the CLPR folder each one of the individual folders has an MP4 file, an SMI, a PPN a XML and a BIM file folder. Thanks.
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19 Replies
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Sorry for posting this and not giving a look at the other forum posts in reference to it. Daughter went into a panic and you all know how we try to keep them happy so I just went right into post mode. I am finding a bunch of info on what to do and how to do it. Hopefully I can figure it out.
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First the finger wagging but it’s a general statement so please don’t take it personally since you seem to have been under a time crunch.
The time to ask about workflow, if it’s not clear, is at the start of use. One might have posted here a question about the workflow just before leaving the house to go rent the camera or, if one had a chance, after rental but before going off to shoot. Of course maybe you anticipated more time when you got home after the shoot, which is why I say don’t take it personally. The problem is sometimes getting the car to start can be a bit more difficult after it’s totaled.
Ideally you should copy the card with ClipBrowser with CRC ON (or Off if you must due to a major time crunch which is about the only time you should have CRC Off).
The next asking point would be asking about what’s needed for Final Cut Pro import. XDCAM Transfer or FCP Log & Transfer (with Sony plugin) works with the entire BPAV folder intact.
Failing all that, the orphaned .mp4 can be imported into ClipBrowser or XDCAM Transfer. Also the appropriate plugin would play the .mp4 in FCP which, it seems, your daughter did . . . and that should be “all’s well that ends well.”
Apparently she can play the clips so that’s certainly a happy thing.
With that major prologue the question I have is, how is your daughter determining that the clips don’t look HD?
If she right clicks on the clip and selects Item Properties and selects Format what does it say next to Frame Size as well as Compressor?
Frame Size will give you that info for the clip
Compressor will tell you the codec (XDCAM EX) for the clip.If she creates a new sequence does she get a popup box offering to change the sequence setting to match the clip?
That will match the sequence to the aforementioned Frames Size, Compressor, etc.
If there’s no pop it means the sequence already matches the clip.
She should be using FCP 6.0.2 and up. Ideally FCP 6.0.6 or FCP 7.0.3 (Current version for each series). -
Craig, cannot thank you enough for the help and guidance with your response. Yes under the gun and with this shoot, she had close to 25 people involved, several making sure everything was going to be there and the camera was not. The school had given them all out. So the day before the shoot, a Friday, I am looking all over the place where I can rent one and then go get it. Took two days to film and then I had to get camera to bring back to rental place for Monday morning.
When playing them in Final Cut, they look somewhat grainy and not the quality you would expect from a 1080 file. Same thing when I try to play them on my PC using VLC media player which is not the best one out there but plays mostly everything. Not a high quality look.
I will forward this post to her to get the answers you need and post asap. Thank you.
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Craig, cannot thank you enough for the help and guidance with your response. Yes under the gun and with this shoot, she had close to 25 people involved, several making sure everything was going to be there and the camera was not. The school had given them all out. So the day before the shoot, a Friday, I am looking all over the place where I can rent one and then go get it. Took two days to film and then I had to get camera to bring back to rental place for Monday morning.
When playing them in Final Cut, they look somewhat grainy and not the quality you would expect from a 1080 file. Same thing when I try to play them on my PC using VLC media player which is not the best one out there but plays mostly everything. Not a high quality look.
I will forward this post to her to get the answers you need and post asap. Thank you.
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ok just spoke to her and this is the info she gave me:
The files are showing as MPEG HD
Bit rate is 35 MBPS
Frame Rate is 59.94I
Aspect ratio 16×9
Frame size 1920 x 1080
Codec is Apple XDcamEX 1080 I 60
Using final cut Pro version 7She is stating that the files all have a grainy look instead of the high quality you would expect of a 1080 file. She is using the XDCAM transfer
She also stated SIS=sony drive -off site devices which I am not sure if that last bit of info is correct. -
I see so many of these kind of posts–people who rent or borrow an XDCam EX camera and then try to cherry pick the video files out of the BPAV folders. Sony actually should have done a better job of teaching workflow but they did a lousy job of it and now it is left to respondents on Cow. This is a brave new world of tapeless workflow and it takes some preparation and thinking, and is not something you want to do after you shoot on a rental, and have to give the cards back with the camera.
But if you have the cards, hopefully you haven’t dumped your BPAV folders on the cards. Be warned, they are all labelled BPAV and you need to set up an individual folder for each card, like “Card A” and “Card B” and “Card C” and so on depending on how much you shoot.
Then you should always use XDCam Browser to locate and drop those Clips into the folders you set up on your drive. This actually creates a new “BPAV” folder in the previously empty folder on the drive. DO NOT OVERWRITE THESE once you drop them in. Browser has precautionary warnings and imagery.
Then use XDCam Transfer to re-wrap what is in Browser. Make sure you go to preferences and tell it all to go Capture Scratch and the folder in there you want it to go in. Bring all those cards into XDCam Transfer at once. Highlight all cards, and hit Import All Clips and that sets it up for FCP. Only taking it through Browser does not set it up for FCP. It sets it up for almost all other editing software but not Final Cut.
If you dumped your BPAV folders on the cards, then use Calibrated Software for using in Final Cut Pro at https://www.calibratedsoftware.com/MP4EXImport_Mac.asp and it will cost you, but test it first to see if it works properly. It’ll have a watermark on it until you buy it. XDCam Transfer is free, but you may not be able to use that anymore if you discarded the BPAV folders. All those crazy folders have necessary items in them.
Greg Ondera
http://www.Plexus.tv
http://www.SurgeonToday.org -
Those questions I have can reveal all, whether she’s just having a display issue or the files were transcoded to another codec.
Actually VLC is fine for viewing EX .mp4 files especially if you don’t have the codec plugin. Since she has the plugin the files should play in Quicktime directly (although of course you may not have the plugin so you’d use VLC). In fact if they look OK in Quicktime for her, it could point to an FCP specific issue so she might want to do that as a double check.
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For me, the analogy I like to use would be,
If you had a BetaSP or DigiBeta tape, you would pull the tape out of the cassette and then try to play it.
BPAV is the cassette. Don’t open it.In this case she has gotten as far as getting the plugin for it. The only things I can think of is that either someone transcoded the files or the settings in the timeline are wrong.
Of course maybe the camera operator made some bad decisions with Picture Profile or cranked up the gain.
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Craig, for some reason my response to your questions is showing on a post back in the thread. Hopefully these responses can shed some light. Thanks
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Craig’s analogy that each card is a cassette is right on! You label cassettes with a pen but we label the cards with a folder stating which number it is in the sequence of cards.
Doug Jensen has a good description of the workflow on https://www.vortexmedia.com/DVD_EX3.html.
Greg Ondera
http://www.Plexus.tv
http://www.SurgeonToday.org
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