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final(?) XDCam to FCP questions…
i’m going to be shooting XDCam for the first time next week. i’ve downloaded the XDCam Tranfer software, and it says it needs at least FCP 5.1.2 to run. i currently only have 5.0.4 (i missed that old free upgrade offer), and have searched the Apple site and apparently can’t upgrade to anything but FCP 6 right now, which i am still a little leary to do from all the bugs i’m hearing about. $500 is a pretty good upgrade price which i don’t mind paying at all, but i want to be sure it is going to really be an upgrade. also, my card is the Decklink SP (standard def only). so, the questions:
– do any of you know how i can upgrade to 5.1.2?;
– can i really capture in “full XDCam qualilty” via firewire without having an HD capture card? (i’ve been getting different answers on that);
– if i DO need to upgrade my card as well, will the Blackmagic Intensity card do the trick, AND will the Intensity card allow me to capture HDV footage in the DVCPro HD codec and/or the “matching” codec to whatever XDCam is?*i realize if i go with FCP 6, i can mix the two codecs on the timeline….but i’m still pretty iffy about going to 6.
whew…
now i really miss the VHS and Betamax wars. it all seemed so simple then! : ) wow. two whole formats to choose from. ooh ahh.
*i’ve received very confusing answers from Blackmagic on this. they say it is more of an FCP question…but i would think they should be able to give me a definitive answer.
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7 Replies
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I am guessing your talking about XDCAM HD.
Can’t answer the upgrade to 5.1 question
You can transfer full XDCAM HD quality over firewire because it is a transfer process and it’s twice realtime.
If you are mixing HDV footage I would shoot in the SP 25mbps record mode with the XDCAM HD which is the same as HDV and there is no mix and match issues. -
– do any of you know how i can upgrade to 5.1.2?
check your local bricks and mortar retailers and/or ebay … you’ll likely find one with old stock only too happy to sell you the upgrade.
– can i really capture in “full XDCam qualilty” via firewire without having an HD capture card? (i’ve been getting different answers on that)
xdcam transfer copies the data from the xdcam disc to your hard drive over firewire … its just a transfer, not a capture, so no capture card is needed
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interesting idear, but wouldn’t it be better to shoot the XDCam at it’s optimum resolution, and just “uprez” the HDV a little? just curious, but we’ll be mastering out to HDCam for the network. . . which brings up another question: would it be better/faster/cheaper to master to the XDCam camcorder, then take the XDCam disc to the post house and just do a “straight” transfer to the HDCam tape????
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i’ll check around at some retailers…but i’ll also put the word out here if there is anyone here who knows of anyone who would like to sell the 5.2 upgrade, i’m in the market! : )
also, good news on the capture card. that was what i figured (on the XDCam anyway), but still needing to know about the Intensity’s capabilities on my system.
thanks for the great info guys!
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XDCAM HD at HQ, and HDV in the same HQ timeline, can be very trying experience for both you and your computer (this may be a little easier with FCP6 due to the improvements with RT Extreme). if you do have issues when mixing the formats, then your best bet is to edit any HDV segments/inserts in an HDV native timeline, and then nest that into your master HQ timeline.
that said, I wouldn’t shoot XDCAM HD at anything other than HQ. it is specifically that format that makes it look so damn good …. why spend all that money and then dumb your gear down to shoot typical HDV?
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Don’t be scared to upgrade to FCS2. There is always fears with any upgrade. Just use Carbon Copy to make a backup of your hard drive before the upgrade.
FCS2 would be the best bet for you and what you are needing to do. I agree with Andy on the XDCAM HD thing. We always shoot using the HQ mode and mix with HDV all of the time. BUT, we do use capture cards and digitize to DVCProHD and ProRes all of the time.
Mixing formats on a time is extremely important this day and age, so the $500 investment would be very well worth it.
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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com
https://blogs.creativecow.net/waynecarey -
Have you actually tried running XDCAM Transfer with FCP 5.0.4? It might actually work… (Sorry if you’ve already tried!)
Maybe they only specified FCP 5.1.2+ because Apple added support for more codecs in 5.1.2 like ‘HDV – 1080p25’. And there were some useful bug fixes like the one for the Final Cut Pro 5: Unexpectedly quits after importing XDCAM Clips bug that caught several of us out before.
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