At Wit’s End: “No Image” when trying to view clips in XD CAm Transfer and FCP

[Don Greening]

[Sarah Weinstein] “When I open XD Cam Transfer, the program DOES load my cards and the clips and the info. about each clip. But there’s just no way to view or hear them or work with them.”

Looks like you’ve got all the stuff you need. You’re right, if you’ve got QT v.7.4 then you don’t need to go back to v.7.3. which is the minimum Quicktime requirement, not the ONLY QT requirement.

[Sarah Weinstein] “Do I need to have the latest operating system? Is that the problem?”

No. OS 10.4.11 is fine.

You state that you can’t view the clips within the Sony Transfer Tool. This tells me that the XDCAM EX codecs aren’t available to the Xfer Tool, otherwise you’d see the clips. A really fast way to find out if the codecs are actually there is to start FCP and and choose: New Sequence (Apple – N). In the pop up window scroll down to the very bottom of the list. There should 10 XDCAM EX settings just above the XDCAM HD presets. Make sure that “Show All Presets” is checked in preferences.

Check that and then post back with your findings.

– Don

[Sarah Weinstein]

Hi Don:
Thanks very much for your response. I think you’re onto something! When I’m in FCP, I went to Audio/Video settings in the pulldown menu and for both Sequence and Capture Presets, I had DV-NTSC 48KHz selected. I’m assuming I have to change those to XDCAM EX settings. But which one do I choose? I don’t know the differences between CVR and VBR etc…I think I need a 1080 setting because that’s the best quality, no? Which one do you recommend for normal, run of the mill shooting and editing?

Thanks. Hopefully this will solve it…
Sarah

[Don Greening]

You choose the sequence preset that matches the one you used when you shot with the EX. Check the EX and see which one you used: HQ 1080i 30, HQ 1080p 30, etc. But even if you have a new sequence created in FCP, when you drag an EX clip into it, if it doesn’t match what you shot FCP will ask you if you want to change the sequence settings to match the clip settings. Choose “yes” of course. Makes it really easy.

But my point is that you don’t need to choose a sequence setting right now because that won’t make a difference to the Sony Xfer Tool. I just needed to know if the EX codecs were present. Are you using the Sony Transfer Tool as a stand alone app or from within FCP?

To make sure that the Sony Transfer Tool “sees” the EX codecs do the following:

1) Quit the Sony Transfer Tool.
2) Turn on the EX camera with it already connected via USB.
3) When the camera asks if you want to connect choose “Execute”.
4) Make sure the card icon appears on the desktop.
5) Start FCP and choose “Import Sony XDCAM” from the file menu.
6) The Transfer Tool will start up within FCP and you should now see and hear your clips within the Transfer Tool window.

Post back after so I know this worked for you.

– Don

[Sarah Weinstein]

Hi Don:
Thanks. I have been using the Transfer tool through FCP. So I connect the camera, see the cards on my desktop, start FCP and go to Import Sony XD cam. And the clips show up with all the info. for each clip. But there’s no audio or video.

Are you sure it doesn’t have something to do with my basic FCP settings? Either A/V settings or another group of settings I’m overlooking?

Thanks for persevering…
Sarah

[Don Greening]

[Sarah Weinstein] “Are you sure it doesn’t have something to do with my basic FCP settings? Either A/V settings or another group of settings I’m overlooking? “

I don’t think so. At least I can’t think of anything that we’ve missed. The workflow I’ve outlined is exactly what I do and it works for me every time. Unless there’s a slight difference between how a G5 handles everything as opposed to a Mac Pro Intel machine which is what I use.

Even though you can’t see them, try selecting all the clips in the Xfer Tool window anyway and import them. If that works they should show up in the Browser afterwards. Double click one of them to load it into the Viewer. Can you see the picture now?

If not then we’ll have to leave it for this evening and perhaps someone else can provide some insight in the morning. In the meantime, quit everything and then run Software Update to make sure everything is current as far as OS 10.4.11 and Quicktime is concerned.

Make sure the Pro Apps Application support and security updates are all up to date as well.

Sorry for not figuring this out. As a last resort you may have to erase your startup drive and re-install everything but I hope it doesn’t come to that. It’s a lot of work.

Please read this recent thread concerning a similar issue such as yours. I thought it may have been a unique problem but maybe your problem can be resolved using Jim’s solution concerning software updating.

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/142/857625

– Don

[Allen Cavedo]

Sounds like you are getting close to a solution.

For what it’s worth, i spent two days screwing around in FCP and XDCAM Transfer on my new Macbook Pro all because i somehow downloaded an old version of XDCAM Transfer from the Sony web site. I had ver 2.1 which made FCP report an error about insuficient disk space. I finally found and downloaded ver 2.5 and eveything worked just fine. I know this is not your same problem but you listed XDCAM Transfer but no version. If yours is ver 2.5 then this tidbit won’t help.

[Sarah Weinstein]

Hi Don:
The Import button is grayed out when I try to import clips.
This has got to be some silly thing that I’m overlooking or some option or preference that I haven’t chosen or have chosen by mistake or something.
Are you LA based? I wonder if there’s some LA-based expert I could have come look at my set up. This kind of technical minutae drives me insane. And keeps me from using my new camera!

Thanks…
Sarah

[Don Greening]

[Sarah Weinstein] “Are you LA based?”

No, but in the same time zone though, in Vancouver Canada. Make sure you read that recent thread I directed you to then try going to the Apple website directly and checking software updates right from there like Jim Frazer had to do.

If this isn’t resolved by tomorrow nite then on Wed. you should contact the local FCP User Group in your area. They’ll for sure know someone who owns an EX and is editing with a G5/FCP combo.

Don’t despair. Lots of people are using a G5 for editing EX footage. We’ll get this figured out for you.

– Don

[Don Greening]

Many thanks to Chris Leong from another forum for his (at least) 3 day search on the web for coming up with a possible fix for this issue.

Apparently the combination of a G5, OS 10.4.11 and Quicktime 7.4 stops the Sony Transfer Tool from displaying XDCAM EX media properly, resulting in the “No Media” prompt within the Sony Xfer Tool. The fix is to go back to Quicktime v.7.3.1. Chris has done this successfully on numerous Macs that are used to edit XDCAM EX media.

Since it’s such a pain to go back to an earlier version of QT I’m waiting for Chris to give me the name of a free utility program that will do a direct install of QT v.7.3.1 without having to de-install QT 7.4 first. I don’t know if this will raise a QT conflict or not or if the utility program actually deletes the later version but as soon as I find out the name of this utility I’ll post it here.

Hopefully this will solve your issue, Sarah. In the meantime, you could try to update your QT version from 7.4 to 7.4.1 because this latest version is supposed to fix issues in the first version of QT 7.4. If it works then great but if not you’ll have to go back to v.7.3.1. I know, it’s all very confusing.

– Don

[Craig Seeman]

A utility called Pacifist will allow you to install QT 7.3.1 over QT 7.4.x. The alternative is do an archive/install of the OS (which really isn’t that painful since it’s not an erase/install).

I’m probably repeating some stuff in the thread but:

Make sure you see the EX codecs in FCP 6.0.2’s Easy Setups. You don’t need to select them to see the video in the XDCAM Transfer Tool. That’s a later step.

Make sure you have XDCAM Transfer Tool 2.5.1 and not 2.1 (which came with the camera on CD).

Another thing to try in the Transfer Tool is File/Fetch Metadata from source and then import the file (even if you don’t see the video). I’ve had the odd clip or two where I didn’t see video but that worked. Probably not your problem but I’d thought I’d mention it.

BTW I used the Transfer tool on my G5 Dual 2.3GHz, FCP 6.0.2, OS 10.4.11, QT 7.3.1 and that combo worked.

Pacifist
https://www.charlessoft.com/
XDCAM Transfer Tool 2.5.1
https://servicesplus.us.sony.biz/sony-software-model.aspx?model=PDZKP1