Batch re-transferring with XDCAM Transfer?

[Don Greening]

As long as you still have the original BPAV folders from the SxS Pro cards on a hard drive you can navigate to each one the same way as if they were still on the cards. XDCAM Transfer will re-create the data again just like it did the first time.

[Adam Alphin] “Does XDCAM Transfer keep a running database or allow you to save a database per project?”

Yes, it does keep a database of each BPAV folder provided you haven’t previously deleted it. Even if you have deleted it the program will do it again for you when navigating once more to the copied BPAV folder(s) and importing them.

[Adam Alphin] “Is this done in FCP instead?”

No, but there are programs such as CatDV that will log your native XDCAM EX clips (or .mov clips) for use in FCP. You can choose what clips you want to use and then export an MXF file from CatDV. Final Cut Pro will read the MXF file and all your chosen clips with their associated meta-data will be imported directly into FCP’s browser. This works really well for projects that reference large numbers of clips.

– Don

[Adam Alphin]

What if I log material on a laptop in order to import the footage later on a workstation at the office? XDCAM Transfer can’t do that right? Would there be a data file in the Preferences or some such folder that I could port to the office machine and have all my logged info ready to ingest?

[Don Greening]

[Adam Alphin] “What if I log material on a laptop in order to import the footage later on a workstation at the office? XDCAM Transfer can’t do that right?”

Correct, unless you figure out which XDCAM Transfer preference file is in charge of storing the data and copying that over to your work station for use with another copy of XDCAM Transfer. I don’t think anyone has asked this question before. I think what you really want is a logging and database program that works directly with Final Cut Pro, such as CatDV.

https://www.squarebox.co.uk/

For now, I think the simplest workflow for you would be to use your laptop and Sony’s Clip Browser to copy your BPAV folder to a portable hard drive. Then take your HD to work and use XDCAM Transfer to convert your native EX files to MOV format for FCP. Then you’ll have your clip database available all the time on your computer at work. It’s sort of what I do when I’m transferring cards on-site with my laptop and then connecting that hard drive to my workstation back at the edit suite.

– Don

[Daniel Wright]

I think I do what you are proposing in your original question; I make a separate XDCAM Transfer database for each project, and save it with the FCP project when I am done.

By default, XDCAM Transfer creates a database in ~/Library/Application Support/Caches/Sony XDCAM Transfer/. There are three folders in there, but keep these together inside the parent folder

You can either:

(a) change this location between projects on the Cache tab of XDCAM Transfer’s Preferences, or

(b) move the cache to another location while XDCAM Transfer is not running.

You need to be sure that the BPAVs are in their final resting places before you add them to XDCAM Transfer, otherwise it might not be able to find them again. (I archive to Professional Disc using a PDW-U1 and import from there, so this is not a problem for me.)

Then, if you ever need to re-import, you can simply do the opposite of (a) or (b), and everything will still be as you left it, markup and all.

Although I have never tried it, I can see no reason why you couldn’t copy this database to another machine, provided the paths to your BPAV’s don’t change. So I think you could:

1) Copy you BPAVs using Clip Browser to an external hard drive connected to your laptop.
2) Mark up using XDCAM Transfer.
3) Connect the external hard drive to your office computer, and copy over the database.

[Adam Alphin]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Have a very productive 2010!

Adam