Best FCP Capture Settings for Sony XDCam

[Mark Raudonis]

Scot,

We use XD-CAM almost exclusively on our shows. We work off-line at the “Off-line RT Photo Jpeg” setting. Using a J-30 deck, this comes across fine via firewire. However, for our “full res” versions, we playback from a MSW-M2000 which does NOT have a firewire port. Therefore, we come into FCP via the AJA box. Although you don’t say it, I think you’re asking: Which codec is best/possible via firewire. I would look at the IMX codec which FCP supports natively. This would give you the most efficient ingest. Hope this helps.

Mark

[Scot Yount]

Thanks. I too think the IMX way of doing business is best, but have been unable to do it without the flip4mac software which my TV station here in Boston doesn’t want to buy because we use pcs running vibrant. Any other ideas on the best codec?

scot yount

[Mark Maness]

Well, Scot.. I can tell you from personal experience since we have been using XDCAM for almost a year now. Its the best format available. Let me ask, which deck are you using? The PDW-1500 or the PDW-V1? With either deck you can use the firewire or an SDI output.

The reason I ask is if you plan on using the Flip4Mac plugin, you really need to use the PDW-1500 because it has gigabit network capabilities. You’ll find out real quick if you use the deck on a standard 100 mbit network, it will take forever to download a disk. And if you plan to use the Flip4Mac plugin, you’ll have to make sure that the shooter makes an individual clip for each take, otherwise, you’ll download a large clip and only need a small portion of it. And here’s the real kicker…. Flip4Mac plugin only imports all clips as having eight channels of audio, even if you are only using two channels. Tends to make editing a nightmare with all the wasted audio tracks.

My favorite way of using XDCAM is to digitize in SDI using the IMX50 codec. Here’s another issue you need to know… All of your shooters need to record at IMX50 on their cameras, because FCP cannot handle anything but IMX50, and only on a G5 system. G4’s do not run IMX without dropped frames.

Personally, I love the flexibility and the ease of use with XDCAM. I can record all of my commercials to a single disc and make BetaSP copies very easily. Each commercial can have bars, tone and a slate for each with individual timecode since you write files, not continous tape. AWESOME!

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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions