EX file problems (error code-36)

[Jay Curlee]

Actually upon closer inspection there is a freeze in the qt files but playback continues if I move down the time progress line. I was thinking along your lines too about fcp export and will try exporting.

Fortunately the 3 of the 4 files in question are for use mostly in montage and the problematic areas are dispensable. The more important file is a 20 minute 4+gb clip. I have not viewed it all the way through but it does play on spot check.

Fortunately the sound was recorded to a separate device (a very cool Zoom H4). If the export trick works, most of my fat will be out of the fire.

BTW, in checking and double checking all of my files, I discovered 11 clips that did NOT get imported that are still on the SxS cards.

My head is still spinning from this shoot.

Jay Curlee

JC Communications
Makers of Rocking the Boat: A Musical Conversation and Journey
http://www.rockingtheboatmovie.com

[Craig Seeman]

[Jay Curlee] “BTW, in checking and double checking all of my files, I discovered 11 clips that did NOT get imported that are still on the SxS cards. “

I’d bet those were split clips. Those are clips that crossed cards. XDCAM Transfer will see them as incomplete and won’t import them unless you select it as a subclip. In order for XDCAM Transfer to import those clips all parts of the file must be available. This is another reason to use ClipBrowser. I guess you’re learning this the hard way.

One should really test workflow before doing a paying gig. Sorry for 20/20 hindsight but I’m writing this for the benefit of others who might be reading the trials and tribulations.

[Jay Curlee] “Actually upon closer inspection there is a freeze in the qt files but playback continues if I move down the time progress line. I was thinking along your lines too about fcp export and will try exporting. “

The -36 error may be related to the media so the freeze just might related to the media and not the file. Try the FCP trick. In addition try just copying those files generating the error one at a time to a different hard drive.

[Jay Curlee]

It was 3am when I did my last transfers, so the last 11 clips were probably missed when I quit too early. At least they are on the card. Re the SMI clips, Transfer handles them nicely if you have both cards up in the window. They are nicely linked now. An old friend who’s been in the business 40 years and who is an early EX-1 adopter, recommended I go the Transfer and not the Browser route. I should have saved the BPAV folders in any case. I have heard that Browser is better for PC users than Mac guys. I am not qualified to argue that.

The shooting plan was made non functional because of the surprise news that my firmware would not support the MxR cards. I bought a new camera with old firmware 4 weeks ago.

Lots of stress happens when you go from a show to the room to download and race back to the stage for the next show. A new Macbook Pro or being able to use my MxR cards would have saved me lots of angst.

This whole gig was a trade deal and I delivered 1000% of their expectations.., even with the 4 apparently corrupted files. 4 clips out of 472 isn’t as bad as it could have been.

Thanks for your suggestions and interest.

Jay

Jay Curlee

JC Communications
Makers of Rocking the Boat: A Musical Conversation and Journey
http://www.rockingtheboatmovie.com

[Craig Seeman]

[Jay Curlee] “At least they are on the card.”

Good news indeed.

[Jay Curlee] “An old friend who’s been in the business 40 years and who is an early EX-1 adopter, recommended I go the Transfer and not the Browser route.”

Reminds me of those guys who’d recommend spinning a reel to the end rather than rewinding to head back when when 1″ and 2″ machines had slow rewind times.

I can see a motive for skipping BPAV but there’d have to be extreme motive such as doing a VNR or other crazy tight deadline and you just have to take a risk and skip the BPAV copy. I can’t see any other circumstance though.

[Jay Curlee] “I should have saved the BPAV folders in any case. I have heard that Browser is better for PC users than Mac guys.”

Those .mov files the XDCAM Transfer wraps to are specific to Final Cut Pro (baring a third party plugin others would have to purchase). There are certainly people using Macs with other NLEs such as Avid, Premier Pro, Media 100 just to name a few.

From those BPAV some NLEs can use the MP4, others can use the MXF that ClipBrowser can create. Some will use the BPAV/MP4 to go to another codec. Those BPAV are your camera masters. They are your safety net. Without which, if you fall, it can be fatal. Some people don’t like the time it takes to set up the net. Some people don’t like wearing seat belts either. The one time in your life you need them you’re glad you buckled up though. You’ve just experienced one of those times. Maybe it’s just a non fatal fender bender but the scratches you’re getting are certainly a lessoned learned.

Think of how happy you are that you have those 11 clips still on the card. Think of how much happier you’d be if you also had the source clips for the mov files giving you the error.

Do try to do the FCP save or copy individual to another hard drive and see if they can be rescued though.

[Michael Palmer]

Jay,
Great speaking to you today.
I hope you had some success exporting in QT.

I don’t recommend this extremely fast pace workflow, and I hope everyone reading this can take advantage of low cost media solutions (SDHC/MxR) to avoid deleting their original files before the conversion files actually are verified.

Good Luck
Michael Palmer

[Jay Curlee]

The postscript to my file problems is that the troubled files had hits whereby they would cut to black for a second or more and then rebuild. I cut out the hits and exported the files to QT movies from FCP. This saved most of the footage.

Whether these hits were camera hits or drive hits is the $64K question. FWIW, all the hits happened on files saved to a particular drive on a particular data dump. That would be a clue.

Thanks for the help, guys.

Jay

Jay Curlee

JC Communications
Makers of Rocking the Boat: A Musical Conversation and Journey
http://www.rockingtheboatmovie.com

[Craig Seeman]

From my experience error -36 (i/o error) often has to do with the drive. Using CRC might have alerted you to the fact the file on the drive wasn’t matching the source file assuming the issue was present on the hard drive at the time the file was being copied.

This opens the other door that any media has some risk involved whether tape, optical disk, hard drive, etc. and the best bet on beating the odds is some form of redundancy.

The one thing CRC buys you is that you know your initial copy is good or are alerted to the failure of the copy immediately and can then seek out another media to copy it to.

I don’t know of any case where such hits would happen in camera on the EX unless you had bad SxS cards which I haven’t heard of yet. Given what I’ve seen the EX put through I can’t imagine the buffer or write to media being scrambled in any way. In fact it’s much more reliable than a rotating head across a piece of tape.