Export to XDCam taking FOREVER!

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Will,
If you render first and export later the timing will be similar.
The problem is recompress to XDCAM. Is not only the rendering but also converting in a HD MPG2 format.
But I don’t understand much finishing in XDCAM. XDCAM is not a delivery format. To play it you need special software and for the same size of files there are codecs that offers you much more quality.
Most of the people are using XDCAM as an acquisition format, but editing and rendering is done with other codec, ie ProRes. You get much faster rendering because is intraframe and allowis you to get much better results from your XDCAM footage.
I edit directly in an Prores sequence, but there is other interesting option. In “Sequence Setting> Render Control, you can choose “Render in ProRes”. This option is available only for XDCAM and HDV footage to avoid long rendering.
Cheers,
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Alan Smith]

You should have a sequence preset that will match your footage, XDCAM HD 1080p25. If you go into you sequence settings and make sure that your sequence matches your footage, you shouldn’t have the rendering issues. And when you export, make sure you are using the same settings to reduce export time.

Alan Smith
Media317

Check out my blog – https://media317.com

[Will Macneil]

Thanks guys, this is kind of a strange one.

I’ve been doing 3D animation for a series and delivering each show on a hard disk as Quicktime files with no codec.

They’ve asked me to supply as part of the deliverables all gfx on one XDCam (sort of a backup without resorting to HD Tape.)

So I’d rather not re-export all my material in XDCam quicktimes. Instead I’m dropping all those quicktimes into an XDCam sequence.

What I’m trying to figure out is where the big slow down is occuring. A full render of my timeline is taking roughly 50 mins, so that’s not a big deal.

What I’ve done now is setup a new sequence using an Easy Setup. My hope here is to check if the export from a rendered timeline will be faster if I’m using a pure XDCam format. What I’m not clear on is what happens as the video goes out the firewire lead. Is is getting compressed again?

If this proves too slow, I’ll just render everything in a nice pro-res sequence and output it via sdi.

W

Will MacNeil
Film Editor
London

[Rafael Amador]

[Will MacNeil] “I’ve been doing 3D animation for a series and delivering each show on a hard disk as Quicktime files with no codec. “
Will, this of “No codec” it doesn’t exist. You may be referring to “NONE”. None is a very old codec that almost nobody uses. The biggest files in the market with no advantages at all. I can’t imagine the data rate of a NONE HD.
You are converting the most uncompressed files (RGB) in one of the most compressed format. 50 minutes to render 40 minutes film is not to complain.
Try the Prores way.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Will Macneil]

Point taken about the ‘none’ codec. It’s been the defacto option for me for a while now when I’m sending stuff off to an Avid based facility. In the past, too many shots were coming back because they didn’t have the codec I wanted to use.

As for the rendering time, I’m fine with 50 minutes. What’s bugging me is the output to XDCam that is lasting several hours and often failing.

W

Will MacNeil
Film Editor
London

[Rafael Amador]

[Will MacNeil] “Point taken about the ‘none’ codec. It’s been the defacto option for me for a while now when I’m sending stuff off to an Avid based facility”
Yes, I understand. But I think AVI supports Animation as well. Same quality and much smaller files.

[Will MacNeil] “As for the rendering time, I’m fine with 50 minutes. What’s bugging me is the output to XDCam that is lasting several hours and often failing. “
I just made a test exporting a short sequence of EX-1 footage just CC. First in X-1, then in ProRes. In ProRes took like a 40% less to export.
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Will Macneil]

Thanks for that Rafael, that’s a big help. It’s pro-res from now on!

Cheers,
W