Importing from the PXW X160 into FCPX using SDXC cards

[Andy Turner]

I really want to get this camera (and help answer your question) but I’m not real happy with Sony since they have not made the 160 available in the US. Only the PX180 is being sold here. I’m having a hard time paying an extra $800 for Wifi. Sorry…venting

[Martin Waring]

Thats a pity. I decided that I can very easily live without Wifi and without remote control by smart phone. It all seems a bit too gimmicky to me. I tried the smart phone control out on my FDR AX100 and it sort of works but I wouldn’t want to rely on it working.

The story seems to be that support for the XAVC L codec in FCPX is coming soon but is dependant on both a change to the XDCAM plugin from Sony and to FCPX from Apple.

Meanwhile I’ve tested AVCHD on the PXW X160 and no problems importing from the card to FCPX. I’ve also tested MPEG HD422 writing to SDXC card and importing to FCPX and that works too. The card I’m using is a Sandisk Extreme Pro SDXC card rated at 95 MBPS, but that might be overkill.

[Mark Thompson]

Martin, have you tried this software from Sony:
https://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/pdzk-lt2

I believe it is free. it contains a FCPX plugin to support Sony media.

Also, the future for Sony Content Browser is here:
https://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/catalystbrowse

It is also free for now, if you recently bought Content Browser it will be a free upgrade.

[Martin Waring]

Yes. I am indeed using PDZK-LT2 but it currently doesn’t support the XAVC L codec. I’ve been told that support is coming soon (no timescales quoted) and that it is also dependant on a change within FCPX.

[Mark Thompson]

aha I missed the xavc long part in your original post.

Are you able to post a small clip online anywhere? I am analysing clips at the moment 🙂

thanks
mark

[Martin Waring]

I’ve just tried the Sony ‘Catalyst Browse’ tool and that does let me read the footage shot in XAVC L on my PXW X160 and lets me transcode it into Prores which can then be imported into FCPX.

So at least there is a work around until the FCPX plugin gets sorted.

https://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/catalystbrowse

[Callie Malan]

Hi Martin,

I recently bought the PXW-X160. I am using the adaptor which was included with my purchase( a Sony SD Card Adaptor for XDCAM Series SDHC/SDXC), along with a SanDisk Extreme Plus 80 MB/s SDHC Class 10 SD card.

I am faced with a huge problem however. The camera does not allow me to record any codec, apart from AVCHD( which is my least prefrible codec), to the SD card. The moment I insert the SD card via the adaptor into the SxS card slot, and error message pops up which reads: ” Unknown Media(A) Please Change “. And when I attempt to format the SD card, an error message is displayed as follows: ” Format Media(A) NG: Cannot Format “. Followed by another error message: ” Unknown Media(A) Please Change “. I have tried out an SxS card, and it allows me to make use of all the other codecs that the camera has to offer. However . . .

I don’t want to buy an SxS card, if I know it is possible to shoot all of the PXW-X160’s codecs on an SD card. And, because SxS cards are extremely expensive. So before I go out to buy an SxS card, please help me understand why this is happening. Could it be because of the brand SD card, or the fact that it is SDHC instead of SDXC? Please help!

[Martin Waring]

I’m on my phone and I don’t have access to the manual but I’m pretty sure that with an SDHC card all you can do is AVCHD. You need SDXC cards to use some of the other codecs. Even then you can’t do the top one but you can record all the flavours of XAVC L. I’ve been recording the top XAVC L codec to SDXC cards. My problem was then how to get the footage into FCPX on my Mac but I’ve solved it using Catalyst Browse.
If only Sony’s documentation was as good as their equipment. I feel like a YouTube review/ tutorial might be handy. I might make one.

[Riccardo Molinari]

Hi, I am writing this message because I have a little problem with my PXW-X160.

If I insert in X160 my original adapter Sony MEAD-SD02 with Sandisk SDXC da 6Gb U3 memory ( https://www.sandisk.it/products/memory-cards/sd/extreme-uhs-1-45mbs/?capacity=64GB ) and then an original SXS memory 16Gb I see this message on display:”Types of Media (A) and (B) are different”. ! ! !
Here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWz7EDYI7ZE you can see a short video and here https://i.share.pho.to/861f3a83_l.jpeg a memory card’s photo.

It is normal ? I can’t witch from memory A to memory B….I must remove memory A (adapter + Sandisk memory) to use SXS card 🙁 🙁
Someone can help me ?

Thanks for all
Riccardo

Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!

This happens because the functionality/content marked as “Google Youtube” uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.

[Martin Waring]

I can’t answer your question as I’ve not used an SxS card yet but I’d like to know if you think using an SxS card (as opposed to an SDXC card) is worth the additional cost. That is, is using the XAVC-I codec significantly better than using the XAVC-L codec – so much so as to justify the price difference in getting SxS cards for it?