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Is “export to xdcam” the holy grail of archiving?
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Hi, Don,
In this forum I have told about quite a lot of lost footage, due to poor DVD-media. After a long e-mail correspondens with the seller, I got the same number of discs with good media (Verbatim DVD-DL). So I know the importance of good archive media.
The XDCAM disks is in a cartrige. Is that the only difference to Blu-ray disks? Or is the disk itself of a superior quality?
I have read a BD-test which said that BD is very resistant to scratches.
Or is it the XDCAM burner much better than a Blu-ray burner?
Sverker Hahn, Stockholm
Slower is better!
Sony EX1
Final Cut Studio 2
iMac Intel
MacBook Pro 15″ -
Alister´s tests are so nice to watch.
I have the SxS cards. I tested it, unvolontarily, in brackish water. After putting it in distilled water and drying, it is working well. Nothing lost.
Sverker Hahn, Stockholm
Slower is better!
Sony EX1
Final Cut Studio 2
iMac Intel
MacBook Pro 15″ -
“In this forum I have told about quite a lot of lost footage, due to poor DVD-media. After a long e-mail correspondens with the seller, I got the same number of discs with good media (Verbatim DVD-DL). So I know the importance of good archive media.”
Then you have to take into consideration other factors, such as “how often are these discs going to be pulled from the archive to review footage by people who set discs on the countertop instead of in their cases?” 🙂 If your non-tech-savvy office staff will be handling your company’s archive material, get something in as bulletproof a cartridge as physics will allow.
Cf
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If your non-tech-savvy office staff will be handling your company’s archive material, get something in as bulletproof a cartridge as physics will allow. Clint, you are right, I didn´t think of that since I am the only one handling the media in this two-person company. But the idea of the business growing makes your remark valid indeed.
Sverker Hahn, Stockholm
Slower is better!
Sony EX1
Final Cut Studio 2
iMac Intel
MacBook Pro 15″ -
[Sverker Hahn] “The XDCAM disks is in a cartrige. Is that the only difference to Blu-ray disks? Or is the disk itself of a superior quality? “
These are questions I can’t answer because I haven’t had the time to do enough research. Sony will most likely tell you that the XDCAM discs themselves will be more robust than BD-R discs that probably use a dye process to retain the information. I would suspect that just like DVD-R media, 3rd party BD-R discs are made with varying degrees of quality and down the road there will be trouble with dealing with knock-offs as well. My thinking is that if you buy an XDCAM disc it’s going to come in its own protective cartridge and the actual disc will not be anything that Sony feels is inferior in quality. Their reputation is riding on it.
[Sverker Hahn] “Or is it the XDCAM burner much better than a Blu-ray burner? “
Can’t answer that one, either. Sorry. But if the recent XDCAM disc torture tests are any indication and if Sony is claiming a 50 plus year life span then I’m going with the XDCAM discs. If you go with BD-R archiving then buy the best ones you can find. If Taiyo Yuden makes BD-R discs then get those.
– Don
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Is there a tutorial anywhere for archiving in this way? I’ve got a PDW-F75, some XDCams and some EX-1s and would love to use the deck to archive our EX footage and projects. I’ve been unable to find anything other than this pending firmware update and I havent been able to figure out how to archive with our current equipment. So, if there is a tutorial on this process it would be greatly appreciated. I’m starting to feel like it takes a Sony engineer to engineer Sony’s equipment.
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Justin,
Like you, I have an F350 camera and an EX1 as a second camera. Many of our clients like to intercut the material from both. We’ve found they just want a single media type to archive and use in the post process. So, I take all of our EX1 clips and put them onto XD Cam HD, optical discs.
You are “almost” ready to archive your EX 1 footage to XD Cam discs! You may need one more product: Main Concept’s “Conversion Pack 2” plug in for Sony’s Clip Browser 2.0 software. I know, it’s like $550, but worth every penny. It’s made us look like rock stars to our clients.
I use this combo all the time and it works great for me and my clients love the results.
After you install the plug in, you’ll be able to view and select clips on SCB2, then right click and select convert to MXF. Here you have several options, like 420, 422, AAF, go to Avid, etc. I typically select 420, and then I make sure the frame rate, frequency rate, and quality match the XD Cam HD shot footage (Ex: 23.98p, 1080,35Mbps). Select the location you’d like to “store” the newly transferred files and hit ok.
Then I take those transcoded MXF files, copy them and paste them into the “CLIP” folder of an F75, F70 or PDW-U1 drive in FAM mode connected to my computer with a formatted XD optical disc inserted.
When that copy has occurred you’ll have proxy files created for you in the SUB CLIP folder as well.
YOU NEED TO KNOW: even if you shot the material with the EX1 @ 1920 x 1080, when you transcode, those clips will now be 1440 x 1080. At least they were oversampled to begin with. They will NOT be able to go back to their original state without quality loss (1920 x 1080). HOWEVER, if you are cutting in a project of 1440 x 1080 ANYWAY for the XD footage, this will NOT be a problem.
Curt Pair
Picture This Productions
Sony ICE Team
F900/F350/700/EX1/EX3/D790/D600
Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 HD/Matrox
Phoenix, AZ -
Justin,
I should have said this method will keep your “structure” of your clips in tact too! The “new” xd clips will look like the EX clips in regards to clip length, TC, name, etc. You’ve just changed the format.
The OTHER way I’ve done this for clients, and they didn’t like it is to go out of the HDSDI on the right side of the EX1 and stream that signal into the input HDSDI on the F75. Then you just put in a disc and start recording.
The difference between the two methods: One will keep clips “clipped out” separately, similar to the EX 1 card structure and the the other is one long, single clip.
My client, America’s Most Wanted tried the long, single clip method and hated it… EVERY shot was the same clip name which was confusing for the log process and cutting process. It was too time consuming for them to sub clip everything out… so, they LOVE the my “new” way of using SCB2 and the Main Concept plug in. It looks the same as it did “in” the EX… everything is separate.
Curt Pair
Picture This Productions
Sony ICE Team
F900/F350/700/EX1/EX3/D790/D600
Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 HD/Matrox
Phoenix, AZ -
Appreciate the info! I’m really looking for a sound archival method for EX footage. I actually shoot very little with the PDW-F355, not a fan of it really at all, but, I love the EX-1. Hard drives tend to fill up quick when you shoot pretty regularly on an EX-1! Archiving EX footage has become a very large concern and Sony representatives made it seem as if the XDCam disc was a viable option. I’m not willing to lose resolution in the transcode and this $16,000 deck doesn’t really make me want to spend $550 more dollars to do that, so I guess my best option is to wait for the firmware update in April-ish. From what I understand, it will allow for any file to be written to the disc, correct? When that update comes out will it take a while to trickle down to the different devices? Will a Mac update be required as well?
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[Justin Gaar] “so I guess my best option is to wait for the firmware update in April-ish.”
The PDW-U1 firmware update was just announced the other day and is available now:
https://www.sony.ca/xdcamex/support.htm
Look for this download link at the bottom of the page:
PDW-U1 Utility Version 2.1 For Windows and Mac
[Justin Gaar] “From what I understand, it will allow for any file to be written to the disc, correct?”
Correct. Before the update there was a 500 Mbyte limit for writing files to an XDCAM disc that were not XDCAM-type files. With the new update you can (apparently) use the whole disc as a repository for any file type: text files, graphics files, etc. This is huge for those who wish to use XDCAM discs to archive media for an entire project using the PDW-U1 reader/writer.
A word of caution: the quote below is from the sony web site description of what XDCAM formats are supported by the new firmware update:
“The PDW-U1 directly supports all codecs, resolutions and frame rates available in the Sony XDCAM Optical Disc family including SD DVCAM 25 Mbps, SD MPEG IMX 30, 40, 50Mbps, HD 420 25Mbps, HD 420 35Mbps and HD 422 50Mbps.”
The XDCAM EX formats don’t seem to be listed, I’m assuming because they are not part of the XDCAM Optical Disc family. Therefore it still may be required that the EX HQ square pixel 1920×1080 recording formats need to be converted to the Anamorphic 1440×1080 frame size before the files can be written to XDCAM disc, which means a resolution loss that can’t be regained after the fact.
I’m not sure if this is still the case but you would be well advised to research this before spending $3000.00 plus dollars USD on the PDW-U1.
– Don
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