NX5 and FCP

[Colin Mcfadden]

Hey all – Colin from Divergent Media here. We do have a clipwrap beta which adds support for the lpcm off the nx5u. If you want to give it a try, just shoot us an email at dmsupport@divergentmedia.com. Otherwise, look for a release before too long.

Cheers!
-Colin

[Tad Newberry]

So Shane, i’m assuming you have an NX5? I just bought one a month ago and so far really love it – though i still think this codec is a bit squirrelly, as well as a few other design things i would change on the camera, but i’m mainly looking for a good forum for FCP and NX5 users without mucking up the Cow here with such specific questions.

Do you know of one or should i just discuss my stuff here?

thanks for helping out a bonehead!
__________________________

FCS3
2.66 GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro
6GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
…and a few TeraBytes o’ storage
(then it’s on to PetaBytes, ExaBytes and MosquitoBytes!)

[Shane Ross]

[tad newberry] “So Shane, i’m assuming you have an NX5?”

Never assume. I do not. I am just an editor who works with all sorts of camera types. Just had the pleasure (sarcasm) of working with that camera this summer. Sarcasm because the format that Sony made for this, yet another offshoot of AVCHD, didn’t play nice with FCP. Importing took a day longer than it should have. BUT, FCP fixed that and things are better.

[tad newberry] “Do you know of one or should i just discuss my stuff here?”

Discuss all things FCP here.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Tad Newberry]

Alrighty…thanks, Shane!

Yes, i understand your consternation with this codec. It’s nice to not be tied to tape anymore…but on the other hand, it’s hard to beat tape for archiving. Not sure what you meant by, “BUT, FCP fixed that and things are better.” I’m using FCP 7.0.3 and still having inconsistencies on when and how Log and Transfer (L&T) will read either the FMU128 card, or the same info when coming from a Blu-Ray or dragged to my hard drive. yes, i know…the files need to be in a parent folder. no problem there.

My desired archive workflow is this: hook up the FMU128 to the Mac, and “copy all” from it and drag to Toast 10 for burning to Blu-Ray. I tried Toast’s “AVCHD Archive” under the video tab, but it burned the first disc (of 2, for spanning) then sat there. So i used the “Data:Mac&PC” setting, burned/spanned my 2 discs – 29GB total – and they both burned fine. I’ve already archived several FMU128 shoots before this, but all could fit on 1 Blu-Ray, but even those are sometimes not seen by L&T. I’ve called Sony and they have basically said, “it should work.” : ) I asked whether it matters WHEN i mount a drive…whether FCP and L&T should be open first, THEN plug in/mount a drive, or vice versa. Sony says it doesn’t matter. They did say to trash FCP prefs if things aren’t working. Did it…not much different.

So, IN THEORY, i’m assuming my method of archiving SHOULD be adequate? Also, on the road, i daily dumped our FMU128s (we were using 2 NX5s) to 2 portable hard drives – this, for safety and redundancy, by selecting all on the FMU128, then dragging both of those folders to each of the portable drives. Upon returning to the office, each days’ folder was dragged to a Blu-Ray (always less than 1 Blu-Ray disc so far, until this last weekend).

Now that i just finished one archive spanned to 2 Blu-Ray discs, i just restored it to my main hard drive, but L&T say of it: “…contains unsupported media or has an invalid directory structure. Please choose a folder whose directory structure matches supported media.”, as it does with several of these blu-rays…

woe is me…

thanks for helping out a bonehead!
__________________________

FCS3
2.66 GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro
6GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
…and a few TeraBytes o’ storage
(then it’s on to PetaBytes, ExaBytes and MosquitoBytes!)

[Shane Ross]

Then obviously your archiving method doesn’t work. The best way would be to first archive to a hard drive (Shotput Pro is your friend!), into folders with unique names, then find some method of drag and drop archiving. How you are archiving to BluRay disks isn’t working…well, in a way that keeps the directory structure obvoiusly.

Or you can get ClipWrap and use that…see if it works with your archiving method.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Tad Newberry]

Thanks. I’ve downloaded and am trying out ShotPut.

Any ideas for the other stuff i’ve already done the old way, i.e., copy all, from RMU128 and drag to hard drive folder or Blu-Ray?

Also, when there is more on the RMU128 than will fit on a single Blu-Ray, is Toast spanning the best way to archive for long term? Or does ShotPut also do some sort of spanning to Blu-Ray discs? I dont’ trust hard drives for long term storage and it seems Blu-Rays would be the best option…or so i think today…

: )

thanks for helping out a bonehead!
__________________________

FCS3
2.66 GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro
6GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
…and a few TeraBytes o’ storage
(then it’s on to PetaBytes, ExaBytes and MosquitoBytes!)

[Sourav Sharma]

I am a MAC user and my Sony NX5U AVCHD video sequence files are not imported for video editing within Final Cut Pro7.

By using “Log and transfer” HD footage are transfer from card to FCP7,but SD captured footage are not transferd.

Please help me by knowing some solutions (steps) so that i will able to do my work.

(camera is sony nx5)

[Tad Newberry]

Hi Sourav,

I bought the NX5 a few months ago, and am getting more used to it. I’m still not in love with the idea of being about to record 13 hours of HD…and all without subfolders, so I try to download footage daily on multi-day shoots. Also, i have not shot any SD with this camera, so completely unsure how transferring such shots would work. From your post, it sounds like only your SD material is not being transferred? Have you tried ClipWrap? Shane pointed me to it last summer (before I bought the camera) and it has really worked out well. FCP’s Log and Transfer is VERY picky about the folder structure, etc., and i find it rarely “finds” my original shots after they’ve been archived…but ClipWrap has been pretty fool-proof (which is highly needed by this fool!). Though I must say, i am transferring right now, and so far (out of 56 clips thus far), ClipWrap has crashed twice saying it doesn’t recognize a couple shots – this is the first day this has ever happened, so not sure what’s up with the card. I haven’t yet wiped out the card, so when this current conversion is done, i’ll retransfer from the card to the hard drive and see if those mystery clips get “fixed”.

Did i read your post right, in that your HD clips ARE transferring properly through FCP? How are you archiving your original material?

thanks for helping out a bonehead!
__________________________

FCS3
2.66 GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro
6GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
…and a few TeraBytes o’ storage
(then it’s on to PetaBytes, ExaBytes and MosquitoBytes!)

[Tad Newberry]

Sourav (and any other interested NX5 owners),

I did some further tests this afternoon with these mysterious 3 files. I recopied the contents of the card to the hard drive again, opened the copied directory in ClipWrap, and those same 3 files showed up in ClipWrap with the note, “could not determine format” on the status side where all other clips say, “waiting.” When i pointed ClipWrap directly to the card, the same thing happened. Though when i used FCP’s log and transfer, all files were read fine . . . at least directly from the card. FCP would not read any of the files copied to the folders on the hard drive, which tends to be typical for FCP – that is, it rarely has a hard time reading directly from the card, but almost always will not read any of the files on my copied folders…which i why i resort to ClipWrap. In this instance, though, it appears FCP is a bit more robust at least in reading those 3 “undetermined format” clips.

So, for this project, i’m going to copy the card to a BluRay disc as usual, but i will also copy the converted 3 clips (converted to ProRes, that is). Hopefully this will archive everything i might need down the road.

thanks for helping out a bonehead!
__________________________

FCS3
2.66 GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro
6GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
…and a few TeraBytes o’ storage
(then it’s on to PetaBytes, ExaBytes and MosquitoBytes!)

[Suzie Vigon]

Wow, thanks, reading that post, just saved me. I had no idea how get FCP to see the footage.
Now I see the connection on the Sony Drive. Trying to log and transfer now.

Suzie