Recapturing from XDCAM HD (not EX)

[Ben Holmes]

You could recapture this through XDCAM transfer. As long as the filenames are not changed, you can then reconnect all the offline media in FCP, by referencing the newly captured files.

Ben

Edit Out Ltd
—————————-
FCP Editor/Trainer/System Consultant
EVS/VT Supervisor for live broadcast
RED camera transfer/post
Independent Director/Producer

https://www.blackmagic-design.com/casestudies/detail.asp?case=therydercup

[Paul Kim]

I would just have to make sure that all my original clips were imported in their entirety? So is anybody logging and using in and out points to minimize the takes or sections of video they don’t need–like major portions of interviews that could be used for a separate project? Or is that benefit of tapeless media something nobody’s really going for…

[Paul Kim]

I’m getting the impression that many are using XDCAM HD discs in the same way as they were with tapes, ingesting thru HDSDI (often into ProRes) and then using Log and Capture, Batch capture, etc. But since Log and Transfer doesn’t seem to work with FCP, it can’t be used in that fashion it appears.

Still figuring this out.

[Jason Brown]

Hey Paul,

We recently got a 700, interested in your workflow and thoughts.

Jbtwist@gmail.com if u want to discuss off the forum.

I haven’t done any batch capturing…but we got a 1600 playback deck so we could actually playback and CAPTURE. It was suggested as the easiest way to recapture media…because it works off TC although it’s 1:1 time. As far as doing it with a pdw U1, I’d say reimport and reconnect…shouldn’t be that difficult. (although it is a Sony product on a Mac). 🙂

[David Johnson]

I import my XD-CamHD footage to our Mac with a PDW-U1 and, unless I’ve misunderstood the question, as Ben said, you should be able to just put the disc back in the PDW-U1, Transfer recognizes the clips (I/Os and all), select the clips you want and hit import again. It shouldn’t matter whether you imported the clips in their entirety.

I’ve only had to re-import footage that way a couple times so far, but it worked fine. If it’s not working for you, perhaps not only the footage got deleted from your RAID, but also the database files, etc. that I assume are where the I/O info is stored … not sure whether that info is written back to the disc or not.

As an aside, as a pretty cheap safeguard for these kinds of situations, we have Tri-Backup software running to automatically back up the most critical folders on our RAID to a smaller internal RAID we’ve set up inside the Mac … TB drives are pretty cheap now.

[Paul Kim]

Thanks David. When you say Transfer recognizes the clips with in and out points, are you referring to the in and out points that were created in the original clip–when they were filmed? What if you have a longer clip, such as an hour long interview clip, and then you captured/imported several shorter clips from that longer interview clip? I do lots of interviews and don’t always want to import (bring online) an entire, lengthy clip.

When you reimported these clips, I’m assuming they didn’t automatically reconnect to your timeline? Say some clips get deleted, or become offline, or you’ve finished your project and later you want to reimport everything to do another version, what do you do?

[Bouke Vahl]

Although the Sony tool can rip (note, i’m not using ‘capture’, as it is a file transfer!) the logged clips, you still need the time info be present there.

FCP cannot feed the Sony software the clips it needs!
So, if you have ripped entire clips, you can redo that and FCP will link.

If not, you need to rip the entire clips and pray FCP will link to those. (It probably will, if you keep filename / path intact.)

If you want to rip partial content, you need some custom software from me. (Contact me direct if you want to discuss it)

Or, capture like a traditional deck, but that of course cannot be done with a PDW-U1.

Bouke

https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pros

[Paul Kim]

Bouke, does your software allow integration with Log and Transfer? Just briefly checked out your website–do you have any tutorials that show what the software can do? That would be helpful.

[Bouke Vahl]

Paul,

What my software does is ripping the clips used in your project, and saves them as MXF files.
Then, using the Sony XDcam transfer tool, you can convert those MXF files to QT, and have FCP relink to the new files.
Mind you, my software does NOT extract the entire files, just the ones you used! (media manage first!)

Currently i’m finding out all the codecs so the Sony tool is not needed anymore, but that is still experimental.

Now, this relies on the offline (proxy) clips being available!
In your situation, this may not be the case!

So i would have to find another way of getting the metadata out your sequence, and have FCP relink to that. (Luckily i’ve already made a FCP relink tool, so most of the work is done.

If all is well, there is a demo on my site. Download it, read the manual and toy with it.

Contact me offlist, and we’ll discuss this further.

bouke @ videotoolshed dot com

Bouke

https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pros