sequence settings for XDCAM footage…

[Clinton Rocksmith]

Hi there,

Depending on how many effects and colour grading steps you may want to do there are plenty of options.

I’m using a workflow with the EX format that goes like this:-

– Using compressor convert all footage from XDCAM EX to ApplePro Res.
– Edit those files and apply the effects
– render and output with compressor to dvd

Due to the long GOP of XDCAM EX, final rendering can take a REALLY long time. The projects I’m working on are 2 hours long mostly, so it’s always nice to get everything into the right format at the beginning to speed up the process of rendering at the end.

This may or maynot be for you, but it’s something to think about.

I also backup the original files from XDCAM onto various hard drives (which takes up minimal space) so that I always have the source material. And the project file.

Cheers

[Zack Savitz]

Thanks for your response.

I’m editing a music video that is under 4 minutes with little effects work and only a few video layers so rendering time should not be too much of an issue.

In terms of quality, am I better off staying native or going to ApplePro Res?

[Lewis Lehmann]

I’m going to reply to this thread before I start my own as this regards XDCam sequence settings issues in Final Cut pro.

I’m trying to open already captured XDCam HD 1080p25 footage on my Mac Pro 3GHZ Quad Core Intel, with 5 GB RAM and a ATY RadeonX1900 video card.

Here’s my problem, although the XDCam HD sequence settings are available in FCP, when I select them I get the old “codec not found. You may be running a compression type without the corresponding hardware card.” error.

The strange thing is I can’t even open the XDcam clips, already captured off the card, in QuickTime either!

Any idea what might be wrong? I have of course deleted my FCP prefs, but this didn’t help at all. I’m desperate for help.

Lewis.

[Andy Mees]

Lewis
What version of FCP are you running there? You know, just to make life difficult there really are rather a lot of XDCAM HD codecs including the XDCAM EX strain which may be the footage you are working with. For that you need to be on FCP 6.0.3 or later …
Best
Andy

[Lewis Lehmann]

Hi Andy. I’m running 6.05. The strange thing is I’m running 6.0 on my Mac Book Pro, and the footage plays fine there! I’m also running an older version of Quicktime on the laptop! Should I attempt a re-install of FCP? Or will I just be compounding the issue?