Sony XDCAM Transfer – Subclip Problem

[Don Greening]

I’m not having this problem. I can select an in point and an out point in the Transfer Tool viewer window and the program will only import that specific portion.

I’m using XDCAM Transfer Tool v.2.5.1 with OS 10.4.11 and QT v. 7.3.1. on a Mac Pro dual core 3 Ghz. There’s no difference if I use the Transfer program as a stand alone app or from within FCP 6.

– Don

[Ron James]

Don,

I wonder what the heck is going on. You’re using OS 10.4.1? I wonder if it’s a Leopard issue, then. What a pain.

[Don Greening]

[Ronnie James] “You’re using OS 10.4.1?”

I’m using OS 10.4.11, not 10.4.1.

Perhaps it is a leopard thing but I’m sure there are lots of users running the same setup as yourself without issue. You could try trashing the Transfer Tool preference file and then trying another subclip transfer.

You can find the pref. file here:

Macintosh HD>Users>”yourname”>Library>Preferences>com.sony.bprl.xdcamtransfer.plist

Drag that file to the trash and restart the XDCAM Transfer app. and see if that solves it.

– Don

[Ron James]

Oh, I forgot Tiger went up to .11 so I thought it was a typo.

I’ve tried the pref trashing and everything else I can think of. And it happens on two different computers: a 24″ iMac and a Mac Pro dual 3 (both running Leopard).

[Don Greening]

Very strange. Must be a leopard thing then or maybe a combo of Leopard and perhaps your installed version of QT. I don’t have OS 10.5 on any of my machines yet, so I can’t try and duplicate your issue.

But you can still transfer whole clips without a problem, right?

– Don

[Ron James]

Don,

Yes I can still do whole clips. I even tried taking in subclips alongside the whole clips, but I just end up with the same empty movie files. Hopefully, someone with Leopard can chime in, too.

A quick question for you, though: do you have any external FW drives hooked up to your system? I’ve noticed some issues with clips failing on import when multiple ext drives are hooked up, but that was on an older G5. I didn’t think to try unplugging the Firewire drives and I’m not at work right now, so I can’t try, but thought I’d ask you.

Grasping at straws now, but sometimes the weirdest things end up being the culprit.

[Don Greening]

[Ronnie James] “do you have any external FW drives hooked up to your system?”

Yeah I do but I’m not using them for transferring footage via Sony’s Transfer app. For that I have an internal SATA media array (3 drives) in the Mac Pro.

– Don

[Brian Walker]

I have leopard 10.5.4, and XDCAM Transfer 2.7.0 and I can transfer subclips no problem!

[Ron James]

Thanks a lot, Brian!

I should try the newer version of XDCAM transfer, perhaps. I thought I had the latest, but apparently not. If you have any ideas of what else I might be missing (even obvious) please let me know.

[Don Greening]

Ronnie,

I just did a subclip test for you where I selected about 5 sec. of footage from a 58 minute clip right from the camera hooked up to my Mac Pro via USB. I selected my in and out points right in the Transfer Tool viewer window and then hit import. Worked just fine.

Maybe it’s a preference thing that’s checked or not checked but here is a rundown of how my Transfer Tool prefs are set up so you can compare.

Under General prefs:

Automatically add media – checked
Show offline media – checked
Audio channels – all checked

Under Cache prefs:

Cache size is set at 10%
Automatically fetch proxies – checked

Under Import prefs:

New folder for each source – checked
Overwrite existing files – not checked
Add source name – checked
Add clip title – checked
Add UMID – not checked
For subclips add in and out timecodes – checked
For subclips add index number – checked
Subclip handles – not checked
Only import monitored channels – not checked
Write Final Cut Pro XML file – checked
Uncheck subclips on import – not checked
Open imported files with – not checked

See what happens when you compare your prefs.

– Don