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Trouble Importing Sony XDCAM EX footage into Premiere Pro CS4 – (Size Limit?)
I recently purchased two PMW-EX3 cameras for use here at my work, and I thought that I had them up and running perfectly but recently ran into a problem importing footage.
When I shoot anything over around 13:40:00 long, PP CS4 will not import the entire length of the clip, only the first 13:40:00 (give or take a minute or two).
When I play back the clips on the camera or in Sony’s clip browser software I can play the entire duration of the clip. When I’m in PP using the Media Browser window to get to my footage, it even shows me the correct duration of the clip in the Duration column, but when I copy it over into my project bin, only that first 13 and a half minutes makes it.
I recently had a similar problem importing AVCHD files from Canon’s Vixia HF20. The problem was with Pemiere putting together the separate 4GB files that AVCHD creates. (There was a loss of audio and video at the points where the clips joined together.) I’m wondering if this is the same issues, as the EX series has the same limitation of creating MP4 files only up to 4GB in size. Of course, with the metadata it creates, it knows how to put these together to create your one continuous clip that you see in the clip browser. If so the issue here is just manifesting itself in a different way (Adobe PP only imports the first MP4 file of your clip and not the rest).
I’ve searched lots of other forums, and while I’ve seen various issues with importing XD EX footage into PP, I haven’t seen this one yet.
Aside from this limitation of importing clips longer than 13:40:00 long, (or larger than 4GB if my speculation is correct) I’ve had no other issues editing the footage in Premiere Pro.
Last note is that I’m using a Matrox RT.X2 LE, but I’ve tried the import into both a Matrox preset sequence and a non-matrox preset sequence and I still have the same problem.
I don’t think this is a computer power related issue, but here are my specs for good measure:
Custom PC
Intel Core i7 (8 core 2.67GHz)
12GB Ram
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285
Matrox RT.X2 LE -
9 Replies
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Did you format the drive to which you’re copying the files as NTFS or FAT32? It should be NTFS. FAT32 has a file size limit of 4GB.
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Good advice checking for NTFS. Also, when moving footage from the SxS card to your PC hard drive, do NOT use Sony Clip Browser – just copy the video folder straight over to your drive. Using Clip Browser will cause issues in Premiere later on.
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers -
Thanks for responding Aaron. The 4GB size limit isn’t imposed by my computer’s hard drive, it’s actually a limitation of the camera’s recording method.
The camera records onto Sony proprietary SxS flash-based cards which have the limit. So if you shoot something thats, say 20 minutes long and the size of that file would be (for argument’s sake) 6GB, there won’t be 1 6GB MP4 on the SxS card you recorded to, there will be one roughly 4GB MP4 file, and one roughly 2GB MP4 file.
It creates metadata files that tell it that these clips go together, so when you watch the clip on the camera or with Sony’s Clip Browser software it appears as one continuous clip.
When I use my Media Browser in Adobe Premiere to view clips in XDCAM EX format it will see these as just one single clip and will show me the correct duration, but when I drag it over into my bin, only the first 13:40:00 or so makes it (which I believe is just the first MP4 in the series.)
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Hey Jeff,
I’m actually not using the Clip Browser to copy the files over. When I built the workstation I actually built it with this workflow in mind, so I put an express card slot into the computer. I just pop the SxS cards in that, open it up by browsing from “Computer” and copy the whole BPAV folder onto my NTFS formatted (Raid 5) data drive. (Specifically, into the specific folder for the project the footage is for). The I use the PP Media Browser to import the footage from there into my project’s bin.
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[Jeff Pulera] “Using Clip Browser will cause issues in Premiere later on.”
Hi Jeff…are you sure these ‘problems’ aren’t a Matrox thing as opposed to a Premiere Pro thing? I only use the Sony Clip Browser for transfer and haven’t encountered an issue yet…
TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions, -
Hi Tim,
Yeah, I thought that it could be an issue with the Matrox, so I tried opening a new project and creating a non-Matrox sequence, but I still had the same problem. However, if it really is a Matrox problem simply creating a non-Matrox sequence may not be enough to take the Matrox out of the picture entirely. Maybe it’s still doing something in the background that’s causing it.
That would be a bummer if it is the Matrox, as they’ve designed it with the XDCAM EX format in mind (along with other formats of course).
Is anyone else out there using a Matrox with PP CS4 to edit XDCAM EX footage?
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Do you have the MainConcept plugin? I was having the same problem with XDCAM files. Anything bigger than 3.5 gigs or 13:40 min would not import fully into Premiere. I am running Windows 7 and Premiere CS4. I found that there was a conflict with my MainConcept Plugin. Premiere connected the XDCAM files fine before I installed this and after I uninstalled it.
I sent MainConcept a message regarding this problem and hope to have it fixed soon. I’ll try to keep you updated.
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Just to add my experiences:
The 4.1 and 4.2 beta Matrox AXIO drivers have serious problems with XDCAM EX files – they import all with 00:00:00:00 timecode. What’s even more frustrating is that it breaks timecode for ADOBE sequences as well. In my case the only solution was to uninstall the Matrox drivers!
I reported this some time ago to Matrox and was expecting the 4.2 beta drivers would fix it – but the issue doesn’t seem to have been addressed at all!
Paul Gale
Silicon Pixel Ltd -
Dear Sir,
This is really good and interesting to read as I have just built a Win 7 system with 3gig of raid and SSD boot drive, 12gig of ram ect… and installed Premier and Matrox, any EXR1 MP4 files spread over 2 or more folders as you say(Over 13 mins long ish), do not import into premier unless I manually put all of the files into one large folder removing them from the sony tree layout.
It’s a real shame as I shoot allot of conferences and music which can be an hour in one take.
So would you recommend uni-stalling the Sony clip browser to get ride of the Concept Codec Drive which seams to be a possible fault?
I also have the Matrox Card installed but only on one system, my other system still has the long clips issues so I think Matrox isn’t a reason.
Simon
Two EX1R Sony Cameras in Sussex, UK
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