Trying to use Sony U1 pro disc drive for archiving EX files out of MacPro

Sony Cameras

Trying to use Sony U1 pro disc drive for archiving EX files out of MacPro

Posted by Mike Garrison on February 14, 2013 at 9:23 pm

Hi all,

I shoot on a Sony EX3, and generally archive my footage as .mov files.

Although I have a G-RAID drive for ‘backup’, I’d like to start backing some stuff up onto 50gig Pro Discs using my U1 drive.

I’m starting with a blank 50gig Pro Disc, hoping to start archiving. With the U1 plugged into a USB port on the front of my MacPro, and inserting a blank disc, I get a warning that says “The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer”– with a choice of Initialize, Ignore or Eject.

Selecting Initialize, I get a “SONY PDW-U1 Media” window — but it doesn’t allow me to Mount the U1 or the disc.

Also, no disc icon mounts to my desktop when I plug in the U1 and/or insert a disc- ala disc icon for my harddrives, or my GRAID, etc.

Any thoughts on what I can do to mount the U1 to my MacPro?
Thanks,
Mike

Ian Cook replied 13 years, 3 months ago 2 Members · 3 Replies
3 Replies

Ian Cook
February 14, 2013 at 10:21 pm

you need a driver..

https://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/xdcamdrive

XDCAM .mxf files (up-converted from EX files using one of the Browser apps or any other available means) can be stored as playable video files in /CLIP. Other non-.mxf files go into the USER DATA directory, which is for generic storage.
Mike Garrison
February 15, 2013 at 7:40 pm

Thanks Ian.

I installed the driver and was able to File>Export to Sony XDCAM, out of a FCP timeline. This created a MXF file.
The export action booted up the U1 drive and it appeared to burn the MXF file off onto Pro Disc.

But as a test, I tried to re-import the Pro Disc clip back into Sony XDCAM Transfer. The U1 did mount to the XDCAM Transfer Log window below my SxS Reader/card. And the Clip folder (amongst others like Component, General, PROAV) in the Pro Disc icon on the desktop showed MXF, XML, and KLV files not bundled, but separate.

But now I’m having trouble getting these (the test file) to transfer into XDCAM Transfer. I keep getting a warning ” Error: Error reading metadata from file “blahblah testS01.MXF” (input stream is not good)
I only dragged the MXF component into the Transfer window– so maybe that’s part of my problem right there…

Any thoughts on what I could be doing wrong. Thanks for your help.
Mike
Ian Cook
February 15, 2013 at 7:53 pm

if you want to stick with Transfer make sure it is v 2.13. But this is a discontinued application and doesn’t always work correctly with the newer drivers and other software. If you can’t get it to work with transfer try using Content Browser v 1.1

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