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what’s the point of XML files in XDCAM ?
Hi All-
I’ve used Creative Cow for years but this is my first post:
I just came in as a replacement editor halfway through a project shot on Sony EX1 with SxS cards. I’m coming from 3 years of working with P2 cards so I’m still sorting out all the details.
So I have a folder with all the .mov files and accompanying .xml files. Since the original editor’s naming system doesn’t work for me, I want to rename the .mov files and then re-import them into a new FCP project. This may be a stupid question but: I just don’t understand what the point of the .xml files are. Can someone let me know how important they are and if it’s crucial for them to stick with the .mov? If I rename my .mov files should I correspondingly rename the .xmls?
Sorry I just don’t know what they are for.
Thanks in advance!
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1 Reply
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All those files generated by the XDCAM Transfer application from the raw EX1 files. The Quicktime movies are in an XDCAM codec installed with Final Cut Studio. The XML files are supposed to pass along certain clip format information to Final Cut Pro specifically.
The short answer is that changing anything in the Quicktime files will orphan the XML files, since you’re working outside of XDCAM Transfer. But, since your clips are already in Final Cut Pro, you have another option.
Rename your clips in your Final Cut Pro bin, not in the Finder. Then, with the clips selected, right-click on the clips in the bin and select “Rename>File to Match Clip.” That will rename the files to match the clip name in your project without you having to delete the clips from FCP and re-import.
This will allow Final Cut Pro to preserve any data that came in with the XML files you’re about to orphan when you rename, since the clips aren’t being removed from your FCP project.
The raw files of the XDCAM workflow are a confusing mess when working in the Finder, and for reasons related to our workflow here I’ve never gone about renaming clips using Clip Browser or XDCAM Transfer. If I remember correctly and you wanted to rename clips and export new XMLs with metadata, you’d have to go back a few steps and hope any logging information was intact from the original editor. That’s assuming you have the raw files to work from, which I didn’t see mentioned in your post.
The only downfall to my method of renaming in Final Cut Pro is that the clip names will not translate back to a raw clip somewhere (in a BPAV folder from the camera) but it doesn’t sound like you even have that. If you do, and you want your raw files to relate to the clip names you assign in Final Cut Pro, you’ll want to go back to Clip Browser and do your renaming etc. and then export new movies from XDCAM Transfer.
Since you’re new to XDCAM EX I hope that’s not too confusing. I’d elaborate a little more but I haven’t the time.
Cf
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