Wrapping to MOV on Mac without worrying about split and spanned clips

[Rafael Amador]

Great Craig.
Thanks a lot,
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Stephen May]

Craig,

Thank ou for posting this. I think my process went around copying the BPAV folder mostly because none of the Sony XDCAM Transfer software directions ever mention the step. I know I’ve read here at the COW that many of you do this, but I thought there was a way to get the orphan file through the Transfer software directly off of the SxS card.

Stephen May
Keystone Media Productions
Freelance Videographer

[Craig Seeman]

[Stephen May] “none of the Sony XDCAM Transfer software directions ever mention the step.”
Sony manuals are really bad when it comes to giving clues about workflow. In fact the manuals do little more than tell you what “buttons” do without so much as a clue as to why you’d use them in what circumstances. There is an Apple EX workflow white paper but I don’t think that’s all that great either.

[Stephen May] “but I thought there was a way to get the orphan file through the Transfer software directly off of the SxS card.”
I’m not what you mean by this. If it’s coming from SxS it’s not an orphan file.
At least by my definition an orphan file is a file that has no BPAV folder (and metadata contained within). That’ll be the subject of another short video.

Key to my workflow is that by simply doing Select All to the folders and Import All clips, everything is rewrapped to MOV and all split and spanned clips are joined with the end user having to figure which goes with what. As long as all folders from a project are added, XDCAM Transfer finds everything and joins them as needed. That’s what the metadata and .smi do.

If you go straight from card to XDCAM Transfer you’ll run into issues with clips that span cards which is why that’s not a good workflow.

It really makes sense to copy the clips from card to hard drive first (not show in this video) since that puts you in position to do backups to another hard drive or optical disk or whatever while you free up the cards. If you go straight to MOV (in addition to the spanned clip across card issue) you have no BPAV backup. Not a good workflow given that the BPAV are your camera masters. Also copying from card with ClipBrowser first allows you to use CRC check to ensure your copy is good. If you go straight to MOV and you discover at a later point that while going through the MOV the rewrap to MOV had an issue, you’re hosed.
_________
Craig’s rule for camera master safety. Get those BPAV off the cards first (with CRC checking in ClipBrowser) and then you are free to take the next step be it an additional backup or rewrap to MOV.

[Charles Taylor]

I tried this, and it kicked back an error for many of the .smi files. It seems to pick one .smi to import, and then the rest of the .smi’s from that spanned clip it doesn’t handle nicely.

Any thoughts on this?

[Craig Seeman]

You must have all BPAV folders available. You must use XDCAM Transfer 2.8. All my shoots have split and spanned files and I’ve never gotten an error. You might get an error if you try to copy an SMI and one of the MP4 segments are missing.

There is only ONE .SMI needed for the split/spanned clips.

[Charles Taylor]

Maybe it’s a 2.5.1/2.8 issue.

I’m pretty sure they all import fine, but for any shot that is spanned over cards – EVEN if all the cards are available – it gives errors.

I think it works, regardless of the errors, but I don’t like errors…

[Craig Seeman]

2.5.1 had issues. Use 2.8. ALL my projects have spanned and split clips and no errors.

[Charles Taylor]

Good to know. I’ll track down 2.8.

Thanks for your time.