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XDCAM alternatives
Hi,
After years sending TV commercials in Betacam SP and Digibeta, now by request of the stations I need send them in XDCAM (HD and SD).
I’m looking for a low cost solution for recording the XDCAM discs from the finished material edited using Premiere CS5.
I read about the Disc Drive Sony PDW-U1. Is this the only low cost alternative?
Regards,
Allby -
10 Replies
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Is there a reason at all you’re still using physical media?
I think you should be using DGFastchannel and ExtremeReach. Delivering MPEG-2 Program or Transport streams. Extreme Reach will even accept AppleProRes. -
Allby,
In a word – yes!
The PDW-U1 is a very capable reader/writer for both XDCAM and data onto 23Gb and 50Gb XDCAM discs. Sony however has just introduced four-layer discs and will show products (presumably new reader/writers and recorder/players) that will handle legacy and new versions. the 128Gb XDCAM disc to come is intended mainly for archival purposes, so it may not matter to you. In the mean time, you should be glad that they offer a product for under $3000 that will allow you to satisfy your client’s needs. It’s probably cheaper than overhauling a Beta SP edit deck!
JS
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Thank you John.
Allby
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I have sent in mpeg 2 but unfortunately it is a requirement for some other stations.
Allby
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Honestly I can imagine any station in the USA not covered by either DG or ExtremeReach. You often have to simply ask whether they accept either. They may not tell you that upfront. That’s been my experience. I haven’t delivered physical media for a 30 second spot since 2006.
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Craig,
I just had to go through hoops laying off four sets of eight campaign commercials for a rural area in Northern California for cable head end playout. They all still have Beta Cart machines to auto play their commercials. I believe this is still very common especially in the cable world. I think there is a similar system that Sony makes for XDCAM. It’s like a jukebox and any broadcaster or cablecaster that has not gone with actual servers is still using one or another of these systems.
JS
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DG will output the file you send them to Beta for such stations. I believe ExtremeReach does the same.
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Rent a PDW-U1. 95.00 per day if it a one time need.
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Good idea.
Thanks Bob.
Allby
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I guess the cheapest alternative is to use the camera as your deck and record back to it, but the U1’s are the best low cost alternative ($2k) we’ve found; even comes free with an EX3 purchase. Only down fall to them is their USB slow speeds… Still better than the $12500 1500xdcam deck.
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