XDCAM Delivery Codec

[Mark Raudonis]

Pro Res plain will be fine. You do NOT need HQ. HQ is way overkill for material originating in the
XDCAM format.

A USB drive would be fine if you can fit it. If you’re mailing, a SSD drive would be fine too, since
it’s impervious to “shocks” while in transit.

Best to call someone at your destination and see what works for them.

Mark

[Deleted User]

I assume the HDCAM reference in your first sentence should say XDCAM?

If so, you can use Compressor to deliver XDCAMHD 422 1080i60 50Mb/s CBR. The PDW-1500 decks that I use will not play out 24 fps ftg. For broadcast you’ll need 29.97/59.94.

Or you can probably rent a Sony PDW-U1 (drives are only $3500 so the daily rent shouldn’t be too high) and download the free software from Sony and you can burn a XD disk from your edit suite. You might save yourself a few bucks. 23gb XD disks are around $25. The sequence settings would need to match the Compressor settings from above and you could just export directly from FCP.

Lee
SAMDOG Digital Post
Calgary, Alberta
Mac Pro 2.66 12-core 16gb ram • FSI LM1760W Monitor • Matrox MX02 • Caldigit HD One 8tb Raid • Euphonix MC Transport • Final Cut Studio 3 • Premiere Pro CS5

[Erick Stoll]

Lee – I actually meant HDCAM. This is for festival exhibition, not broadcast. (thanks!)

[Rafael Amador]

XDCAM is a great acquisition codec, but don’t export to that codec unless you have been requested.
Render on a Prores sequence (why not HQ?), set “Render in High precision”.
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Erick Stoll]

Rafael – I am not exporting to XDCAM; XDCAM is my original codec and I intend to export to Pro Res HQ to deliver my film to a post house, where it will then be put on an HDCAM tape to be shown at a festival.

What does it mean to “render in high precision”? Is this relevant to exporting and converting?

[John Heagy]

[Erick Stoll] “XDCAM is my original codec and I intend to export to Pro Res HQ to deliver my film to a post house, where it will then be put on an HDCAM tape”

If your timeline codec is 720p24 XDCAM then you might as well export XDCAM. If it’s ProRes than export/render to ProRes. XDCAM is a FCP realtime codec, so you could output a flattened XDCAM movie direct. If your going to HDCam then you’ll need to up convert your 720p24 to 1080p24 which can be done on output via a Kona3. No gain going to ProRes unless required by whomever is doing the output to tape. No great loss rendering to ProRes, it’s just not necessary.

John Heagy

[Mark Maness]

I agree with John…

Your best bet is to ask the post house that is doing the dub for you. They may request that you send a ProRes422 HQ file on a hard drive. But if you can get away with it, it’s ALWAYS best to output using your sequence settings. If you edited in XDCAM, output XDCAM. Doing software conversion between codecs will be your biggest headache.

For example, we edit our shows in DVCProHD 1080i29.97. My broadcast station requires a 1080i29.97 ProRes422 HQ file. Its easier and faster for me to write my shows to XDCAM HD on our PDW-F70 decks and capture that file as ProRes422 HQ than it is to export my timeline to ProRes422 HQ. Exporting my timeline will take about 12 hours to render. It takes me only an hour and a half to write to the deck and capture back into ProRes 422 HQ.

But this is our workflow.

Just my two cents.

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
https://web.mac.com/schazamproductions
schazamproductions@mac.com

[Erick Stoll]

Thanks for the suggestions. This leaves me with two questions.

1. Rather than using XDCAM Transfer or FCP Log and Transfer to make QT XDCam files, I have a plugin made by Calibrated that allows FCP to use the .mp4 files that are native to the camera. Does this have any bearing on your suggestion to output my sequence as XDCAM?

2. What’s the best way to export my sequence as XDCAM?

3. I don’t need to worry about upresing to 1080p do I? I just assumed that the post house would do that when going to HDCAM.

Thanks again.

[Mark Maness]

All of this depends on the post house.

When working with a post house, ALWAYS ask for their requirements. If you don’t, they will charge extra for any extra work they may have to do.

I’m assuming that you shot all of this on an XDCAM EX camera and that you don’t have an XDCAM HD deck in house. If this is true, see if the post house will take a 720p XDCAM EX file.

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
https://web.mac.com/schazamproductions
schazamproductions@mac.com

[John Heagy]

[Erick Stoll] “. I have a plugin made by Calibrated… Does this have any bearing on your suggestion to output my sequence as XDCAM?”

No, it basically wraps the XDCAM media into QT “on the fly” instead of making new QT files like Log and Transfer. I’m a big Calibrated fan!

[Erick Stoll] “2. What’s the best way to export my sequence as XDCAM?”

Export via Quicktime Movie… and use “Current Settings” assuming your timeline is set to the XDCAM codec. If the seq codec is set to ProRes it will start a long render and you’ll end up with ProRes. Make sure Make self contained movie is selected.

[Erick Stoll] “3. I don’t need to worry about upresing to 1080p do I?”

Yes you do… like Wayne said, check with the post house. NEVER ASSUME ANYTHING!!!! Always better ask too many questions than not enough!

John Heagy