XDCAM files into one clip

[Chris Borjis]

I wanted this feature as well.

It’s not supported that I’m aware of to do that.

You would need to lay all the clips in then export
as 1 quicktime to another codec.

apparently mpeg stream clip has the ability to
seam clips together but as far as I know that
too requires a further compression step.

The other option is to use the PDW deck to capture
into another codec like DVCPRO-HD.

[Mark Maness]

Oh, come’on gang…

This is easy.

Take all of your imported clips that you want to combine into one clip – drop them into a sequence and export that to disc. It will make one clip however long you want to the end of the disc.

You can do this natively in the XDCAM codec.

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com
https://blogs.creativecow.net/waynecarey

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Michael,
I’m working as you say. A day shooting I can end up with few hundred clips.
Impossible for me to work in such a way.
I make longer clips. Put a bunch in an FC sequence and export all together. Five minutes or so.
just taking care that the two audios keeps separated.
If you keep the clips in the whole length, the process is really fast and there is NO RECOMPRESSION at all. If you make cuts in the clips will take just a little bit longer because a GOP must be rebuild in each cut. But may be a matter of 5 seconds per cut.
The same files I use them for archiving in Blueray.
I haven’t find a better system so far.
I guess you can also export a Reference movie from FC and re-import it.

Mac OX 10.5.2-FC 6.02-QT 7.4.1
G5 2x2Gh 4GbRAM-BlackMagic Extreme
PMBP 17″Core2Duo 4GbRAM-AJA ioHD
JVC DTV-17″
SONY EX-1 . SONY PD170
..and always a big mess on top of the table.

[Andy Mees]

A few options:

You can assemble the clips into a single “virtual reel” and then use that as the clip source, rather than the individual clips. When editing from the virtual reel into the timeline use Cmd-F9 and Cmd-F10 rather than the typical F9 and F10 (for insert and overwrite) as the former will insert the virtual reel’s original clip sources rather than a reference to the virtual reel itself (aka nested sequences)

If you are shooting with an F350/F355 XDCAM HD camera or recording to an F70/F75 deck then you can enable the “Continuous Clip Recording” mode. (You’ll need the latest firmware upgrade for the camera/deck). This means you can record as a single clip across multiple button on/off recordings … obviously that then extends to your FAM mode file import as the cumulative recording will appear as a single clip instance.

As already suggested, you can capture the file as a single clip into FCP with Log and Capture using baseband and a suitable I/O interface (or. with a suitable camera/deck,a thru firewire as a down-converted DV stream)

Hope it helps
Andy

[Rafael Amador]

[Andy Mees] “You can assemble the clips into a single “virtual reel” and then use that as the clip source”
Hi Andy,
How to make this Virtual reel?
I have no idea. give me a bit more of info on this please.
Thanks,
Rafael

Mac OX 10.5.2-FC 6.02-QT 7.4.1
G5 2x2Gh 4GbRAM-BlackMagic Extreme
PMBP 17″Core2Duo 4GbRAM-AJA ioHD
JVC DTV-17″
SONY EX-1 . SONY PD170
..and always a big mess on top of the table.

[Andy Mees]

hey Rafael,

what I’m suggesting is nothing more than a selects reel.
very simply, all you are doing is creating a sequence of all your source clips and then using that instead as your source “clip” for browsing and selecting shots for the edit.

heres a few quick tips for the process:

store all the source clips for each disc/card in separate source bins
open one of these bins, select all the contained clips, and choose Modify > Make Multiclip Sequence and then press Enter (OK) to accept all default settings and create the sequence
… this will create a new bin of multiclips (which you can delete), and more importantly, it will create the sequence that you will use as your virtual clip
open the sequence into the timeline and you’ll see that your original xdcam clips have been assembled in order such that the timecode of the clip matches the timecode of the timeline

take this sequence and rename it to something appropriate, then copy or move it into the main project folder

repeat for each bin full of source clips

of course, you need not create these timecode synced reel sequences if you don’t want to. if you prefer just manually create the sequences and drag and drop any selection of your source clips into them to quickly create butt-cut assemblies of the selected clips

… and thats pretty much it. all you need do now is use these sequence as the source clips

to open a sequence into the viewer window as a clip, rather than the opening it into the timeline window as an edit, simply drag and drop it from the browser to the viewer window, or you can just option-doubleclick the sequence in the browser window
(note: if the viewer displays the sequence in a multiclip view, eg 4-up, 9 up etc then you can choose View > Multiclip Layout > Multiclip 1-up and then reopen the “clip” again)

and as mentioned before. if you use cmd-f9 and cmd-f10 to edit into the timeline then this will use the original clip source from the sequence rather than nesting the sequence itself (if you’re a drag and drop kind of guy then if you hold the command key down when you drop the file into the sequence, again this will make it use the source rather than creating a nest)

hope that explains the idea/workflow better, and that you might find it useful

cheers
Andy

[Michael Bennett]

Thank you guys for the answers!

That’s what I thought.There’s no any comfortable solution for this.I used this sequence thing when I worked with the footage I just thought that there must be a way which is easier and a bit more logical than this “fabricate” thing.Unfortunately it makes our life harder but at least I know that this is the only option to work with that.

Thanks once more

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Andy,
Thanks for the explanation. Really clear. I will try it.
You know, with the years you get lazy to learn new things. Thanks God when needed the brain still works:-)

Mac OX 10.5.2-FC 6.02-QT 7.4.1
G5 2x2Gh 4GbRAM-BlackMagic Extreme
PMBP 17″Core2Duo 4GbRAM-AJA ioHD
JVC DTV-17″
SONY EX-1 . SONY PD170
..and always a big mess on top of the table.