XDCAM HD into Premiere CS3

[Harm Millaard]

Upgrade to 3.20 and open a XDCAM EX project first.

Harm Millaard

[Warren Morningstar]

Thanks for the response, but no joy. Still tells me missing or unavailable codec. Won’t play directly in QT either. Should I be looking for a codec someplace?

[Harm Millaard]

Import the BPAV directory. No codecs needed.

Harm Millaard

[Warren Morningstar]

Ah, there’s the rub. The boss cut the piece in FCP and exported it as a QT file. No BPAV files available. I guess the only option is to ask him to re-export it using a codec that Premiere will recognize?

[Tim Kolb]

You need the MXF files for PProCS3…which an XDcam recorder makes.

Is there an XDcam VDR around that could be used to master the FCP output?

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

CPO, Digieffects

[Warren Morningstar]

Sadly, my client believes that if the file ends in .mov I should be able to read it. Can you point me to any resources so that I can understand and then explain why outputing an XDCAM HD encoded file in a QuickTime wrapper is not necessarily universally understandable?

Thanks,
Warren

[Jon Barrie]

The problem is that the codec used by FCP with XDCAM media is not actually XDCAM that the camera records. It’s an Apple Intermediate Codec, which means it’s only available on the Mac Platform. I find this nosing of Apple to the PC world annoying at the least, but it also means that Apple can’t actually use native codecs. So it’s not a future proof system as it must convert all material to a QT file before it can edit.
Sorry about my rant. It’s impossible to use a rendered out MOV XDCAM Apple based Codec on a PC. It must be converted to ProRes, which you can use a PC downloadable decoder, meaning it will let you use it, but you can’t export back out to ProRes. Sadly all clients think they know what’s what if they own any one of these items: tv, camcorder, computer, mac, mac, ipod, iphone, mac, or a mac.
MOV is only a wrapper, like AVI is only a wrapper. The codec can be one of dozens. QT MOV doesn’t mean its PC compatible.
– Jon Barrie 😉

How many editors does it take to change a light bulb?
http://www.jonbarrie.net

[Warren Morningstar]

Thanks, Jon. For the sake of a newbie (video is a tertiary part of my job so what I know I’ve taught myself on my own time – and i only know Adobe windows products), let me see if I understand the process.
The client (actually the boss, and pretty savy about video) shot the original with a Sony PMW-EX1, meaning his footage was encoded in an MPEG-2 variant. When he brought it in to FCP, the footage was re-encoded in Apple’s ProRes intermediate codec — somewhat analagous to the Cineform codec in the Windows world. He cut the piece, then rendered it out to QuickTime using an XDCAM setting. Trouble is, not even QuickTime knows what to do with that MP4 wrapper. Fair assesment? If he had exported it to QT using the ProRes setting, I could have read it. Have I got it?

[Jon Barrie]

Kinda. Yes the native XDCAM recording on the camera is a fully compatible format for PProCS3.2.0 (Mac/PC)
When it is transfered into FCP it is wrapped into a QT XDCAM Apple only codec. That’s what can’t be opened on a PC.
At the final Export stage FCP can export a QT conversion in the ProRes codec at the same frame size and frame rate.
That you can use in PPro3.2 on the PC. If you are using PPro on the mac you can use all and any formats that FCP uses, if you are using the same machine with all the codecs installed.
– Jon Barrie 🙂

How many editors does it take to change a light bulb?
http://www.jonbarrie.net

[David Dobson]

Plus there seems to be NO good solution for transferring HD footage from a Mac to a PC. Animation codec is too big, anything else introduces new compression. It is really unfortunate the Apple doesn’t read MXF files natively.

On the PC you can export to P2 as well, can this be done from FCP? That would be the best solution.