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XDCAM – MacBook Pro
Hello all!
I’ve got a project coming up where I’m going to be editing out on location (always nice to get out in the sunshine) on a MacBook Pro with 1TB of FW800 storage.
The shoot is on XDCAM HD, shooting at maximum VBR. And the idea is that I’ll get the bulk of the edit done while we’re on location before bringing it back to the suite and finishing it off.
Now, I’ve used XDCAM HD a few times before. But usually I’ve been importing in the suite with a PDW F70 deck, transferring via firewire. My main question is: Will just plugging the camera in (I believe we’re shooting on PDW F350) with the firewire let me transfer in exactly the same way as the deck, so I can get all my proxies and just dump everything on the disc on the my hard drive? I’m guessing I can, but just want to be double sure.
Also, am I right in remember that the transfer time is about twice that of real time (ie if there’s an hour of fottage, its gonna take about 30 mins to download)?
That is all…. Cheers!
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10 Replies
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Yes, it works the same way. Just make sure the camera is set in the FAM mode.
Sincerely,
OliverOliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Do you guys mind elaborating on this process briefly? Does FCP have a setup for importing XDCAM low-res via firewire? How does the low-res look?
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I’ve never imported a lower res than what the camera’s been recording (apart from the proxy files, obviously). And even then, the camera has usually been in maximum mode, so I’m not sure what the lower res is like.
But the data rates are so low with XDCAM HD, why would you want to bring it in at a low res?
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Cheers.
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Don’t know about FCP, but in Vegas you edit the mpeg4 proxies and then download just the required 35Mb/s full res files.
Alan
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Really? I hadn’t even thought of doing it that way to be honest. So whether you can or not I don’t know…
Having said that, I don’t know if I’d really want to. It doesn’t seem that long ago that we were still doing offlines that looked absolutely horrible quality (I’m talking to you, Cinewave!). Now we’ve left those days behind I’m not so keen to going back to offlining at that quality again.
The 35Mb/s full res doesn’t take up much storage space, and let’s face it: FW800 or eSATA are so cheap nowadays.
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Wow, I didn’t realize the full XDCAM quality is only 35 Mbits (!!!)
I just grabbed some footage last night and was amazed that the file sizes are only slightly larger than DV25. Amazing.
Wonder how it holds up in colour correcting.
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Very very well.
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Jamie,
You’re good to go with just the camera connected to the lappie. But bear in miind all the usual stuff. Don’t leave the camera connected after you’ve imported or you’ll slow down the FW 800 to FW 400.
Transfer speeds for HQ are a little slower than 2x faster than realtime only. 60 mins of hi-res will come in in around 40 mins or so. Plus, of course, it takes a little while for the proxies.
Make sure the laptop is full of RAM too, if you can.
Have fun
Andy -
Cheers, Andy.
And never fear – the camera won’t be connected to the laptop for longer than needs be. The idea is that we’ll plug it in, transfer the footage and then the camera op’s going to go off shooting more while I get cutting.
And RAM goes without mentioning – the MacBook Pro’s being bought specially for the job initially, so I’ve put my specs in for it 😉
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