XDCAM show – will my machine be able to edit it?

[Chris Borjis]

Probably should, but if it were me I would do the whole thing
as DVCPRO-HD. That would definitely work without any hiccups whatsoever.

I get nervous when one person says xdcam works great and another talks
about weird problems that occur that don’t make sense.

[Rafael Amador]

I’m one of those lucky people that work with EX-1 without any problem.
A MBP Core2Duo 2.4Ghz/4GB RAM, two eSATA HDs and thats all. In FC or Color, I work everything in EX-1 and render to ProRes. Same than editing DV.
Anyway Brian, 3.5 GBs is not a good number for the RAM.
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Bryan Roberts]

Hmmmm, I thought 3.5 was fine for the old IBM G5 chips because of the way the processor uses memory or something but with the new intel machines you’d need more. Maybe I’m wrong on this? So you just edit native XDCAM and you’re good to go I guess? Maybe very close to my little experience I’ve had with HDV, which edits fine but it isn’t fun to add too many filters to an HDV clip because of rendering…

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Brian,
Definitively the MACs prefers even numbers in terms of GBs and number of RAM modules.
Odd numbers of RAM slots occupied and different sizes of RAM modules together quite often produces
problems.
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Bryan Roberts]

Really? I thought you just needed an even number of modules… I have:

256 MB (x2)
1 gb (x2)
512 MB (x2)

… and have two empty slots. Anyways, so it sounds like I should be ok with editing XDCAM stuff since it’s not effects heavy? Thanks guys!

[Chris Borjis]

While mixing brands of memory can be a cause of instability, if your not experiencing
any problems now, you’ll be just fine.

3.5gb of ram is plenty for a G5. My G5 quad only has 4gb and some apps/hardware has
issues if you go over that amount.

Intel macs are a whole other beast.

[Bryan Roberts]

Thank you, I felt like I was going crazy like Rip Van Winkle and all this time I had been zipping along on my 2.3 g5 these past years working happily, my zip turned into a putt and the world changed without me knowing or something 😉

I actually did mix memory brands and it doesn’t seem to be QUITE as stable but nothing big. The only reason was my mac store ran out of Samsung memory.

[Chris Borjis]

[Bryan Roberts] “The only reason was my mac store ran out of Samsung memory.”

Bryan you can save loads of money by purchasing memory
from 4allmemory(.)com

They guarantee compatability and I can attest first hand
to that. I’ve upgraded several mac and pc systems and
paid a fraction of the overblown price apple charges.
completely stable with no isues at all too.

[Bryan Roberts]

Thank you my friend but I already know about apple’s majorly inflated prices and purchase my memory through Crucial. Comparing prices, you can get four 1 gig sticks of ddr2 PC4200 memory for ~$90 vs. $199 at 4allmemory for four 1 gig sticks of DDR-400 PC3200… strange that the two sites recommend different kinds of memory. I’ve been told that both work fine but just not to mix brands.

[Shane Nye]

Hey Bryan,

I am the lead Asst Editor on a series shot in XDCAM EX HQ 23.98p. I have been reading and re-reading the forums on Creative Cow and getting myself quite confused.

Some say YES you can edit natively in XDCAM w QT Wrap with no problem. Others say NO convert it all to an intermediate co-dec like Pro Res Proxy which is not Long GOP and uses a lower data rate.

I am setting myself up for grief if I don’t convert the XDCAM EX to an intermediate co-dec like ProRes Proxy? Will the long GOP turn around and bite me in the end when I have 5 editors working off the same XDCAM EX media on a shared server? Here are the specs below.

NLE: FCP 7
Shared Media Storage: Avid ISIS Client Manager
Camera Format: 90% XDCAM EX, 10% DVC PRO HD
Ingested XDCAM natively w QT wrap.
Sequence preset: ProRes Proxy 1080 23.98p
Est total footage: 600 hrs for 10 episodes
CPU: G5 MacPro 2x3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
RAM: 10 GB 667 MHz DDR2 FB-DIMM

Thanks,
Shane