XDCAM Transfer

[Bob Cole]

[Bob Tompkins] ” I am considering LTO back-up for each drive but have not found a system that works with Mac.”

My LTO3 is attached to a PC on the (1gb) network. Works fine – even does verification. I’m up to almost 30 FW hard drives, and have had a couple failures. I copy to FW so I can get an immediate restore (if the FW works) and to LTO so I can get a sure-thing restore (if the FW does not work). On occasion, I have to run the LTO backup a couple times, because one or more files haven’t “compared” successfully. (btw – I’ve tested the non-comparing files, and found that they worked just fine.)

If you haven’t bought an LTO yet, you’re lucky, because the new ones (LTO5) are much faster and have a lot greater capacity.

Tape is good.

[David Gallessich]

Recent near-miss:
1. Recorded to SxS.
2. Copied clips from SxS to SDHC+hoodman (Copy from slot A -> B inside my EX3).
3. Copied BPAV from SDHC to MAC.
One of the clips was clearly too short (several minutes missing!) and couldn’t be transferred in Log&Transfer.
OK – We’re in full-blown panic mode now.
Went back, deleted clips on the SDHC, re-did steps 2,3 — and this time the clip was fine.

My takeaway:
A. Always xfer to .mov and review BEFORE clearing the camera media.
B. Seems possible the sdhc card has issues.
C. Maybe I also need to go ahead and do that firmware upgrade
(mine were manufactured approx May 2009).

[Craig Seeman]

[David Gallessich] “3. Copied BPAV from SDHC to MAC.”

If you didn’t use ClipBrowser with CRC On, that was your mistake. CRC confirms the bits on the copy match the bits on the source.

[David Gallessich]

Craig -Thanks!

I should have clarified:
The problem was evident on the SDHC but I hadn’t noticed. Clip length was not right.
The copy process inside the EX3 (SxS to SDHC) produced the error.
It wasn’t operator-induced as far as I can tell (I didnt remove the sleeve too soon)

If you didn’t use ClipBrowser with CRC On, that was your mistake. CRC confirms the bits on the copy match the bits on the source.

I don’t have a reader for SxS, and I don’t connect USB to camera. So my workflow involves recording to SDHC then use SDHC reader to copy BPAV to the Mac. Or I record to SxS, then copy in-camera to SDHC, then to computer as above.
I guess I should take your advice on using clip browser to copy — but I don’t believe this would have mattered in the above situation.

[Craig Seeman]

[David Gallessich] ” So my workflow involves recording to SDHC then use SDHC reader to copy BPAV to the Mac.”

ClipBrowser works just fine with SDHC. I shoot on SDHC most of the time.

[David Gallessich] “The copy process inside the EX3 (SxS to SDHC) produced the error.”

Evidently not a secure process if it doesn’t verify the copy. That would stop me dead from ever doing that again.

It’s safer to either spend $250 on the Sony SxS reader or shoot on a good SDHC card. This is especially so if the copy SxS to SDHC workflow is your standard and it can be as seriously flawed as you’ve experienced.

[Bob Tompkins]

I completely agree with Craig. The extra process of copying from SXS to SDHC seems really klugey. I would eliminate that for 250.00.
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/526430-REG/Sony_SBAC_US10_SBAC_US10_SxS_Memory_Card.html