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XDCAM Transfer software speed
Hello,
I am taking in footage from XDCAMs via a SONY PDW-U1 drive unit. My problem lies within the import speed of the media. It is taking FOREVER as in at least 5 times the length of the media. The most peculiar thing about my problem was it started out of the blue. I had to reinstall the OS on my computer thus having to reinstall the XDCAM transfer software. Before the reinstall, the transfer software was zippy as can be importing almost 50GB, or 1hr of material, in under 30 minutes. After I reinstalled the software it now takes more than 5 hours to import the same material. I have tried installing legacy versions to no avail.
Would anybody like to comment on my problem?
Here are the specs I am working with:
MAC Pro OS X 10.6.4
2.66GHz quad-core intel xeon
6GB 1066mhz DDR3 RAM
XDCAM Transfer 2.12 -
7 Replies
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Try copying the media off the drive first onto your system. Then wash it through XDCAM transfer. You should be doing this anyway to backup.
Noah
Call Box Training.
Featuring the Panasonic GH2 and GoPro HD Hero. -
You could try copying a clip off the disc to your import location with Finder to see if it is any faster. If not, then XDCAM Transfer is vindicated.
I think it is more likely to be something like another process consuming resources (check Activity Monitor) or an out-of-date version of the XDCAM Drive Software, perhaps?
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Hi Noah,
How would I copy the media off of the drive? The media is on XDCAM discs, not an SxS card.
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Hi Daniel thank you for your response,
How would I copy a clip off of the disc through finder? I don’t see where I can pull it from.
Also, most of the time when I’m using the xd transfer software, it’s the only task running. Again though, this never happened before I had to uninstall the software even though I had numerous applications running along side it.
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Doesn’t that disc mount up to the OS?
Noah
Call Box Training.
Featuring the Panasonic GH2 and GoPro HD Hero. -
What you see with a PDW-U1 depends on whether or not Sony’s XDCAM Drive Software is installed. I’m guessing that it may be missing.
If it is *not* installed:
The disc will be mounted using the standard UDF driver. In this case, the icon on the desktop will be the flat, whitish drive icon, as seen when a USB memory stick is mounted, for example. When you double-click on this, you will only see a PROAV folder and a GENERAL folder. The clips are stored in PROAV/CLPR in pieces (video and audio tracks are separate). XDCAM Transfer can handle this and make a single .mov but it is confusing when viewed in Finder, not very convenient and you cannot write to the disc in the PDW-U1.
If the XDCAM Drive Software *is* installed:
You should see the purple professional disc icon on your desktop. When you double-click on it, you will see a more user friendly view of the disc, with the clips (.mxf files) appearing to be in one piece inside the /Clip folder, together with a .xml metadata file for each.
The XDCAM Drive Software (if you don’t have it) can be obtained from here:
https://support.sonybiz.ca/esupport/Navigation.do?category=XDCAM+Optical
It looks as if version 2.3.2 is the latest.
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This is why I love this site. You nailed it Daniel, exactly my problem. No drive software. Thank you so very much! You have saved me hours of time!
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