XDCam users: what is your workflow and your happyness level?

[Andy Mees]

Import the raw media from disc using XDCAM Transfer
Edit natively using the imported media
Export edit back to disc

[J. Tad newberry]

this almost sounds too good to be true. have you had any problems with XDcam transfer? (it’s just a plug-in codec for FCP, right?) no HD capture card needed at all? do you get the full XDCam picture quality via firewire (or i.Link) cable? and you can even master back to the camcorder via firewire as well? no other external decks really needed, unless you’re needing the camera for another shoot, eh?

so i wonder why i just shot HDCam and HDV???

: )

sounds like XDCam might be my solution.

thanks for your input.

[Andy Mees]

XDCAM Transfer is an application that enables you to load the proxies from the camera onto your local hard drive, browse and optionally subclip those proxies, and import the full resoultion HD clips (or sublips) onto the local hard drive, and optionally import those clips directly into your FCP project. an export plugin from FCP allows you to export clips and sequences back to the XDCAM disc. the application bundle from Sony installs all the drivers necessary to make this possible, both as a standalone application, and as an import/export plugin to FCP.

all transfers are handled via the firewire connection. no transcoding is involved. all youare doing is transfering raw data from XDCAM disc to local hard drive and visa versa (the only trickery involved is that the XDCAM Transfer application handles the unwrapping and re-wrapping of the camera native MXF container to the Mac compatible Quicktime container, and visa versa)

all that said, its not been plain sailing. many have issues with the flakiness of the system, particularly on export. my advice, if you choose this workflow, is to ensure your camera’s and/or decks have all the latest firmware upgrades, as each new upgrade brings improved compatibility and stability to the process. the current version is 1.62.

as for mastering back to the XDCAM format. this is the process we use as we are not delivering to a third party but to our own broadcast center. we generally don’t have any need for gfx and effects in our edits, at least not the raw edits that are submitted, although gfx and effects may be added later, in house. if I’m editing for delivery to a client then I master to HDCAM … but this is not using FCP as the NLE so is outside the scope of the question/forum perhaps.

cheers
Andy

[Rick Dolishny]

XDCAM is a really interesting format that is coming of age, slowly. I can speak from the perspective of a FCP editor who happens to be on an Avid and tell you it’s pretty remarkable.

We offlined a show of 51 tapes which were “digitized” in about 40 minutes. That’s using the proxy version which is a little low-rez for my taste, but wow, 51 hours in 40 minutes!

When the show was done we moved the project from the XPress to a Symphony and “uprezed” the timeline (which, as others have explained much more accurately, is just copying over what we need) in about half the time it would have taken with regular tape transport.

Image quality is excellent, I’ve now done an HD-XDCAM as well so it looks pretty good. Chroma key is really bad, worse perhaps than HDV, but most vis is coming in really nice.

I have to say after a shaky start (like, a year I’ve been dubbing from XD to DBETA because I don’t need the hassle), and a few rough installs with a miserable Sony XDCAM browser, I can see the light. XDCAM shows some very good potential, and in my case it’s finally paying off big time from a post-production business perspective. I never (a) liked paying someone 50 hours to digitize 50 hours, and (b) cared for my vastly underpriced “digitizing rate” to tie up my Symphony or FCPHD.

– Rick

[Bob Cole]

[Rick Dolishny] “Chroma key is really bad, worse perhaps than HDV, but most vis is coming in really nice.”

Rick, poor keying is a deal-breaker, right? When you need it, you need it.

— Bob C