[Andy Mees]

no … not yet.
apparently the next release (v2.0) expected in September (probably IBC)

[Andy Mees]

hey G

I think we’re narrowing it down.
Sony XDCAM does not shoot DVCPRO HD (a Panasonic format) so the first confusion here is what format th efiles really are, what they were shot on, and how they were captured/trabsfered.

If they are indeed XDCAM HD files, as I suspect, then the codec is more likely to be Sony’s MPEG HD codec, either 18Mb/s, 25Mb/s or 35Mb/s. I’m guessing (again) the latter.

Make sure you are using FCP 5.1.2 or above, support for these formats was introduced with 5.1.2. You might also want to install XDCAM Transfer (a free tool available on Sony’s website, for importing/exporting XDCAM media … although I don’t think the codecs come with it, they come from Apple not Sony)

Of course, I miay have this entirely the wrong way round! It may not be XD footage ata all!

Andy

[Andy Mees]

you mention you don’t roundtrip from the timeline but first export self contained and then bring into Motion … did you check to see if there is any gamma/level shift during the initial export > quicktime movie? ie bring that back into FCP and compare against original
just trying to eliminate the suspects

[Andy Mees]

would be a bit disingenuous to post links to other forums directly, but a little bit of quality time with Google (hint: XDCAM FORUM) will likely turn up some instant results … you’ll find, on the whole, that its all the same names, faces and info though

[Andy Mees]

if you have the XDCAM Transfer software installed then you can import the files. It will work standalone for connection to XDCAM devices, import of proxies, browsing and logging the proxies, and import via FAM of full res media, either full clips or partial clips as logged. It does not depend on FCP.

[Andy Mees]

question and answer from other forum copied below for reference:

Hi all,

Shot with XDCam HD with a freelance cameraman who transferred the XDCam MXF files to his Mac and converted it to Quicktime. He said that this was an automated process but I didn’t quite understand.

The Quicktime files (now sitting on a portable HD) open fine on our Mac but have to be rendered on the FCP 5.1.4 timeline before they can be played back.

Q. 1
Is this rendering process normal / correct? Or is there a workaround? I know FCP does not handle proxies – in this case it’s just the QT file that we have.

No. This suggests that you have not correctly matched your sequence settings with your XDCAM HD file format. Do you know which codec the footage was shot at? Select one of the clips in the browser and press Cmd-9 to open the clip’s Item Properties window, then see what it says under Format tab > Compressor …. read carefully what it says, note it down, then go to your Final Cut Pro > Easy Setup menu, select the “Show All” checkbox, then find and select the preset, in the popup menu, that matches the Compressor format that you noted down. Now delete the existing sequenec (which is no good to you), and finally create a new sequnece (Cmd -N). Open that new sequence and drop one of your clips into it …. it should play back natively without rendering.

Q.2
Also, I want to view this on my PC – it can only play audio and NO picture at all. We are using the latest QT version. Not sure which codec is missing?

You’re missing the XDCAM HD codecs … they are not supported by Quicktime on the PC. It is Mac only so you cannot open the XDCAM HD quicktime files on the PC.

We are also trying to import into our Avid. Wanted to check:
– Do we need to use QT Pro and the MPEG 2 plugin?

That won’t help. As note above Quicktime warpped XDCAM HD will not paly back on a PC … or is your Avid Mac based?
One thing you can do is to edit all your clips into a single sequnence (select all the clips and drag and drop them down into the timeline) then export that sequence using Export > Sony XDCAM.. but just export back to the portable hard drive. The Avid should then be able to import the file from the native MXF selects clip that you just created.

Q.3
– The picture seems to auto size into a 16:9 letterbox in FCP – again – I’m not sure if I’m getting the full height anamorphic picture or if something happened in conversion…

Am trying to get the original XDCam disks back but any help would be greatly appreciated in the meantime. Am new to the format – like it a lot and will consider getting a camera – but need to understand why the QTs won’t play.
These are no longer MXF files

They seem to work on my cameraman’s PC and Mac – but he’s in Melbourne and we’re in Singapore.

Thanks in advance

[Andy Mees]

“.dv” files are dv data streams (native format for iMovie, but not so for FCP … it much prefers “.mov” files using the DV codec)

i’d recommend using MPEG Streamclip to reformat these to DV AVI’s if thats where you’re heading

[Andy Mees]

Is it possible to someone to copy XDCAM materials into a portable Firewire HDD and then I use that HDD to import into my FCP system ?

if you have Flip4Mac’s MXF component you can do this, but Sony’s XDCAM Transfer application currently only imports from an attached XDCAM device

afaik Log and Transfer wont do it as its expecting to find P2/AVCHD formated data structure, never tried it though

[Andy Mees]

use the pan controls to separate your audio to discrete channels:
select all clips in A1 and choose Modify > Audio > Pan Left, and select all clips in A2 and choose Modify > Audio > Pan Right etc

…. or if you want a fully mixed version select all the clips in all tracks and choose Modify > Audio > Pan Center

[Andy Mees]

we need details … how many blondes?