[Bob Foster]

Looking over the instructions for that camera it appears there is a driver needed to be installed from a cd that came with the camera before you can download from the camera (pg 54 on the instructions that I found online from Sony if I searched correctly). If you do not have the cd, try checking the Sony support page for a driver download. Contacting Sony support is another option.

Good luck.

[Bob Foster]

Hello All,

New to Creative Cow and a SONY PMW 500 formated as UDF for HD244 720P 50 on 32 gig sxs cards – editing on EDIUS 6 and also FCP 6 and 7. Just switched from Panasonic P2 – so everything I know is wrong.

Please be sure to pay attention to your OS system, the type of chips (Intel core duo, etc.) the Sony read me files and system requirements and release notes. I downloaded all of the following for my MacBook Pro (2.5 GHZ Intel core duo) OS 10.5.8, FCP 6.0.6. The XDcam browsers may only work with newer systems, but the XDcam transfer works on my “legacy” Mac. There are different drivers, plugins, etc. that have to be loaded for 10.5 – than for 10.6 and 10.7. I didn’t read that fine print myself and loaded all of these from SONY. Without these your Mac computer may not even recognize your sxs cards. As for speed I’ve noticed both Mac and PC laptops download faster using their internal slot. Copying via drag and drop has resulted in some files missing on our Windows network, but that may be problems with our infrastructure, network drives, and/or Windows 7. Basically I don’t know why I’ve recently lost files. ):

For older MAC systems (but not too old) search the SONY downloads for these. As mentioned above, SONY wants some things downloaded in a certain order.

PDZKLT1A2
PDZKP1 XDCAM TRANSFER_v212
SxS UDF v1_01 and Device Drivers v1_xx
SxS Drivers_Mac_Device_v105_UDF_v102
XDCAM Browser_200_Mac

For newer MAC and PC systems:

XDZP1_ClipBrowser_MacAndWin_V2.6.0

As for windows – that’s the exclusive domain of my employer’s IT team to update, but (if you have a PC) do get and install the latest Windows card drivers, plugins, device drivers, XDcam browser, firmware, etc. And check back with the SONY download page. We currently have issues with the PC version of XDcam browser 2.0 being unable to copy offline clips (for field logging), and with EDIUS 6.0.6 printing back to an sxs card in 720P that the PMW 500 will recognize for playback. One of our brilliant engineers created a workaround using the REPLACE program and is trying to get Grass Valley (who bought EDIUS) and SONY to look into what he found is happening.

But remember – everything I know could be wrong.