Clint Fleckenstein
1
COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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From your post I get the impression that you’ve done some panic reading and realized the following: that the BPAV folder must be intact. Always and forever.
I’ve never had to do this, but it’s been said on here that the latest version of Sony’s “Clip Browser” software can take orphaned video clips and rebuild a new BPAV for you. Hopefully somebody will chime in and help you with that, or you can experiment and figure it out.
Hopefully this works for you. We get a lot of this kind of thing around here, so it’s hard not to give a smackdown 🙂 I emphatically recommend the Sony tools for moving and transferring your footage. For instance, Clip Browser will copy your files from your card/camera with error correction, something a drag/drop won’t do. It will also let you split and combine BPAV folders, things like that. Not only is it indispensible as a workflow item, it’s also quite handy.
Cf
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From my reading, that seems to be an ideal route for archiving as far as material longevity. In our case, we keep our footage online using a RAID but also have a physical backup in one of our fire safes. I opted to go with a PDW-U1 XDCAM Disc drive. Sony recently released firmware and software updates to allow us to store data files to these cartridges. I felt that the medium has proved itself robust enough to satisfy our archiving needs.
The consensus seems to be that portable/removable hard drives are a risky solution for archiving; the drive may or may not spin up when you take it out of the archive. Keeping it on a RAID doesn’t protect you from theft, fire, or catastrophic failure. Burning to DVD or Blu-Ray media raises questions of longevity.
Sure, XDCAM Disc is a burned medium, but it has two things going for it: it’s been field tested for durability, and Sony claims good longevity as a storage medium. According to this PDF, they claim an estimated shelf and archival life of 50 years based on “accelerated testing.” That’s as good and flexible a guarantee as one’s going to find these days.
I’m like you: I figured workflow and archiving a major factor in choosing a tapeless system, and this seemed by far the best option. I’m still getting the XDCAM Disc component going right now, since the capability has only recently been unlocked…but I’ve been impressed with XDCAM in pretty much every way.
Cf
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I thought there was still one new model of Mac laptop that had an Expresscard slot.
I’ve read about some guys who had issues with their MacBook’s Expresscard slot, something about alignment. We have an extra SBAC-US10 here that I’m going to throw in the laptop bag with our MacBook Pro when it goes out on location now. Boy, would it stink to be on a shoot with several full cards and a laptop that won’t download them!
Cf
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One of the reasons I chose the EX format over P2 was the workflow, particularly the ability to archive to XDCAM Disc media. Interestingly, that feature was only opened up last week by Sony, but they did come through as promised. I’m only now working on establishing an archiving procedure for our shop.
In my opinion, XDCAM Disc seemed like the best option because:
1- Durability. I don’t want to take an archive disc out of the safe and discover that it’s got fingerprints, coffee, or whatever on it. We keep our HD footage online using a NAS device administered by an iMac, but it’s amazing how these things happen anyway. A disc inside a cartridge is extra insurance.
2- Size. I’m not on the Blu Ray bandwagon yet, so backing up to DVD is tedious. Clip Browser will automatically split your BPAV folders into handy DVD-sized folders for archiving, which is a great feature, but I’d rather keep as much footage together as possible. In fact, the project files are much smaller than the footage, so I plan on just archiving them with the footage.
3- Reliability. Coming from a broadcast background prior to this job, I have faith in Sony’s broadcast line. They claim that their optical media is resilient, and it looks as robust as anything else out there – certainly more likely to last over time than burned DVDs.
4- Price. If I can use an XDCAM Disc to capacity, its price compares nicely to DV/HDV tape. Given the luck we had with those ($#*&@^ little tapes before switching to XDCAM, I don’t want to rely on them any more. I suspect that when the tape manufacturers changed their tape formulation for HDV, the dry lubes or something were incompatible with the stuff that was built up in everybody’s machines. All I know is that a lot of guys have had DV problems as of late.
I insist on having a physical medium that I can stick into one of our giant fire safes, have a number attached to that goes into our tape log, and has a good possibility of being intact when I go to retrieve it. Presumably they’ll never be needed, with the footage kept spinning on a RAID, but I want as durable an insurance policy as is reasonable.
As far as your other questions go, I think the Sony software is sufficient. I haven’t used Shotput, but Clip Browser does everything I want to do so far. CRC copy is a must.
One problem I ran into is the whole “naming clips” question. We have three FCP stations here. We handle all our footage, from storage on the RAID to re-wrapping clips to MOV, on an iMac. Project managers review and log/mark the footage on that machine. This means we don’t get the ability to import to FCP using XDCAM Transfer; we move the Quicktimes over the network to whichever editing machine needs them. In that case, metadata doesn’t transfer well. Maybe that’ll improve down the road. For now we just keep the clip numbers in order to make sure we can reconnect the footage later when needed.
XDCAM Transfer does NOT store subclip information, however, so once you remove the source folder from the list on the left you’ve removed that information as well. To me that seems absolutely ludicrous, but in my experience that’s been the case every time. Maybe I’m missing something. A guy can retrieve that information from a FCP project, but I just wish I could add the folder as a source and have the subclip information still exist. This is one example of why tape-based workflows require diligent (and consistent) organization.
No system is perfect, but I do think that the combination of these wonderful and affordable cameras, the disc-based backup solution, and the free XDCAM software is the best configuration available.
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The “General” folder only has 500mb available to it. In order to use this disc as you intend for data storage, you need to use the UserData folder, which to my knowledge has not existed on XDCAM disc media until this upgrade. If the disc is blank, maybe format it again?
Cf
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I disagree as well. When you’re doing chromakey work you want as much information in your picture as possible. Two ways you can defeat this are a) shooting SD, and b) shooting interlaced.
I think your web guy is like many, who doesn’t know the difference of different “flavors” of video. Most people who see a 16×9 SD stream probably assume it’s HD because it’s “wide.” So he doesn’t want to have a letterboxed video? No problem, shoot it with the best resolution possible and crop to 4×3.
This camera rules for chromakey work. Use the tool as it’s intended. Frame it for 4×3 if that’s what he requires (you can turn on the guides in your viewfinder if necessary) and enjoy a quick, easy key.
Cf
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You can instruct FCP that the clips audio channels are a stereo pair by hitting command-L, I believe. Do you still have problems panning after doing that?
Cf
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One of our office people tried to incinerate our Ikan V8000 monitor a few weeks ago by taking whatever high-current power supply they could find in the drawer, in reverse polarity of course, and plugging it in. It exploded a capacitor on the main board but the internal fuse and diode right off the DC input held strong. I replaced the cheap capacitor and it’s rocking and rolling again. Other than that, the connectors are flimsy but the unit itself seems reasonably durable.
Cf
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I had a UV and CP filter on today and couldn’t get the stock attachment on. I didn’t try it with just the CP filter on it, but it looks like it would be a tight fit.
I also found out today that I can sprint through chest-high weeds pretty quickly with an EX3 and extended Miller tripod when an irrigation rig turns on me! I’m happy to report that I have dry gear and a wet van.
Cf
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Thanks a million, Ray! I must have checked just before it was posted, because I didn’t see it and I looked recently. I’m excited to update our systems.
Cf