[Craig Seeman]

You could output a high quality H264 from ffmpegx. You’d have to render in FCP timeline but it would work.

[Craig Seeman]

For clients new to stuff like this I’d had an “assistant” (data wrangler) go along (and billed for it). It’s not like lots of people have prior experience with this. Clients have to be willing to pay for knowledge and/or training otherwise you’re going to be making a lot of extra unpaid work for yourself.

Of course if Sony’s Clip Browser worked like it should (like described in their PDF manual. None of this would be a worry.

[Craig Seeman]

There’s an issue with the Clip Browser that should, but doesn’t create proper BPAV folders from orphaned MP4s. It’ll be fixed in Clip Browser 1.5 (or 2.0).

On Mac
https://www.ffmpegX.com/
Will allow you to recompress the MP4 to another format.
What I then do is use that encode in Episode Pro (EX MP4 does not work in Episode Pro) and encode to XDCAM EX.
Yes, that’s a couple of rounds of lossy compression but it’ll get you an EX file.

You should charge the client for both the time to do the above as well as to research the solution. I have very little sympathy for clients who use gear and don’t read the manuals on Clip Browser or XDCAM Transfer or don’t hirer a properly trained data wrangler. Heck a Google search would have probably given them the proper work flow.

First step is I’d go to the client and ask for BPAV folders. If they don’t have them then I’d let them know that they’ll be charged to data recovery just as if they had handed you damaged tapes that you had to repair.

[Craig Seeman]

HDVideoPro magazine
They don’t have an online edition and they haven’t offered me a free subscription. Don’t their advertisers want me to see their ads so I can spend lots of money? I guess that’s what happens when the $6500 camera beats the $65,000 camera.

[Craig Seeman]

Shoot rate, any rate should cover your cost of existence. Profit increases with skills/values. Figure out what your base rate is to stay in business and that’s . . . your base rate. There are MANY threads on the Cow Business forum about that.

Selling pre-existing footage . . . you have pre-existing interviews that fit their needs? I’ve never heard of “stock” interviews.

Stock footage vary quite a bit. I don’t know how one predicts covering costs on that since one can’t really predict how much will sell unless you’re very experienced at selling. I’m not sure how anyone can run a business primarily on stock footage. Too unpredictable.

[Craig Seeman]

I haven’t seen it any Sony press release and no one I know of who went to NAB mentioned it. If it is in such an early stage that Sony didn’t even show a mock up I have to wonder how far off or if ever such a device will happen.

Please present how you know of such a box and show any evidence of it’s planning. You may well have seen such a box but apparently it wasn’t close enough to reality for anyone to to tout.

[Craig Seeman]

Are you selling stock footage or doing an original shoot?
If you’re shooting for them charge your shoot rate. You live where you live and that’s where you should base your rate. It’s YOUR cost of living that you need to cover.

[Craig Seeman]

60GB and I thought I heard Q3. Some people complained that 60GB was too small. It has SxS adaptor and I think one must actually hook that up to record from camera or copy from card in the other slot.

[Craig Seeman]

What is
[Ofer Levy] “100% broadcasting quality? “

CNN has used what looks like cell phone video but I don’t think Discovery HD would accept that for a full nature documentary.

You’d probably need to ask the specific channel/network what they accept because they vary for hired work and hired/commissioned work may be different than selling a completed doc on the market.

[Craig Seeman]

Dual Core Processor something like 1.8GHz but the AMD used was underpowered for some tasks. It came with a 60GB 5400rpm hard drive. I do believe it has an Express Card slot though. It has USB2 also.

Given the above I’d have to believe it should still be better than real time when using the Express Card slot.

Please explain HOW you are doing to transfer and to WHAT hard drive.