[Daniel Wright]

Dennis,

Sorry to be late to the party.

I would recommend updating your software. The latest version of Clip Browser is 2.6 and XDCAM Transfer is now on version 2.12.

https://support.sonybiz.ca/esupport/eSupportHome.asp

Incidentally, XDCAM Transfer does now work with MP4 files that have been pulled out of the BPAV file structure, although its better to keep it intact if you can.

[Daniel Wright]

Nice one, Robert. I didn’t realise you could make subclips.

Being able to save your markup is a feature that has been on my wish list for a while. Up until now, I have been saving XDCAM Transfer’s database for each project as a workaround, but your scripts should provide a better solution. I’ll see how I get on with them.

[Daniel Wright]

You need to install the XDCAM Drive Software. You can get it from here:

https://support.sonybiz.ca/esupport/eSupportHome.asp

Make sure you get version 2.3 if you are using Snow Leopard.

Once you have installed this, the file structure of your discs mounted from the PDW-U1 will look very different when opened in Finder and they will be writable.

HTH

[Daniel Wright]

This sounds very strange to me. You should be able to rename your cards without any problems. If you could supply a little more information, it might be possible to work out what is going on. What version of the OS are you using and do you have the latest version of XDCAM Transfer installed?

Does XDCAM Transfer say that you have read/write access? Have you tried renaming them from Finder? If they can’t be renamed from Finder, then what about from Terminal? If they can’t be renamed by either of these methods, then it sounds like a driver/OS problem. I’m guessing you are using Snow Leopard. Is that correct?

[Daniel Wright]

I thought this had always been the case as far as folder copies of professional discs were concerned.

Oddly enough, and contrary to what the manual seems to be saying in your quote, the Save Changes command works for folder copies of SxS cards. I don’t know why we can do it for one and not the other.

If there is no way that you could add your comments before copying the disc to the hard drive then the only solution I can see would be to write (or find someone who can write) an Applescript to save and retrieve your logging for you.

[Daniel Wright]

Sony have just released new versions of what we were waiting for. You can get them from here:

https://support.sonybiz.ca/esupport/eSupportHome.asp

I have just tried out write-back to my PDW-U1 with the new XDCAM Drive Software and it seems to work just fine.

[Daniel Wright]

A while back, I posted an Applescript that drives XDCAM Transfer for doing exactly this except to MP4.

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/142/868415#869125

I don’t have an XDCAM deck to try this out but If you change the ‘as MP4’ to ‘as MXF’ it should do as you require.

The first step is to use FCP’s batch export to make QuickTime movies. You can then run the Applescript to export the .movs to disc. The important thing is to be very sure that your settings are right when you make the Quicktime movies. Otherwise you will waste time exporting .movs that you won’t be able to write to the disc.

I just left the Batch Export settings as ‘Use Item Settings’ but if you have Pro Res on your timeline then you will need to pick the appropriate XDCAM preset from the list. It would definitely be worth just trying out a few short clips to make sure everything is working before you go for the real thing.

HTH.

[Daniel Wright]

Unlike Clip Browser, XDCAM Transfer won’t make a new BPAV folder structure for you. However, you can add the folder containing your .MP4 files and import to FCP as usual.

Unfortunately, (1) you won’t be able to save any metadata back, as you would be able to do if you had the BPAV folder and (2) any clips that were spanned will not be stitched together, they will simply be imported as separate clips.

[Daniel Wright]

Sorry, I should have mentioned this in my original post. Basically, it seems that you need to set everything up as you would if you were exporting to .MP4 using Export > Sony XDCAM.

If you have done so (i.e. the sequences are set to an EX format), then the following settings should work:

Format: QuickTime Movie
Settings: Item Settings
Include: Audio and Video
Make self-contained

It is also worth checking that you have the audio set correctly in the sequence settings; the drawback to using this method (as you may well have discovered) is that you won’t find out if there is something wrong with your settings until you try to process the QuickTime movie with the Applescipt and the Export window produces an error message.

There may be variations depending on what you are trying to do, but I haven’t explored any further than this.

The other thing I probably should point out, which may or may not be relevant, is that if for some reason you simply want re-wrap .movs that were created by importing EX clips with XDCAM Transfer, then you don’t need to go through FCP at all.

HTH

[Daniel Wright]

I think I do what you are proposing in your original question; I make a separate XDCAM Transfer database for each project, and save it with the FCP project when I am done.

By default, XDCAM Transfer creates a database in ~/Library/Application Support/Caches/Sony XDCAM Transfer/. There are three folders in there, but keep these together inside the parent folder

You can either:

(a) change this location between projects on the Cache tab of XDCAM Transfer’s Preferences, or

(b) move the cache to another location while XDCAM Transfer is not running.

You need to be sure that the BPAVs are in their final resting places before you add them to XDCAM Transfer, otherwise it might not be able to find them again. (I archive to Professional Disc using a PDW-U1 and import from there, so this is not a problem for me.)

Then, if you ever need to re-import, you can simply do the opposite of (a) or (b), and everything will still be as you left it, markup and all.

Although I have never tried it, I can see no reason why you couldn’t copy this database to another machine, provided the paths to your BPAV’s don’t change. So I think you could:

1) Copy you BPAVs using Clip Browser to an external hard drive connected to your laptop.
2) Mark up using XDCAM Transfer.
3) Connect the external hard drive to your office computer, and copy over the database.