[Dave Johnson]

Thanks for the clarification … that’s exactly what I wanted to know.

I hastily misread 2.7.1 as 2.70.10, rather than 2.07.01.

[Dave Johnson]

Thanks, Ian. Sorry for the rant about your employer … since our format switch, we’ve met with various issues that costs us time and money so it’s just frustrating to find yet another at every turn.

To clarify, does your answer mean that XDcam Transfer is in fact going away completely (meaning no future development or support) and, therefore, the only choice is or will be to use XDcam Browser?

Thanks for the link too. Is there a for-dummies type key to the cryptic descriptions anywhere … all dozen links are identified as version 2.12.0 and described as some flavor of “XDCAM XFER”, but several also include higher version numbers (2.7.1, 2.9, etc.). We just need the latest version of XDcam Transfer (and Browser if Transfer is going away) to use with PDW-U1s that are shuttled between Macs with O/S 10.6.6 and PCs with Win 7 64-bit.

[Dave Johnson]

Thanks so much, Tom. Clear I/O points did the trick. I guess I’ve never had cause to set I/O points in the timeline rather than on a clip so I’m not sure how I managed to set some without knowing it.

[Dave Johnson]

Duvetyne won’t do much for sound issues since its intended for lighting and is, therefore, not nearly as thick as the moving blankets Todd & Mark suggested. I suppose you could use many layers, but that’ll get expensive. Unless you buy it in large rolls, Duvetyne is relatively expensive because it has to be fire retardant to be used with hot lights … not sure, but my guess is that moving blankets aren’t fire retardant.

[Dave Johnson]

Those two are the plugin sets I use most often and like most … very hard to say which is better, but if I had to choose, I’d probably go with GenArts Sapphire. However, if I recall correctly the prices aren’t at all equal so I’m not sure it’s a fair comparison. Also not sure how one could say one plugin set is faster than another, but they’re both among the fastest, most thorough least buggy and well-maintained sets so you won’t have any issues along those lines.

That said, it seems that which set will best suit your needs depends on your specific needs and how the specific plugins within each sets match those needs … it seems that only you can determine that so perhaps give the trial versions of each a test spin and go from there.

[Dave Johnson]

Ian,

I shoot XD-CamHD (not EX) with PDW-F355L cams and, although we have a PDW-F75, I end up using a PDW-U1 most often to import to Final Cut Pro. Being that my entire workflow is centered around XD-Cam Transfer and I’ll now need to replace it with this new XD-Cam Browser software, is there someplace I can get details about the new software before I have to switch?

For example, I’d like to know specifically what the various versions are, what the differences between them are and the cost of each (a simple feature comparison chart would be nice). I’m not familiar with XD-Cam Clip Browser so comparisons to it don’t help much.

Lastly, FCP is my primary editor, but I also use Premiere, After Effects, Vegas, etc. on Windows … can you help me understand why I’d have to buy third-party software like Calibrated Software’s XD Decode Windows to access XD-CamHD footage on Windows machines and still would only have decode capability? What if I wanted to bring an XD-CamHD edit onto a Windows box for some additional work and export it back out without transcoding to another codec? Perhaps I’ve missed part of the whole XD-CamHD rationale or is the format intended to only be used with FCP (and not even with Sony’s own Windows-based Vegas)?

By the way, if you have any influence on making the Sony professional website and product documentation as user-friendly as the equipment itself, I would be eternally grateful.

[Dave Johnson]

David, like the others have said, my opinion is that you’re making a serious and irreversible mistake by working for that amount. I’ll try to explain why, in addition to the reasons others have touched on already …

I understand your inexperienced rationale that each job is only 2 hrs to shoot and 2 hrs to edit and $100 divided by 4 hours is $25/hr … you’ll be rich soon! Before even getting to the main points, I’ll mention that you should stick with the 4 hours since, you might be able to shave time based on 1-2 such jobs, but consider if you end up doing 10 a day at 1 hour each … running to and from your car to the shoot location with bags of gear on your back gets really old after the first few hours each day … nevermind the second day.

Even more importantly, you’re giving your client for free things that you have to pay for whether you realize it or not, which will eventually have you living under a bridge pushing a shopping cart while your former clients are sipping umbrella drinks on the beach at their summer homes in Florida. For example:

[Dave Johnson]

I might use Unsharp Mask and add a tiny Fast Blur to the good footage to match them up … hard to say without seeing the footage, but there aren’t many options to fix soft raw footage.

[Dave Johnson]

Very good point, Alan. I’d forgotten to mention the fact that I too have come across many large companies that strictly forbid the use of flash drives … or at least try to anyway.

[Dave Johnson]

Since you referred to “Internet Security”, I’ll assume you mean Symantec’s Norton Internet Security suite, which is what I use.

You can disable any recent version of NIS and/or NAV, by right clicking they’re icons in the system tray. However, that approach means the various related processes are still running, but disabled … shouldn’t slow other software’s read/write speeds directly since they’re disabled from filtering reads/writes, but the running processes are still taking up system resources (processors & RAM).

Personally, when in heavy editing/mograph/compositing mode on my Windows machine, I first unplug the network cable, then quit any processes that aren’t necessary for the tasks at hand, which include the various Norton processes, as well as the other system protection/maintenance software and anything else not needed. I don’t do that when working on simple stuff, but I prefer to have most of a system’s horsepower focused when it’s really needed.