[Don Greening]

[Andrew Garrison] ” Is this overkill?”

Not at all. Think of the actual BPAV folder on the card being the EX version of a tape. It’s got everything you need to create new video clips for both Windows and Mac platforms if you need to re-edit or give the raw files to someone else in the future. Most of us are archiving the BPAV folders somehow, either on data DVD, Blu-ray, XDCAM Disc or a simple USB hard drive.

Think of the MOV files from Sony’s Transfer Tool as your own particular version of the raw clips converted just for editing in Final Cut Pro.

– Don

[Don Greening]

[Marvin Holdman] ” If you use the EX-1 Clip Browser you CAN combine folders. We do it all the time.”

Then why didn’t you say so in the first place? On this forum we can only answer questions based on available information. If you don’t provide pertinent information you’re not going to get the answer you’re looking for. Michael and I both assumed you were trying to combine BPAV folders manually.

[Marvin Holdman] “BTW, I am talking about the EX-1 and it DOES NOT include ANY serial number information in the naming convention of the FILENAME.”

Really. Then someone must have already messed with your camera then. I’ve never altered the way my EX1 generates clip names and the last 3 numbers of my camera’s serial number is part of every clip name e.g 1_480_0010_01 where 480 is the last 3 numbers of the serial.

– Don

[Don Greening]

Hi Marvin,

In addition to Michael’s important advice, it’s not possible to have the exact same clip name from 2 or more cameras because each camera’s serial number is part of the clip naming convention. You can also further customize each camera’s naming convention by inputting your own unique series of letters/numbers. Consult your camera’s manual for instructions.

Never ever try to combine BPAV folders if that’s what you were getting at from your description. As Michael has stated, each BPAV folder should be contained within another folder with a name of your choosing if you’re copying the native BPAV folders to a hard drive. If you try to combine BPAV folders you’re certainly going to get duplicate folder names within each one simply because of the way they’re structured.

– Don

[Don Greening]

It sounds suspiciously like the first part of your clip is contained within another BPAV folder and probably the one that was recorded just before this one. Note the clip name and go looking for it within another BPAV folder. Don’t just open up a BPAV folder and try to find it that way. Navigate to each BPAV folder with Sony’s Transfer Tool. When you find it keep that BPAV folder visible and then navigate to the other BPAV folder that contains the last 14 minutes of the clip you’re trying to stitch back together. Once all the pieces are viewable in the Transfer Tool the program will automatically combine all the pieces. All that’s left to do is import the completed clip.

You didn’t mention how you’re viewing the BPAV folders. If you’re just using the camera as a deck connected to your computer via USB then you have to have both cards that contain the pieces of your incomplete clip inserted into the camera and mounted on the desktop so the Transfer Tool can access them.

An alternate way is to copy the PBAV folders from each card into their own unique folder on a hard drive. Never change the name of any BPAV folder because the Transfer Tool will not see it. The folders that you create for each BPAV folder can be named whatever you like. Once that’s done navigate to all your copied BPAV folders within the Transfer Tool until they’re all visible. The program will “see” all the incomplete clips and recombine everything.

See if this solves your missing “first part of the clip” issue.

– Don

[Don Greening]

Gilbert,

Does your problem clip by any chance span more than one card?

– Don

[Don Greening]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the detailed reply and for your workflow suggestions. My issues are, in part, due to the fact that my Bitvice program resides on a different computer that doesn’t have the same codecs as my Mac Pro where all the editing is done. A common HD codec to both machines is the DVCPRO HD 720p codec so I down converted to that from the XDCAM EX 1080p codec. Perhaps Bitvice doesn’t like the the 720p anamorphic codec. Anyway, since most of my EX footage is down converted to DV first to match my other multi camera shoot footage it’s not a real huge issue for me at the moment. Anything that needs to stay in HD from the EX is usually destined for the web anyway and I just use Compressor to convert to H.264. I’ll wait until Bitvice Pro is released before I worry any more about what I’m doing wrong with the current version.

– Don

[Don Greening]

I’ve got Bitvice running on my G5 and do MPEG 2 encoding on that so I can continue editing on my Mac Pro. The other night I took your advice and tried to import a DVCPRO 720p .mov file into Bitvice. The program told me it could downscale to the DV space. When I said okay two error messages came up and I can’t remember exactly what the problem was other than one of them said something about a Compressor mis-match. Then BitVice quit.

– Don

[Don Greening]

[Mike Allen] “How much is the largest card and how much video will it hold?”

From what I’ve learned the recording times are similar to the SxS Pro cards. Shooting at the highest quality setting will give you 57 minutes on the 16’s and double that for the 32’s. Shooting at a lower quality setting will give you more recording time.

– Don

[Don Greening]

Hi Simon,

I’m not a Windows or a Premiere user but I did watch a friend transfer some footage shot in HDV mode from my EX to his desktop PC via USB and he didn’t need any plugin. He had the latest update to Premiere Pro CS3 and my EX appeared as a device on his desktop. Then he started Premiere and imported the files. Just like that. The fact that I had shot in HDV mode might have had something to do with it but I’m not sure.

– Don

[Don Greening]

Your Z1U only shoots interlaced so I would set the EX to match that. You’re looking for continuity here to keep the look of both cameras similar. I would use the HQ setting on the EX because it’s less likely to cause picture breakup issues recording fast scene changes (like speeding cars). The SP mode is essentially HDV. Modern day editors like your Edius program are very adept at conforming one codec to match another.

I would use manual iris for sure because you don’t want the picture to continually cycle from darker to lighter as you follow vehicles in and out of the unlit areas of the track. That would be extremely distracting for the the viewer. Set your exposure for the lit areas and let the shadows fall where they may.

[Ronnie Martin] “white balance manual or auto?”

With a wide shot the colour temperature should remain fairly constant since there’s probably only one type of track lighting anyway. You can set the white balance manually if you want but I would suspect that auto-tracing white balance would work pretty well in this situation.

Shutter speed is always a compromise between motion blur at the lower settings and a stroby looking picture at the other end. In your case you also have to think about having enough light because higher shutter speeds reduce the amount of light hitting the imagers. No one can give you an exact setting for your particular situation.

– Don