Don Greening
Forum Replies Created
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Even if you were able to convert your EX clips to .avi instead of .mov files how were you going to transfer them to your clients’ editing suite(s)? You can’t use a Mac formatted hard drive for this because the PC machines won’t be able to read it unless the drive is formatted in FAT32.
If you use a FAT32 drive you’ll have to split the clips into 4 Gbyte chunks using Sony’s Clip Browser because that’s the file size limit of FAT32. Or you can get the program MacDrive which has to be installed on the PC, allowing your Windows clients to see and work with a Mac formatted drive. There are plugins for QT Pro that converts .mov files to .avi files.
The easiest/cheapest solution would be to have your clients install the Windows version of the Sony Transfer Tool (free) on their machines and have them import the clips directly from the SxS Pro cards. This is the reason that Sony chose to use the FAT32 format for the memory cards in the first place so they could be used by both Mac and PC. This is also the reason long clips are always split into 4 Gbyte clips when you import from the cards.
If you want to burn the raw .avi files to DVD for transfer you’ll have to import as .mov first using the Transfer Tool, transcode to.avi using QT Pro with an .avi plugin, then if a particular .avi file ends up being larger than can be fit onto a single or dual layer DVD-R you’ll have to split it up first.
– Don
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[scott strimple] “Before the render the HD footage works nice… but after the render, it is very jerky or jittery.”
Is the EX footage interlaced or progressive?
– Don
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[brian cass] “I can export the files over to my hard drive and then put them into Final Cut to view them? “
Sure, as long as you follow these steps first:
1) Install FAM driver and Transfer Tool Software.
2) Connect EX to G5 via USB
3) Launch Transfer Tool – import clips from camera to a hard drive you choose in Transfer Tool
preferences. The clips will import, then will be “unwrapped” and converted to the QT .mov
file format.
4) You can use the Transfer Tool Software as a standalone app or from within FCP 6.0.2. Only
after the Transfer Tool import will FCP be able to “see” the clips.– Don
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[Marty Osborne] “Someday, sooner than later I hope, the HD tech will catch up with the SD tech and they will be on an equal playing field. “
That day has arrived. I did a low light test between my PD170 and my XDCAM EX and the EX was the clear winner. In fact, the test was done with the EX in progressive mode which requires even more light than shooting interlaced like the PD170 does.
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/greening_don/ex1-pd170.php
– Don
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[brian cass] “Will the file transfer from the camera not work with a PowerPC G-5?”
Yes it will work. The SxS Pro sony software driver is Universaal Binary as is the Sony Transfer Tool software. The only thing you can’t use on the G5 is the Sony Clip Browser software, which is Intel only.
– Don
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Kevin,
I drop the native EX clips into a DV NTSC Anamorphic timeline right away. This is because I do multicam shoots using the EX and two Mini DV cameras. All cameras are shooting progressive widescreen. The problem I ran into initially is that by default FCP thinks that everything in a DV NTSC timeline is supposed to be interlaced. So before you drag anything into the SD timeline make sure that the field order of your sequence is set to “none.” But it doesn’t end there. Even after dropping progressive DV NTSC footage into the new sequence FCP will flag the footage as interlaced. So now you have to go to the master clips in the Browser, right or control click in the field order column and change the field order to none otherwise your footage will look like crap. Since my EX footage was brought in using the HQ 1080p 30 VBR codec FCP will not flag it as interlaced, even after dropping it into the DV timeline.
If you want to do multiclip editing with other SD footage you’ll have to get Compressor to downconvert the EX footage first because FCP won’t let you edit multiclips with different sized footage. It all has to be either DV or XDCAM but not both. You can, of course edit EX footage natively in the DV timeline along with DV footage, you just can’t create a multiclip.
Once the edit is done then I just render and export a self-contained DV NTSC Anamorphic movie for DVD or you can output to tape depending on your delivery. This workflow is for a project with minimal graphics. If I have a graphics-intensive project I’ll do everything the same but use the DV/DVCPRO 50 codec.
– Don
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The other day I pushed one of my 16 Gbyte cards into the EX slot and a message came up that the card format was “unsupported.” I pulled it out, reinserted it and all was fine again. Curious.
– Don
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The EX1 does not shoot in SD but you can have the camera do a down convert to SD through its many output ports, SDI, component etc.
– Don
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[Dan Gunn] “The resolution was weak and muddy by comparison after dumbing down to SD.”
I’ve had no such issue when converting to SD. The resulting picture is noticeably superior to anything my SD cameras are capable of producing.
My suggestion is to make sure you stay progressive throughout the entire workflow process, otherwise you’ll see a result such as you’ve described.
– Don