Don Greening
Forum Replies Created
-
Joel,
You have chosen wisely to show your appreciation to those who volunteer their time to help. A special thanks goes out to Ian Cook who works for Sony. If we shower enough accolades on Ian he may continue to help out here. We’ll do our best to satisfy Ian by keeping him comfortable in the sandbox and feed him treats so we can call on him whenever we need help with something. Right Craig?
– Don
Don Greening
A Vancouver Video Production Company
Reeltime Videoworks
http://www.reeltimevideoworks.com -
Joel, if you want to avoid makIng things more difficult for yourself don’t mess with the contents of any BPAV folder. Under normal circumstances you will never need to view anything inside them.
Sony has stand-alone products for converting XDCAM files to .mov format for FCP 7. They are XDCAM Transfer and the newer XDCAM Browser. The former is probably the easiest to use for the beginner but be advised that since XDCAM Transfer is considered a legacy program it may not work properly with the latest versions of the Mac OS.
Do a Google search for these programs, which are free by the way, or go to any of the official Sony sites. If you run into trouble using them post back.
Don Greening
A Vancouver Video Production Company
Reeltime Videoworks
http://www.reeltimevideoworks.com -
It’s generally accepted that either Apple’s Pro Res or Avid’s DNxHD are the best compromise between quality and file size of present day formats. If you don’t have them then there must be some sort of output format that Premiere uses for exporting a finished product. If you’re planning to stay with PP long term then you should be using something that’s easily recognized by your favourite NLE anyway.
– Don
Don Greening
A Vancouver Video Production Company
Reeltime Videoworks
http://www.reeltimevideoworks.com -
Puneet,
ProRes should be an option in PP. After all, PP can edit ProRes, but maybe you need to have Final Cut Pro on your system in order to have the ProRes codecs. DNxHD is an Avid Codec and ProRes is the Mac’s version.
– Don
Don Greening
A Vancouver Video Production Company
Reeltime Videoworks
http://www.reeltimevideoworks.com -
[Jason O'Hara] “There will be both a theatrical and broadcast version.”
Broadcast versions can be both progressive or interlaced depending on the subject matter and/or the “look’ of the project you’re trying to achieve. Theatrical versions are traditionally progressive. Shooting the rest of your project is a decision that should not made alone, but is one reached by your team or at least those who came up with the project idea in the first place.
The purists will say that “interlaced is a delivery format and not an acquisition format. You can always turn your interlaced material into progressive and vice versa but at the start of any project there should be a general consensus on what format/framerate to record with so you don’t get this question coming up in the first place.
Shooting 1080 60i is fine for a newsreel/video look and has good temporal resolution for smooth action and 1080 30p is good for everything else with more of a filmic look to it. Personally I’ll shoot docs at 24p because it’s easier to transcode later to PAL if necessary. I also like the look of 24p. Progressive looks a bit cleaner on LCD and plasma TV’s and of course at the local movie theatre.
[Jason O'Hara] “should I be taking advantage of the HV20’s 30F mode to better match to 30P? What is this exactly?”
Canon’s 30F stands for “frame” mode and is essentially their version of progressive. it’s more like shooting PSF (progressive segmented frame) rather than one complete frame of video every 1/24th or 1/30th sec. Your EX1 shoots PSF, by the way. Beware of the Canon “Cinema mode”. I was given some footage from a newer Canon consumer handicam that was shot in 24p cinema mode. It turned out to be 24 frames in an interlaced 60i format and it looked awful. It’s probably better to use 60i with those cameras and convert it later in post. But PLEASE do some testing with those cameras before you settle on a permanent shooting format.
– Don
Don Greening
A Vancouver Video Production Company
Reeltime Videoworks
http://www.reeltimevideoworks.com -
Peter,
It’s probably in your best interests anyway to upgrade your F3 to the latest firmware version which at this time is v.1.4. You can find it on this page at the Sony dot com website:
Just click on the “XDCAM EX Memory Camcorders and Decks” hyperlink on that page and your firmware updates will be revealed. There’s also a warning on there that states: “Note: You must use XDCAM Browser software version 2.0 or higher to work with cards/clips shot with a PMW-F3 running firmware version 1.2 or higher.”
You can find Sony XDCAM Browser software here:
Updating your camera’s firmware does indeed make previously hidden menu items available.
– Don
Don Greening
A Vancouver Video Production Company
Reeltime Videoworks
http://www.reeltimevideoworks.com -
Ben, did you remove the following file from your preferences folder:
com.sony.XDCAMBrowser.plist
Initially you said you were using XDCAM Transfer and I asked you to delete the preference file for that program. You’ve since told me you’re actually using XDCAM Browser, so the pref. file listed above is for that program.
I’ve not been able to duplicate your missing windows issue but trashing a program’s pref. file almost always works.
– Don
Don Greening
A Vancouver Video Production Company
Reeltime Videoworks
http://www.reeltimevideoworks.com -
The EX1R can display the life percentage of SxS cards if you press the DISPLAY BATT INFO button underneath the handle. Use the joystick to scroll through the screens until you arrive at the battery/card life screen.
– Don
Don Greening
A Vancouver Video Production Company
Reeltime Videoworks
http://www.reeltimevideoworks.com -
Okay, when I get a chance I’ll play with XDCAM Browser and see if I can duplicate your problem but in the meantime look for the preference file for THIS program in the same folder as the XDCAM Transfer pref. file and delete it. Then restart the XDCAM Browser program.
– Don
Don Greening
A Vancouver Video Production Company
Reeltime Videoworks
http://www.reeltimevideoworks.com -
I’ll assume you’re using an PC and not a Mac? you can use Sony’s Clip Browser software to create a new BPAV folder for that one problem clip and see if that will enable VLC to play it back. Sometimes it’s not the actual clip that becomes corrupt but instead it may be the directory structure that tells various programs what it is they’re looking at.
– Don
Don Greening
A Vancouver Video Production Company
Reeltime Videoworks
http://www.reeltimevideoworks.com