[Don Greening]

Mike,

Keep us in the loop on what Sony ends up coming back with. If it’s done this on two cards now then it’s not an isolated incident and it’s most likely the camera. This means there will be others that will eventually run into the same issue.

One last thing I’ll suggest is to see if Apple’s Disk Utility can read or repair the card’s directory. Or if you have DiskWarrior try that.

– Don

[Don Greening]

[Will Eccleston] “Right beside it is a tiny panel held in place with 1 screw. Remove this to find another “maintenance” USB port. Amazing that this is not mentioned anywhere in the upgrade software. “

Have a look at this post from several days ago:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/142/870107

– Don

[Don Greening]

Hi Mike,

My recommendation is to not work directly from the card when you’re attempting to retrieve the media but use a copy instead:

• with the card in the camera connected via USB does it show up on the desk top as an attached device?
• if so is there a BPAV folder inside the card folder?
• If there is then copy the BPAV folder to your hard drive (drag and drop).

Use the retrieval program on the copy. In fact just open Clip Browser and navigate to the copy. See if that works where the card media didn’t. If not then try the retrieval program on the copy. I’ve never needed to use a retrieval program but others have said this one is good.

– Don

[Don Greening]

Hi Mike,

What’s the firmware version of your EX1R? These new economy SxS cards need the latest firmware to work properly. What I’m getting at is that there may not be anything wrong with the card and the media may very well be okay but the camera can’t read it. Have you got access to a Macbook Pro with Clip Browser installed and an Express 34 slot?

If your card does indeed have problems you could try this:

https://aeroquartet.com/movierepair/download.html

– Don

[Don Greening]

The post below is from another thread that was first started in June of last year:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/142/870293

Re: Please Help Me..Error Media Needs To Be Restore
by Steven Gladstone on Mar 26, 2010 at 4:51:35 am

Thanks for the explanation. I’m using the Sony made/branded adapter with the Memory Stick Pro HG Pro card with the HX labeling. I did a test where I just turned on the camera and left it recording. Walked away and left the room. Media error at 26 minutes. Restored the card. Continued recording. Got two more errors, before I stopped the test. This is shooting a still life, with no movement of the camera at all.

Very unsettling.

Steven Gladstone
https://www.gladstonefilms.com

[Don Greening]

Steven,

Have you upgraded your camera to the latest firmware? There’s a discussion going on right now that’s dealing with the relationships of SDHC cards and different firmware versions:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/142/870291

You should perhaps read the entire thread.

– Don

[Don Greening]

[Andy Nickless] “But what I meant was, the BPAV files are way bigger than they would be if they contained only audio (and not video). “

Yes, you’re right and being able to record audio only would certainly be a good choice as far as a firmware upgrade. Off the top of my head though, I can’t think of any camera out there that allows you to record audio only. You can certainly transfer audio only from cameras but all of them record the video, too.

Generally, people who want an extra audio source just use a dedicated audio recorder. We do this all the time.

– Don

[Don Greening]

[Steven Gladstone] “Then the card works and I think your footage is restored, or most of it. “

First of all, Sony doesn’t talk to me so the following are educated guesses:

the restore command doesn’t affect the actual media, per se, but is for fixing incomplete directories.
restore may also be used for writing the “lead out” of a clip that has no definite ending (camera shut off)
SDHC errors may occur because the data in some instances cannot be written to the cards fast enough.
SxS Pro cards use the camera’s PCI interface while SDHC uses a USB interface.

However, Sony does talk to members of their worldwide ICE team so maybe one of them will be able to shed more light on your SDHC questions.

– Don

[Don Greening]

Create your 4:3 sequence and drag your first 16:9 clip into it. FCP will automatically letterbox the clip. Double-click the clip to load it into the viewer. Click on the scale parameter tab in the viewer and scale the clip to 100%. In the canvas window now you’ll see the clip filling the frame but the sides are cut off. You can also accomplish the same thing in the canvas window by dragging a corner of the clip until the top and bottom fill the frame. Anyway, after you’ve scaled up the first 16:9 clip in the viewer just hit “Cmd – C” to copy that clip’s attributes to the clipboard. Drag the rest of your widescreen clips into the timeline, highlight them all and the hit “Option -V” to paste the first clip’s attributes on to all the other 16:9 clips. All your 16:9 clips are now centre punched to fit the 4:3 sequence. Go for coffee.

– Don

[Don Greening]

[Noah Kadner] “OMG- really? Wow kudos to Sony.”

Okay I must admit that I’m shocked Noah that you didn’t know about this latest announcement from Sony. You’re usually so current on everything. With that in mind were you aware that Sony is also bringing out an economy version of the SxS Pro Cards just like the Panny P2e variant? Sony’s calling them the SxS-1. Same idea as P2e and the same 5 year (I think) life span.

– Don