Greg Ondera
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COW Coin
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I am still vexed. Downloaded Bru PE trial and it can’t see the LTO-4 drive either. I let the computer fall asleep while taking a rest from this grind and had a kernel panic that pointed a finger at the ATTO card. I wrote ATTO. When I open ATTO Configuration it sees the device but says there are no drivers installed for it. Quantum says I don’t need drivers for the LTO-4 tape drive. Seems kinda weird to me. I’m about ready to throw the whole computer out the window but i live in a one-story house. Why can’t this be easier? What is really going on?
Greg Ondera
http://www.Plexus.tv
http://www.SurgeonToday.org -
Wow. All this stuff you have to do with SCSI. I did not have a tape in it but I did at another time when it didn’t work. Are we to boot the computer when a tape is in the Quantum? My version of Retrospect is 8.2.
Greg Ondera
http://www.Plexus.tv
http://www.SurgeonToday.org -
Indeed it is the same footage. The purpose of XDCam Transfer is to get it into Final Cut Pro. I imagine a Calibrated like tool will be included in this next version of FCP.
As with all relationships with clients and colleagues, it depends on how you frame your advocacies and what is the primary purpose that all of you want to achieve. My philosophy for these kind of things is to list a “best of all possible worlds” scenario, and consider the drawbacks for each method.
Since ProRes is being used by the other camera, I would consider codecing the XDCam footage over to ProRes as well. This should not result in loss of anything and possibly what they would have to do anyway. Then edit with the ProRes.
Hopefully someone else with more experience can weigh in on this.
Greg Ondera
http://www.Plexus.tv
http://www.SurgeonToday.org -
I can’t speak to the EDL part of this but they can get Calibrated, or you could too, at https://www.calibratedsoftware.com/MP4EXImport_Mac.asp to see the mp4 footage in Sony EX format on FCP, of course, if they are using Macs. All XDCam transfer does is rewrap the footage. It’s essential that the BPAV folder structures and contents are maintained and not altered, although you point to the actual mp4s when importing them to FCP.
Greg Ondera
http://www.Plexus.tv
http://www.SurgeonToday.org -
Thanks Zane & Scott! So here’s what’s coming down at this point. Quantum says everything is working from their end and there is no need to download firmware on my Mac. This may be because it is LTO-4. They also said LTO-5 actually shows up on the desktop like a hard drive and you can drag and drop stuff into it, although you have to start the Quantum before booting your computer, just like any SCSI device, as well as turning it off after your computer is down. They pointed the finger at Retrospect or at least said to check with Retrospect.
So it shows up in the Mac System Profiler and in “Storage Devices” in Retrospect, but you can’t navigate to it and assign anything to it in “Sources” nor “Media Sets” which is what you’re supposed to be able to do. So Retrospect asks me for all this information to diagnose it: copies of the log files; system profile; license; and a screenshot. So low and behold, I had no log files. I was to go to \Library\Application\Support\Retrospect but there was no folder for Retrospect there at all. I was to give them the operations_log.utx and assert_log.utx files. Not sure if this is the cause of the problem, since I have yet to run anything at all over to an LTO-4 tape, since the program may not have had a chance to set up a log file with the computer yet, but we shall see. I am awaiting to hear back from Retrospect. They are spending some time with it, so we shall see.
I am posting this somewhat thoroughly so that others who run into problems may glean from this. To be continued.
Greg Ondera
http://www.Plexus.tv
http://www.SurgeonToday.org -
Just talked to Quantum and I am indeed seeing the device in System Profiler. It is looking like a Retrospect problem, so I have contacted them but have yet not heard back.
Quantum told me that the LTO-5 drives actually show up on the desktop and allow you to drag and drop files onto it like a hard drive. Wished I had thought about that when I got this one.
Greg Ondera
http://www.Plexus.tv
http://www.SurgeonToday.org -
With the ever changing face of editing and the necessity of connectivity and stuffing your Mac with cards I would favor the Mac Pro over iMac any day. Speed, connectivity, adaptability is everything.
Greg Ondera
http://www.Plexus.tv
http://www.SurgeonToday.org -
Are you sure something hasn’t fallen in there? Did you check pin bending and shine a flashlight in there with a magnifying glass?
Greg Ondera
http://www.Plexus.tv
http://www.SurgeonToday.org -
I will let others chime in about the frame rate but I can tell you that HDV footage is going to be more trouble for you editing than XDCam footage. HDV does not edit well in FCP so it is best to encode that to Apple ProRes. My thoughts are the higher frame rate though, especially if that aligns with your most likely plans.
Greg Ondera
http://www.Plexus.tv
http://www.SurgeonToday.org -
Craig is right about PluralEyes, but I synch two cameras all the time in post by finding a clear, clean spike in the audio waveform on the two camera tracks and bring the clips into the timeline in FCP and nudge one clip this way and that way, frame by frame, if I have to, and once you have no echo or as little echo as you’re going to get, you have the two tracks (clips) synched. Then delete one of the audio tracks but keep the video. Now all you have to do is cut on the second layer video track. This is a great technique for music videos, as you can shoot the video with ambient sound but record high quality separately.
However this can drive you a little crazy if you have a lot of clips. So sometimes it helps if you just keep the cameras rolling and can do it once or twice.
As for white balance I always use an 18.5% grey card from any photo shop and record a small clip of it before the interview. That way I can white eye-drop off that card with 3-way color corrector in FCP and get a perfect color. But just white balancing off of one of those $7 grey cards is much better than white.
Greg Ondera
http://www.Plexus.tv
http://www.SurgeonToday.org