[Ian Cook]

It shouldn’t be a mystery, though– hopefully it’s just the cache..

[Ian Cook]

No, not presently

[Ian Cook]

By default clips are actually saved to the User/Movies directory. Make sure your prefs are set correctly. The other files that get saved locally by default are the cache files (thumbnails, proxies) but these do not take up much space. You can clear the cache (stored in user/library/application support/Sony XDCAM Transfer by default) from within the preferences.

[Ian Cook]

Best news ever– so glad it all worked out!

[Ian Cook]

It sounds like that file may be corrupt or damaged. When you copied your data, did you just do a drag and drop of the BPAV? If so, please consider using XDCAM Browser or ShotPut Pro or some other utility to do verified transfers. Mac OS and Windows copies should be avoided.

If the file plays in Browser, will it let you transcode it or rewrap it? Try export–>MXF FOR NLE or EXPORT–>MXF for XDCAM HD422. (The latter is a transcode and will be watermarked unless a license is purchased for the Main Concept plugin…still worth trying.)

Does this file play on the camera? Do you have the means (like a Kona card) to capture it into your Mac via SDI? Or to play it out to another device like a Nanoflash, PMW-EX30, SRR/SRW recorder etc? Otherwise we are going to have to start getting creative and keep trying different file-copy operations and versions of Browser/Transfer software in the hope of getting lucky.

[Ian Cook]

Are you able to send to FCP from Browser? From FCP select Import–>Sony XDCAM Browser. Navigate to the folder containing your BPAV, verify that the clips display properly, select the clips and then ctrl-click–>Import to FCP.

Failing this can you select all and copy to a new location, then try on the copy? To copy, just drag clips between locations in the Explorer Window(s).

[Ian Cook]

Make sure you are using XDCAM Browser and not Clip Browser. https://www.sony.com/xdcam-downloads

[Ian Cook]

Usually ‘Media Needs to Be Restored’ is a file system check. It will happen if you lose power or put any unregistered/foreign files into any of the directories. The most common cause of these are:

1) Browsing the card in Mac OS, which puts 1k temp files in every folder it sees. This will cause a Restore prompt to appear every time you power on until the card is reformatted.

2) Exporting clips from FCP or other editors that do not create EX metadata on export and just send raw .mp4s to CLPR

3) Loss of power or other data-related hiccups which may cause the camera to want to verify the contents of the card/directories

If you actually lose power during recording in most cases you only lose what’s in the camera’s internal buffer. (The camera writes to a buffer first then pushes to the card every few seconds.) A salvage file is created on the media which lets the camera know that a file was not closed correctly. After re-powering a prompt to execute a ‘Salvage’ should appear. You should always confirm/accept and perform the salvage– there is no way to execute manually. At this point the camera reads the Salvage file and attempts to properly close the file that was recording during the power loss.

[Ian Cook]

Ok, try one of the following:

1) importing just the mp4s by de-selecting the SMI and selecting the .mp4s in the sub clips area

2) importing using XDCAM Browser instead of Transfer (Control Click on file–>Import into FCP)

3) make a copy of the card in XDCAM Browser and try importing from the copy

4) manually re-import the .mp4s in Browser to rebuild the file/folder metadata. to do this highlight a location on your system (e.g. ‘Desktop’) in one of the Explorer windows, then go to File Menu–>Import, navigate to the card, type “.mp4” in the search box so that you can grab all of them at once, and import.

[Ian Cook]

If everything is seen when does the problem occur?

Can you do the highlight the .smi in the thumbnail area, load it into the player and import? The spanned clip should play and import normally, i.e. as one logical clip, as long as all the parts are seen by the system. You should see ticks along the play line at the splice points. In the SUB CLIPS area verify that just the .smi is checked; this means the spanned clip will import in one piece. You can also import just the various parts if you need to.