[Ian Cook]

Press Menu while holding the CANCEL button and the Select/Set wheel. This will open the standard menu but with some additional categories. One if them will be “Information” or “IF.” The current software version is listed under IF–>Version. (To confuse matters a bit further, 1.20 firmware added the ability to check the version in the Others menu without having to go to the hidden maintenance layer, but I don’t think your version is that recent. Once it’s updated you can check it here.)

If the EX-1 is at 1.05 or higher, it can be user-updated. It is not difficult or inordinately risky if you can follow instructions and supply good power to the camera. If you’d rather not do the upgrade yourself you can send it in and have it upgraded. Sony Service will charge you for 1-2 hrs labor to do the upgrade and a functional checkout.

Firmware and instructions are here: https://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/micro-xdcamexsite/resource.downloads.bbsccms-assets-micro-xdcamex-downloads-XDCAMEXFirmwareUpgrade.shtml

If you are below 1.05 the camera has to be sent in and upgraded by a Sony technician. After this is done you’ll be able to install subsequent firmware upgrades yourself.

Cheers and good luck

[Ian Cook]

You can mix SD and HD as long as Mixed Recording is enabled in the U-1 controller app. If you don’t see this option in the app you have an older version of it. (See screenshot below from the Settings pane…the option is actually “Prohibit Mixed recording” = On/Off)

When you format a disc it is codec-agnostic, i.e. it doesn’t get formatted for a particular video format or frame rate. The first clip you put on a disc is what determines the format and limitations. The general rule is that if mixed recording is enabled you can mix SD and HD (including HD 422, HD 420) as long as the clips are in the same frame frequency group– 30p/60i/60p or 25p/50i. 24p is the only format/frame rate you can’t mix with anything else.

Note that one thing you can’t do is write a file with an XDCAM EX codec of any flavor or frame rate to /CLIP. If you have EX material it needs to be:

A) transcoded to an XD Optical Codec (usually HD 422 50 Mb as these are natively 1920 x 1080, 4:2:2 and have higher bit rates than the 4:2:0 codecs).

or

B) Stored as data in the User Data folder (think of this folder as a generic data partition; you can store anything in here that fits within the remaining capacity of the disc but the files are saved as raw data and can’t be played when the disc is loaded into an XDCAM deck or camcorder

Good luck..

Ian

[Ian Cook]

If I understand the issue(s) correctly… you may not have high enough firmware on the EX1 to use 32 GB cards. 32 Gb SxS Pro was not supported until 1.11 but were supported on the EX1R at the time of release.

Likewise with SD cards– it was not until 1.11 that USB storage (SD cards, PHU hard drives) was officially supported.

The kernel panic on your Mac may be an unrelated issue. If you have Snow Leopard (10.6) and the older SxS driver this is normal. Upgrade the driver to 1.04 or higher (current = 1.05).

You are correct re 1280/25p and 720/25p; they are the same…

[Ian Cook]

Hi Jonathan,

The GENERAL and USER DATA folders are for generic types of data (documents, prioject files etc), not video clips. As you’ve discovered, video files exported to these locations do not show up as clips. You should export to the CLIP folder and use one of the XDCAM Optical sequence presets. The EX presets will not work. You can either put your EX material into an XDCAM formatted sequence or you can export and then choose the appropriate template from the “…Using Settings” drop down in the export window.

You can mix HD and SD but ‘Enable Mixed Recording’ needs to be checked in the User Settings of the U-1 Utility app.

Best,

Ian

Ian Cook
Sony Broadcast and Professional Company

[Ian Cook]

the ‘XDCAM Drive Software’ is for the PDW-U1 XDCAM optical drive. If you don’t use a U-1 you don’t need it. you can ignore the warning in Transfer as long as all the codecs and drivers you need for EX are present.

[Ian Cook]

Hi All,

Apologies for the late reply, but I think this is solved by using each NLE’s dedicated file browser, rather than file–>import. Final Cut Pro has always worked this way when importing via Log and Transfer; Premiere and Vegas now support the same kind of workflow.

FCP: Log and Transfer will show spanned files made up of 2 GB segments as one self-contained file

Vegas 10: If you use the Device Explorer to import from either the card or a stored card image, the spanned portions should register as one self-contained clip, just as they do with XDCAM EX. You need to first show the Device Explorer, then point it to the AVCHD card. If the files are stored locally, right click and select Browse, then go to the root folder of your AVCHD image..

Premiere Pro CS5: If you use the built in Media Browser the spanned clip portions should show as one file. You need to make sure tht browser is set to ‘AVCHD’ and not ‘File Directory.’

Please let me know if you discover otherwise…

Unfortunately there is still no way to import the CMU-reconnected MTS files into FCP without first re-wrapping them.

Below is a screen shot of Vegas showing a spanned clip in the Device Explorer and two spanned clips (tested from different sources, card/local) on the timeline..

John, we are taking another look at your multicam issue, thanks for hanging in there

[Ian Cook]

Thanks Don, that is correct, you just need the Snow Leopard compatible version of Transfer.. Versions <2.12 do not generate thumbnails properly under Snow Leopard

https://www.servicesplus.sel.sony.com/sony-software-model-PDZKP1.aspx

[Ian Cook]

You are creating a Clip List (basically an EDL) and playing it out of the deck in cut order, as opposed to making destructive edits to the MXFs to create a new master clip (as one would with, for example, 2 F1600s and a controller)

[Ian Cook]

Doing a quick linear tape style edit (for example, to fix one small piece of an hour show) is much faster and easier than having to import/export. The 3rd gen XDCAM optical machines support insert and assemble editing. These would be:

PDW-HD1500 (with PDBK-S1500 option)
PDW-F1600 (basically the same machine but no options req’d for 24p, SD and linear editing)

Also the older SD-only PDW-1500 supports linear editing but req’s a software option.

You can use the RM-280 to edit between two HD1500s (the one in the recorder position must have the S1500 option), two F1600s (no options needed) or a combination of the two.

The HR1 with the SxS option uses EDLs and real-time transcoding to handle edits from SxS–>Optical. It’s not really the best solution for on the fly editing.

The EX format itself does not support destructive linear editing. This is only built into the optical codecs/machines.

Cheers,

Ian

Ian Cook
Sony Broadcast and Professional Company

[Ian Cook]

do you have Clip Browser installed on the same machine? if so, does it see all the clips? exactly how many are missing?