[Ian Cook]

Hi Brian,

XDCAM Transfer and Clip Browser both save the user-added metadata fields such as Title and Comments back to the SxS card (or card image). The changes saved in one should be visible in the other. Make sure you are using the latest versions of each (2.12 and 2.06 respectively) and saving your changes before leaving each app (Right-click–>Save Changes in Transfer; UPDATE button in Clip Browser’s GENERAL tab). Also make sure you are updating the source in Transfer and Refreshing in Clip Browser to make sure you are not looking at old info.

Since Transfer doesn’t have the safe archive/copy functionality, you’d be best off archiving/copying and perhaps starting your logging using Clip Browser. You can save the logging info back to the card or back to the stored card image on your system. When Transfer looks at either of these BPAV’s you should see your metadata. When the clips are eventually imported into FCP, this metadata should be present.

Hope this is helpful..

Cheers,

Ian

[Ian Cook]

Hi James,

Premiere Pro will accept EX files natively without a rewrap or transcode.

Craig’s suggestion that you use the Calibrated plugin and FCP to edit the MP4s natively is also a good one, although (and perhaps Craig can answer, as I have not had a chance to test this) if you need to Media Manage the FCP project down to only the clip portions used in the timeline plus handles, FCPs media Manager will not trim non-MOV files. We ran into this with our Cinemon plug-in which, among other things, allows native QT support of XDCAM optical MXFs and XDCAM EX MP4s. When media managing projects the native MXFs and MP4s do not get trimmed. The FCP manual states that only .mov files can be trimmed. This might be a minor detail but I think it’s one worth mentioning/investigating for a project of the size you are describing, where a few rounds of Media Management/Consolidation would probably be part of the workflow.

Also, while Premiere has great native support for the mp4 files, one benefit of using XDCAM Transfer/FCP and re-wrapping (aside from the media management concerns mentioned above) is that you can sub-clip on import and add logging information. This would help you to only import/re-wrap the clips and clip portions you need. As far as logging, comments, clip titles shot flags etc are all translated into the equivalent FCP metadata.

Essence Marks can be added during shooting on the EX1 or in Clip Browser. On the EX1 you can add them using the dedicated buttons on the IR remote or by assigning ‘Shot Mark 1’ or ‘Shot Mark 2’ to assignable buttons on the camera.

Cheers,

Ian

Ian Cook
Sony Broadcast and Professional Company

[Ian Cook]

Hi Michael,

The Video Out port gives you either an analog composite signal or the luminance (Y) channel of the HD signal (selectable in the Operational menu under Input and Output–>Output and i.LINK). It is intended for monitoring purposes and will output a down converted SD signal regardless of whether the SD option is installed.

Ian

[Ian Cook]

David-

So in this case the cards do not mount to any PC/Mac and are not recognized by the camera at all? If you try to do an ‘Update’ from Menu->Others–>Clip is that slot available or is it ghosted? If not, can you try the update? When you look at it on your PC/Mac, do Disk Management/Disk Utility show even a broken/unmounted volume or nothing at all?

Ian

[Ian Cook]

Hi James,

If what you’re reporting is accurate (you’re 101% sure the card is seated properly; absolutely no response from the Mac OS; all other cards mount ok; nothing related to that card’s slot available through the menu or through Media mode; tried different readers) it’s more than likely that the controller or interface on the card has failed. As Craig pointed out there is a very good chance that the data itself is intact but you will need to think about having a data recovery specialist look at it if the footage is critical. If it was an SxS card we may have some more resources to call upon but with SD cards there is only so much we can do.

Ian

[Ian Cook]

yes, for now the card should be unlocked

[Ian Cook]

If you try to do the UPDATE function from menu–>others–>clip does it recognize the suspect card? My guess is no?

[Ian Cook]

Are you getting a “no clips” display in Media mode? Does the camera see the card at all? If it’s seen, can you still record to it? What happens if (assuming you can) you record a new file?

Also, if the card is even partially recognized when in the camera, can you try executing an ‘Update’ from Menu–>Others–>Clip?

Any luck with Disk Utility seeing and possibly mounting the volume?

Ian Cook
Sony Broadcast and Professional Company

[Ian Cook]

Hi James,

Have you tried checking to see if Disk Utility is seeing the card and if so whether it can be mounted manually?

Are the files playing in the camcorder? If they are, and if all else fails, is playing the files out via HD-SDI to another device or to a Kona an option for you?

Ian

Ian Cook
Sony Broadcast and Professional Company

[Ian Cook]

Yes, absolutely, the BPAVs are the “universal” because they are the camera originals and can be converted/rewrapped or where applicable imported natively.

I specifically mentioned the XD-decode demo, which does in fact cause conflicts. We’ve only seen it with the demo version and the symptom is that Calibrated’s demo watermarks appear on the thumbnails in transfer and in FCP.

Thanks,

Ian

Ian Cook
Sony Broadcast and Professional Company