[Michael Palmer]

What you will do with the computers you have now is you will use either the camera or the SxS card reader to copy the raw files onto your computer, you can use a firewire storage with both of your Mac computers. Your friend doesn’t have good information and yes you can use firewire with XD Cam file to edit with Final Cut Pro.

“do I need to install any specific software in the laptop or my iMac for editing to handle HD files?”
You will need the SxS driver so your computer can read the card and you will need FCS2 6.0.2 or newer that has the EX codec necessary to edit these files.

Good Luck
Michael Palmer

[Michael Palmer]

I have a Mac G4 laptop – am I right in thinking this isn’t useful for downloading from the cards?
I dumped my G4 Power Book and my G5 PPC last year. I don’t believe you need any new computers but for some strange reason the Intel Mac’s work great with the Newer FCS2 and the EX series codec.

So do I need a newer laptop?
No, but my life is so much easier now with the Intel Macs.

Good Luck
Michael Palmer

[Michael Palmer]

file based material is so much faster and easier to import, I would welcome the entire file back in case I might need handles when recutting. File naming in you’re case should be handled before the camera rolls, I setup a file code before I start shooting that helps me identify the material.

Good Luck
Michael Palmer

[Michael Palmer]

There is no Batch Capturing with a file based media that I’m aware of. I don’t have first hand experience with XD Cam disks only the EX series XD Cam files which I believe are the same and both need to be transfered to QuickTime .mov files to work in FC. Lets say you completed a project but months later you need to make a change and the .mov media has been wiped off the storage drive, I would think you just open that project re-import the media from the disk making the .mov again then reconnect and go. When you re-import you are re-wrapping the file making a new .mov file and you will need to make a place for it to live on the storage drive, then when reconnecting just direct FC to that folder, boom the timeline is alive again. Try it and see. I think you are wondering if FC would only grab the exact frames as it would from tape and It just may but why not have all the files back in less than real time as opposed to tape.

Good Luck
Michael Palmer

[Michael Palmer]

If you saved the raw XD Cam files you will need to convert back to .mov, and when reconnecting direct Final Cut to that drive with the converted .mov media. If you save the .mov files just dump them on a drive and reconnect to that folder.

Good Luck
Michael Palmer

[Michael Palmer]

Did you try tightening the screw right behind the hot shoe?

Good Luck
Michael Palmer

[Michael Palmer]

Mac Book Pro 15″, get the largest hard drive they offer, it should come with 2 gigs of RAM and you should be good to go. You will need a couple of external drives with you.

Good Luck
Michael Palmer

[Michael Palmer]

1. One method I can thing of: I would have the sxs usb drive, esata drives connected to the expresscard slot and the AJA IOHD connected by firewire on the MBP. Would this be feasible?

NO, The way the AJA HD-IO works is from a live HD signal, this could be from the camera or it could be from a deck. I told you both ways you could use the IO but I don’t think you understood. The SxS USB Card reader isn’t going to product the HD signal, you either do a live capture from the camera to the IO to a computer or use the camera as a deck later playing the media back out in the same way as a live capture.

4. If I edit on EX native format, would I get ‘real time’ performance on the Macbook Pro and also the MacPro? If so, why would I even need the IOHD? 🙂
There is no realtime performance from native EX media because there doesn’t need to be. I believe you are reading into areas from the AJA brochure that you don’t need to be concerned with.
Call Jerry at AJA and he can fill you in on the proper use of the HD-IO Phone: +1-530-271-3190

I don’t think you need the IO.
What is the delivery? Why do you think you need Pro Rez?

Good Luck
Michael Palmer

[Michael Palmer]

Slow down John, you won’t be transcoding anything to Pro Rez in the field from what you have stated. The AJA HD-IO works in realtime from an HD-SDI signal that the EX1 can provide. I believe it is a bit of a ball and chain because you will need constant power to the IO and an external hard drive if you plan on using the MBP Laptop. So if you are planning on multiple cameras then you would need an IO, a Laptop and an external drive for each camera you want Pro Rez from. This means more people and more equipment. If you only have a few days to complete this shoot and edit project I wouldn’t even consider Pro Rez and use the EX material natively then render out the final edit to Pro Rez if that is what you need to deliver. The AJA HD-IO doesn’t record anything it just encodes the HD-SDI signal and sends it out as a compressed Pro Rez file over firewire. If you have a controlled shooting environment it is possible to live transcode to Pro Rez. If you really need to transcode to Pro Rez and you have the time you could use the camera as the deck and replace the BPAV folder back to an SxS card and play the recorded EX material sending it out of the HD-SDI into the AJA HD-IO into a Mac computer, however you are transcoding a compressed image in this method. This IMO is not even worth the time because the HQ recording mode is IMO broadcast quality to begin with. What is your final delivery?

It sounds like you really need to test the EX1 and learn the workflow to ensure you don’t lose anything.
The EX1/3 is just like the P2 as it has it’s own raw file format that you will need to convert to a QuickTime .mov and this takes time, however you can quickly dump the BPAV folder into a new folder for each card. You can also review the raw using the Clip Browser program to ensure you have what you need. Keep in mind you may still need a laptop for each camera if you want to continuously roll the camera and yes you should get/rent more cards. Pro Rez is a much larger file and you may need a few large drives.

Good Luck
Michael Palmer

[Michael Palmer]

Congrats Don
Good to see your head here too.

Good Luck
Michael Palmer