[Tad Newberry]

Sourav (and any other interested NX5 owners),

I did some further tests this afternoon with these mysterious 3 files. I recopied the contents of the card to the hard drive again, opened the copied directory in ClipWrap, and those same 3 files showed up in ClipWrap with the note, “could not determine format” on the status side where all other clips say, “waiting.” When i pointed ClipWrap directly to the card, the same thing happened. Though when i used FCP’s log and transfer, all files were read fine . . . at least directly from the card. FCP would not read any of the files copied to the folders on the hard drive, which tends to be typical for FCP – that is, it rarely has a hard time reading directly from the card, but almost always will not read any of the files on my copied folders…which i why i resort to ClipWrap. In this instance, though, it appears FCP is a bit more robust at least in reading those 3 “undetermined format” clips.

So, for this project, i’m going to copy the card to a BluRay disc as usual, but i will also copy the converted 3 clips (converted to ProRes, that is). Hopefully this will archive everything i might need down the road.

thanks for helping out a bonehead!
__________________________

FCS3
2.66 GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro
6GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
…and a few TeraBytes o’ storage
(then it’s on to PetaBytes, ExaBytes and MosquitoBytes!)

[Tad Newberry]

Hi Sourav,

I bought the NX5 a few months ago, and am getting more used to it. I’m still not in love with the idea of being about to record 13 hours of HD…and all without subfolders, so I try to download footage daily on multi-day shoots. Also, i have not shot any SD with this camera, so completely unsure how transferring such shots would work. From your post, it sounds like only your SD material is not being transferred? Have you tried ClipWrap? Shane pointed me to it last summer (before I bought the camera) and it has really worked out well. FCP’s Log and Transfer is VERY picky about the folder structure, etc., and i find it rarely “finds” my original shots after they’ve been archived…but ClipWrap has been pretty fool-proof (which is highly needed by this fool!). Though I must say, i am transferring right now, and so far (out of 56 clips thus far), ClipWrap has crashed twice saying it doesn’t recognize a couple shots – this is the first day this has ever happened, so not sure what’s up with the card. I haven’t yet wiped out the card, so when this current conversion is done, i’ll retransfer from the card to the hard drive and see if those mystery clips get “fixed”.

Did i read your post right, in that your HD clips ARE transferring properly through FCP? How are you archiving your original material?

thanks for helping out a bonehead!
__________________________

FCS3
2.66 GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro
6GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
…and a few TeraBytes o’ storage
(then it’s on to PetaBytes, ExaBytes and MosquitoBytes!)

[Tad Newberry]

hmmmm…yes, i’ve got pretty much the same set-up: BlackMagic card (Decklink HD Extreme 2) and a BetaSP deck (UVW 1800). I just tried an insert audio-only edit again (haven’t tried it for quite awhile), and it never works. Even selecting only 2 channels only, i have to end up outputting everything from my in point to the end. Oh well…some day very soon the deck will be gone and it won’t be an issue.

thanks for helping out a bonehead!
__________________________

FCS3
2.66 GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro
6GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
…and a few TeraBytes o’ storage
(then it’s on to PetaBytes, ExaBytes and MosquitoBytes!)

[Tad Newberry]

so, what did the “True Apple Genius” do to fix it?

thanks for helping out a bonehead!
__________________________

FCS3
2.66 GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro
6GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
…and a few TeraBytes o’ storage
(then it’s on to PetaBytes, ExaBytes and MosquitoBytes!)

[Tad Newberry]

Hi Tom…ya, while i was trying to learn how to successfully upload the screenshot, Michael found my answer for me on Google (tail betwixt legs…again!). Just for practice, i will try to embed my picture:

(drum roll please…)

By the way, the link Michael gave me answered the question: “command click/drag the question mark icon away”. not sure what it is doing internally, but at least the little icon is gone. : ) life is good, back to work!

thanks for helping out a bonehead!
__________________________

FCS3
2.66 GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro
6GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
…and a few TeraBytes o’ storage
(then it’s on to PetaBytes, ExaBytes and MosquitoBytes!)

[Tad Newberry]

thanks…sorry…my bad…

thanks for helping out a bonehead!
__________________________

FCS3
2.66 GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro
6GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
…and a few TeraBytes o’ storage
(then it’s on to PetaBytes, ExaBytes and MosquitoBytes!)

[Tad Newberry]

Seems like a pretty good idea…i suppose the best way to do this is via Media Manager, and just do a copy (or move?) of the final timeline/sequence?

thanks for helping out a bonehead!
__________________________

FCS3
2.66 GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro
6GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
…and a few TeraBytes o’ storage
(then it’s on to PetaBytes, ExaBytes and MosquitoBytes!)

[Tad Newberry]

Thanks. I’ve downloaded and am trying out ShotPut.

Any ideas for the other stuff i’ve already done the old way, i.e., copy all, from RMU128 and drag to hard drive folder or Blu-Ray?

Also, when there is more on the RMU128 than will fit on a single Blu-Ray, is Toast spanning the best way to archive for long term? Or does ShotPut also do some sort of spanning to Blu-Ray discs? I dont’ trust hard drives for long term storage and it seems Blu-Rays would be the best option…or so i think today…

: )

thanks for helping out a bonehead!
__________________________

FCS3
2.66 GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro
6GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
…and a few TeraBytes o’ storage
(then it’s on to PetaBytes, ExaBytes and MosquitoBytes!)

[Tad Newberry]

Alrighty…thanks, Shane!

Yes, i understand your consternation with this codec. It’s nice to not be tied to tape anymore…but on the other hand, it’s hard to beat tape for archiving. Not sure what you meant by, “BUT, FCP fixed that and things are better.” I’m using FCP 7.0.3 and still having inconsistencies on when and how Log and Transfer (L&T) will read either the FMU128 card, or the same info when coming from a Blu-Ray or dragged to my hard drive. yes, i know…the files need to be in a parent folder. no problem there.

My desired archive workflow is this: hook up the FMU128 to the Mac, and “copy all” from it and drag to Toast 10 for burning to Blu-Ray. I tried Toast’s “AVCHD Archive” under the video tab, but it burned the first disc (of 2, for spanning) then sat there. So i used the “Data:Mac&PC” setting, burned/spanned my 2 discs – 29GB total – and they both burned fine. I’ve already archived several FMU128 shoots before this, but all could fit on 1 Blu-Ray, but even those are sometimes not seen by L&T. I’ve called Sony and they have basically said, “it should work.” : ) I asked whether it matters WHEN i mount a drive…whether FCP and L&T should be open first, THEN plug in/mount a drive, or vice versa. Sony says it doesn’t matter. They did say to trash FCP prefs if things aren’t working. Did it…not much different.

So, IN THEORY, i’m assuming my method of archiving SHOULD be adequate? Also, on the road, i daily dumped our FMU128s (we were using 2 NX5s) to 2 portable hard drives – this, for safety and redundancy, by selecting all on the FMU128, then dragging both of those folders to each of the portable drives. Upon returning to the office, each days’ folder was dragged to a Blu-Ray (always less than 1 Blu-Ray disc so far, until this last weekend).

Now that i just finished one archive spanned to 2 Blu-Ray discs, i just restored it to my main hard drive, but L&T say of it: “…contains unsupported media or has an invalid directory structure. Please choose a folder whose directory structure matches supported media.”, as it does with several of these blu-rays…

woe is me…

thanks for helping out a bonehead!
__________________________

FCS3
2.66 GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro
6GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
…and a few TeraBytes o’ storage
(then it’s on to PetaBytes, ExaBytes and MosquitoBytes!)

[Tad Newberry]

ya, i’ve been running into this a lot, too, since moving to FCS3 (with FCP7). like the guys are saying, it’s probably a large still image. i have trouble tracking mine down, but then i also think that is not ALWAYS the problem. case in point: i left my machine to render a show for me overnight – 4 segments, about 30 minutes total. in the morning, it didn’t finish because of “out of memory” error. ARRRGGH.

so, i did a test and rendered just the first half of the sequence (which included the first 2 segments – of 4 total – of the entire show). no problems. so, rendered the second half of the show (second half of the sequence, which included segments 3 and 4), and it gave me the error fairly soon after starting, so i figured the problem file must be in segment 3. so, rendered segment 4 first, it finished fine no problem. so now, in my little mind, i have narrowed the problem down to only the third segment. i set in and out points on it for the first half of segment 3. it rendered no problem. then the second half of segment 3…no problem…so, in conclusion, by the time i broke the rendering down into smaller chunks (all WITHOUT finding nor deleting any “corrupt” files), it all ended up rendering fine…and i’m still stuck with the mystery.

oh well…but maybe all this will change with FCP 8? i don’t recall it happening in FCP 6 when i had half the RAM.

thanks for helping out a bonehead!
__________________________

FCS3
2.66 GHz Quad-Core Mac Pro
6GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
…and a few TeraBytes o’ storage
(then it’s on to PetaBytes, ExaBytes and MosquitoBytes!)