[W. Lawrence stevens]

Hi Don: Your points are all well taken and you have helped me before.

I just checked some older B cam files and it appears everything was working fine with the B camera until July of this year when half way through the day, it appears something broke down causing the problem I’m having now with resulting transfer of files. I have 14 8Gb SD cards (for each camera) and two adaptors and they all functioned without a hitch. I’m pretty certain this is not a card or adaptor failure or inconsistence or I would have experienced it before.

I’m now focusing on the a potential problem with the EX1-R. Ever since the shooting in July, my B cam disks have not been able to transfer to hardrive back up. I am going to start another thread to see if anyone else has experienced this.

Many thanks.

PMW-350
EX1-R
Nikon D3
(wlstevens.com)

[W. Lawrence stevens]

UPDATE: The frustration continues.

All recently shot cards uploaded from the A Camera work fine with my workflow. All the cards from the B cam, however, exhibit the same problem which started this thread. Every byte of data is transferred and accounted for from the original SD discs but the drives which hold the data won’t read in Browser or Transfer. The data is managed exactly the same for each camera. Only the B camera (EX1R) files won’t read in Transfer or Browser. I have experimented with every possible combination to figure out why there is a difference when the workflow for A cam files and B cam files is identical.

The only difference is the type of SD cards. The A Cam is using Sandisk “Extreme” and the B Cam is using the Extreme “Pro” discs. How could this be an issue if all the data is there?

I’m fairly fed up.

PMW-350
EX1-R
Nikon D3
(wlstevens.com)

[W. Lawrence stevens]

The Plot Thickens:

I checked back to compare the bytes from the SD Card to one of my in-field transfers done by an assistant. It turns out there was a bad file copy and I did not catch it when I was doing my double check. The number of bytes were the same but oddly, files and folders were different. I was able to save this MP4 by purchasing some software (mentioned above) which allows the Mac to play MP4 files natively. Fine. Now here’s the problem.

I’m looking at the latest location shooting where I have 12 A Cam SD cards shot with our PMW-350 and 12 B Cam SD cards shot with the Ex-1R. All the transfers were perfect. Byte for byte, file for file, folder for folder. They show the exact same file structure, size, etc. Guess what?

All the A Cam transfers are readible in Transfer and Browser and Clip Browser. But NONE of the B Cam tranfers are working. This is frustrating becase both A and B Cam files were uploaded in the exact same fashion and under the same conditions. I have done this hudreds of times previously without a problem. Nothing has changed in my workflow.

Any thoughts? Another mystery to solve.

(I’m sorry, I can’t use Shotput in the field… I need to use Windows 7 folder copy and make it work reliably somehow.)

PMW-350
EX1-R
Nikon D3
(wlstevens.com)

[W. Lawrence stevens]

Thanks gentlemen. I appreciate the advice and collective wisdom. The problem I have (which I didn’t want to bore anyone with) is that I have an assistant upload all the SD Cards in the field immediately after they are shot on a small windows computer.

Our location shoots last over 15 hours so uploading the 20 or so full SD cards is easy during that time. It saves me many hours of babysitting the uploads afterwards if I had to do it myself. Instead of spending all that time uploading data, my job I just to compare each BPAV folder with each corresponding SD Card before it is reformated to make sure the upload was done correctly. That task takes me about an hour.

I need something idiot proof that can be done by an assistant in the field with a Windows computer without much training or fanfare. Apparently, a basic folder copy operation in Windows is not reliable (if someone can explain why, I’m really interested!)

Cost is really no object. I need something easy and fool proof. Clip Browser crashed on my Mac on the second go and won’t come back. Is Shotput automated? Any further advice is appreciated.

Many thanks again!

Steven

PMW-350
EX1-R
Nikon D3
(wlstevens.com)

[W. Lawrence stevens]

Using Browser to “import” the individual MP4 files is tedious but it appears to work. It just goes to show that all the footage is there intact.

I still don’t understand why the copied BPAV folders can’t be read in Browser or Transfer when byte for byte, they are exact duplicates of what originally existed on the SD Cards. I’m not feeling this is a reliable system if you have to jump through hoops just to get simple concepts to work.

PMW-350
EX1-R
Nikon D3
(wlstevens.com)

[W. Lawrence stevens]

We have tried this method. There is ghosting of images which we can’t get rid of, particularly when there is movement.

Is there a difinitive hardware solution to this? Is the AJA Kona card being used widely still? Any better options?

Thanks!

PMW-350
EX1-R
Nikon D3
(wlstevens.com)

[W. Lawrence stevens]

Don: Your solution seems waaaay too easy and sane. So no multiple transcoding steps using five different software processors running on 2 networked machines? No exporting to hardware and then re-importing and rendering thrice? No reciting ancient Mayan sacrificial incantations over a boiling cauldron of shark fins?

Given how you so skillfully solved my other nagging problem regarding the XD Transfer software a few weeks ago, I’d say you were bucking for a consultancy gig or something. Next time we are needing some backup in that department, you wil be the first call!

Many thanks Don.

Steven

PMW-350
EX1-R
Nikon D3
(wlstevens.com)

[W. Lawrence stevens]

Thanks Craig. I saw those articles in doing my homework. They were helpful in identifying the source of the problem with XDCam but I still need a decent workflow suggestion.

StreamClip is producing files that look stretched and distorted so I’m not even at the stage where I’m trying to refine the look. I’m doing something wrong and just wondered how other people are managing.

PMW-350
EX1-R
Nikon D3
(wlstevens.com)

[W. Lawrence stevens]

I actually like XDCam Transfer now that it is working properly. It’s quick, elegant, easy to use and gets the job I need done without much fanfare. I tried Browser and it was very difficult to figure out just from poking around and appears to try to do too much. Overkill. Why is that an improvement?? I’m sticking with Transfer for as long as possible.

PMW-350
EX1-R
Nikon D3
(wlstevens.com)

[W. Lawrence stevens]

OMG.. I’ll be damned. THIS WORKED. I’ve been struggling with this issue for months and asked so many people. All I got was more questions. THIS SOLUTION WORKED!!

Thank you sir!!!!

PMW-350
EX1-R
Nikon D3
(wlstevens.com)