I have 2 hard drives with the identical data. Each drive has the all the BPAV folders, and the .MOV files, from the transfer. With my this back up system I have in place, is there any need on god's green earth to hold onto the MP4 files, seeing as all my .MOV files are also backed up? Trash them, right?

I have a 1TB drive (with 63mb to spare)... and the same question.
I know I want to delete the mp4s, but for some reason I can't bring myself to do it.

Lots of help you are ;)

I have a similar problem. When I transfer clips from the EX1 camera (SXS card) to the PC using the clip browser application, it create a sub-directory or each clip. In that sub-directory I have 6 files : *.MP4, *.SMI, *.PPN, *.XML and *.BIM and only the *.MP4 has a noticealble size (all other files have only a few Ks). I don even get a *.MOV file.
But when I want to open the MP4 file I get an error message "Error-2010:he movie contains some invalid data". So I cant read it.

I tries to export the clip and it creates a *.MXF file of the same size as the MP4 but I cant read it neither.

Can someone help me solving this problem?

What is you editing application ?

In PremierePro you just import the folder and off you go ...

If yours doesn't support EX1 files you might have to convert using the new Clipbrowser 2.0. But that will be extra cost for plugins as far as I understand until now from other posts.

Peter

Well. I have 2 distinct environments: (a) for mobility, I have just a Toshiba laptop with Windows Vista and that I want to use only for transferring the clips to the laptop but hopefully with the possibilty of running these clips in the PC; (b) a MacPro with Final Cut Studio that I intend to use to edit the clips. My concern right now is checking a way to transfer these clips safely to the laptop. As a next step, I would like to be able to transfer these clips to an external hard drive that I would plug to a Sony Playstation PS3 so that I can see these clips on the HDTV.

On location,for checking the transfer on the laptop, before erasing the card, i just copy all the files to a new folder on the laptop hard-drive using clip browser, then using clip browser i look into the new folder and check/play some files at random, if all is well i delete the footage from the card.
Clip browser has 2 explorer windows, i have the sxs card in the top one and the hard-drive/folder in the bottom on.
So just make sure when deleting you highlight the footage in the top explorer window.
If i have to export to mxf because maybe that's what the client wants, i just check the files using vegas which is also on my laptop.

Paul.

I have 2 hard drives with the identical data. Each drive has the all the BPAV folders, and the .MOV files, from the transfer. With my this back up system I have in place, is there any need on god's green earth to hold onto the MP4 files, seeing as all my .MOV files are also backed up? Trash them, right?

How could you get *.mov format files ? I have the latest Sony Clip Browser version and after transferring the mp4 files into my PC I am given a choice of export format and none of them is a mov format. So I would be very much interested to know how did you manage to get the clips in mov format.

How could you get *.mov format files ?

In FCP import XDCam... XDCam Transfer 2.7.1 converts to .mov and places it in a bin.

In FCP import XDCam... XDCam Transfer 2.7.1 converts to .mov and places it in a bin.


But I still have the BPAV folders with all the MP4. Can I just trash them? As long as I've backed up the .mov's?

I've dealt with this problem the last couple weeks. What is making it more difficult is that we are working in an Avid/FCP hybrid environment. I've only used the EX-1 files with these NLE systems, so I cannot comment on the workflows for other systems such as Premiere or Vegas.

For transferring a card in the field it is advisable to run the Clip Brower software (version 2.0 preferably) if you plan on editing in Avid, simply select the clip, then export it into an .MXF file.

For FCP users, it is advisable to use the XDCAM transfer utility (there is also a plugin for FCP to do this directly in FCP). This basically does the same thing that the Clip Browser software does, with the exception that it exports the clip to a .MOV file for editing with Final Cut.

Once the transfer is completed (and backed up!) you are free to delete the BPAV folders from your drives or cards. However, if you ever need to re-import the footage into a different edit system, you can't without the original BPAV folder. As far as I'm able to tell FCP needs the files in .MOV format, and Avid needs the files in .MXF format.

I just comfortably deleted all the mp4 files, once I had the transfered .mov files on 2 separate hard drives. I'll never be editing on another system, so the .mov's are all I need.

What had been happening, all my BPAV files and my transfered files were all on one drive.
And I was just too scared to delete the BPAV's

Now, I've kept the BPAV files on one drive, and transferring to another. I'll then make a second copy of the .MOV's, and trash all the mp4's.

My work flow is that I do weddings. One the job, I'll copy the cards, that's it. I really should use the transfer software, and maybe try to get into that habit. Often, there's not a lot of time. Just time enough to copy cards. I'll eyeball that I have all the mp4 files, but are they corrupt? I'll never know until I get home. So far, this system is working very nicely.

If you use Shotput it will check that the files are valid.
I would always keep a copy of the MP4's. The .movs that are created by the Sony transfer tool cannot be read by any PC applications and many mac applications. I would ditch the .mov's keeping the MP4's that way you retain cross platform compatibility. Who knows what system you might be using in the future. By keeping the BPAV folders you also keep all the metadata such as when it was shot and by which camera.

Did it come on the DVD w/ the camera? Free download? What's it's purpose?

Shotput express is a low cost software application for backing up and verifying SxS cards.
http://www.ImagineProducts.com

On location, I drag the BPAV folder to laptop HD, and a bus powered little drive. True, I don't know if there's any corruption. How can clips be verified w/ this software? Looking at the photo of the interface on website, it's not clear. Is it poor form just to drag the BPAV to where I want. Or just easier to let shotput do it?

Simply copying the BPAV folder to your USB drive should produce a perfect copy every time and most applications and OS's are pretty good at warning of any problems. However the warnings only occur if the machine detects a problem while copying. If you copy some of the data to a duff sector or your drive has an issue un-detected by the copy function you may never find out until it is too late. ShotPut copies the files (to simultaneous multiple destinations if u want) and then verifies that the copied file can be read. The strength of the verification can be chosen, from a simple but accurate file size check to a full read of the entire copy.

In short. the desktop makes a copy but does not check that the copy is valid, Shot put makes a copy and then checks the copy is OK.

In most cases a straight forward copy should be fine, but Shotput ensures it is before erasing the card.

Great. I'll come out of my comfort zone, and give it a try. Curious - are you able to view anything, or it's just for copying? What is the message the software gives that the files are OK?

Hard drives can, and do fail.

I use XDCAM Transfer to import my clips via the Sony SBAC US10 reader into FCP, storing the .movs on external HD.

THEN I backup all the .mov files to a second external HD.

THEN I replace the cards in the camera and format them ready for use again.

Very similar to me. In the field I:

Copy my BPAV's to my laptop and an external drive.

When I get back to the studio I import using Transfer software from that external drive.

Then copy the .MOVs to another hard drive to archive.

Then delete files from laptop, and external drive - erase cards.

. In that sub-directory I have 6 files : *.MP4, *.SMI, *.PPN, *.XML and *.BIM and only the *.MP4 has a noticealble size

Can someone tell me what are these files with just a few kbs (.SMI, .PPNm .XML created for each clip in the SxS Card. Can I get rid of them and just keep the .MP$ file when exporting the SxS contents into the laptop when I travel?

Can someone tell me what are these files with just a few kbs (.SMI, .PPNm .XML created for each clip in the SxS Card. Can I get rid of them and just keep the .MP$ file when exporting the SxS contents into the laptop when I travel?
You should never mess with any of the files in the BPAV folder. They are all needed for the XDTransfer and XD Clip Browser software. Always keep the BPAV folder files intact. You should also never change the name of the BPAV folder. Create folders with unique names on your laptop and put the BPAV folders into these.

Devin pretty much answered it but I'll add my two cents.

If you are only going to be editing your footage on one platform (Final Cut, Vegas, Avid) then after you re-wrap your mp4s to either .mov Quicktime files or XML files you are safe to delete the BPAV folder and all its contents. When rewrapping files you are not degrading video or audio quality...just putting your video and audio into a different container format (like taking clothes from a laundry basket and putting into your closet).

What I've been doing is I have two 750 GB hard drives (for now, LOL). I will make a backup of any contents on the first drive to the second one. If I'm finished with a project I will either keep the files on the drive and just buy two new ones (hard drives are your new tape, welcome to the tapeless workflow) or burn the data files to DVD-R.

There's also the option in Clip Browser (I'm not sure after Transfer) either before you transfer files or afterwards to split folders. 2.0 now has a convenient drop down menu to split in exact portions for different media formats. It's under the Clip menu. This makes backing up video files to cheap DVD-Rs a cinch.

Check out a small review of ShotPut with screen captures of the software in action @
http://web.mac.com/stevecahill/Steve_Cahills_Blog/Blog/Entries/2008/7/9_ShotPut_EXpress_Data_Copying_Software_Tool.html