I have been trying unsuccessfully to view all my clips one next to the other in one play using XDCAM EX Clip Broser and I could not find the way to do it.
The very awkward way I found using this application is to play one clip, then click on the next one and son on, which is quite an awful way to vew all the clips we saved on the directory of the hard drive.
Can someone tell me if I can use this application to view all the clips of a directory, with full screen without having to jump from one clip to the next ?

There isn't a way that I know of. You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to jump from one clip to the next, but I don't know of a way to have them all play consecutively one after the other.

The Clip Browser also has pretty lousy playback quality. No deinterlacing and poor down/up-scaling. My recommendation is to use VLC-player to look at several clips after each other. You can make a search for all the MP4-files (or sift in Vista) in your BPAV folder and then place them in a playlist in VLC. Be sure to download the latest version of VLC-player to get both audio and video.

Thanks! This is a useful suggestion

i suppose if you want to take clip browser by its literal name, it is used to browse clips - one at a time as we all know. i just check a few clips individually on cb and it has been fine, but i have not viewed them consecutively. the best use for cb is to back up the bpav folder and contents to other storage mediums.

francois, you are right in its 'non delivery' for what you are after, but i use it as a shot selection and copy program.

best wishes

In fact I am trying to find the best workflow when managing my clip generated by the XDCAM EX1 camera.
For the time being this is what I do when I am out of home in a vacation trip.
1) Copy the clips into an external hard drive connected to my laptop using the Clip Browser (I was told not to do it by simplying copy pasting the BPAV directory using Microsoft Explorer. Is that right?)
2) Once this is done, I burn the contents in a DVD double layer (as long as the size does not exceed 8 Gb. If it does, I proceed with a folder split, but found the Clip Browser very lousy doing it (it splits the clips in a totally random basis or by file size instead of by date, so it becomes very messy when managing these clips afterward).
3) When back home, I plug in this external hard dribe to my MacPro and use XDCAM Transfer application to convert all these clips in Mov format to be stored in a second hard drive dedicated to that (one folder by month, therefore sorted by chronology).
4) When I am ready to import the clips in FCP for mounting a video, for the time being I am choosing the XDCAM Transfer application to choose the clips from the first hard drive (which contains the BPAV folder) and import the ones I want into my MacPro internal hard drive in the FCP project folder. But the ideal solution would be to browse the files already converted in mov format stored in the second external drive, but can find a way to do it in my MAC (the Mac Finder does not let me see all the clips with their respective thumbnail like it is possible with Windows Explorer.

Can you recommend a better and more efficient workflow?
Can you recommend the right application where I can display all the mov clips (like a slide sorter) to choose the ones I want to put in my FCP project?

1) Yes. Use the Clip Browser to copy clips. It's much safer.
2) Another option is to buy Roxio Toast. If you BPAV directly is too big to fit on one disc, the software will span onto as many discs as necessary. This works really well. But personally, I just archive to portable 500GB hard drives.
3) Exactly what I do.
4) Why not just few the clips in the Finder using Cover Flow? Just select the folder you want and then click the Cover Flow icon. I've attached an example using JPG images, but it works the same way with MOV's.

But the ideal solution would be to browse the files already converted in mov format stored in the second external drive, but can find a way to do it in my MAC (the Mac Finder does not let me see all the clips with their respective thumbnail like it is possible with Windows Explorer.?

Francois,

I have found that Adobe Bridge is the best software for viewing clips. I couldn't edit with Final Cut Pro without it -- that's how important it is to me.

I have it opened 100% of the time on one of my monitors when I'm editing. I can drag and drop clips into the timeline right from Bridge. I can playback clips inside Bridge, sort the clips, see the thumbnails, etc. without actually making them part of the Project unless I want them to be part of the Project.

My only complaint is that Bridge doesn't show me as much of the metadata as I would like to see. Perhaps Apple will add that in the future.

I don't know if you can buy Bridge by itself, but it comes bundled with Photoshop and all of the Adobe Suites. Don't tell Apple, but I would have paid $500 just for Bridge if it didn't come free with the other software.

Bridge is the software you seek.

Well, Adobe Bridge is, as you said, a good solution. But I have spent all my budget already buying the Final Studio Pro 2 to have FCP6 and all other softwares going with it, and would not be keen to spend another $500 to have something including Adobe Bridge.
I also heard that another solution would be to buy the new MAC OS Leopard and there is a browser function where yolu can display all the clips, like ACDSee is doing with Windows. Is that true?

1) 4) Why not just few the clips in the Finder using Cover Flow?

Yes, this could be a possibility.

Francois,

I have found that Adobe Bridge is the best software for viewing clips. I couldn't edit with Final Cut Pro without it -- that's how important it is to me.

Bridge is the software you seek.

Glad to hear it works for you Doug, my version of Bridge will not display the clips. Windows, CS3 etc. also have CS4 but haven't felt the need to install it as yet

Glad to hear it works for you Doug, my version of Bridge will not display the clips. Windows, CS3 etc. also have CS4 but haven't felt the need to install it as yet

Vincent,

You might want to check to make sure everyting is running correct on your machine.
I've been using Bridge with XDCAM for almost three years, long before I upgraded to CS4.
Maybe it requires the latest version of QT, or something?
I'm not an expert, I just know it has worked for a long time.

Well, Adobe Bridge is, as you said, a good solution. But I have spent all my budget already buying the Final Studio Pro 2 to have FCP6 and all other softwares going with it, and would not be keen to spend another $500 to have something including Adobe Bridge.
I also heard that another solution would be to buy the new MAC OS Leopard and there is a browser function where yolu can display all the clips, like ACDSee is doing with Windows. Is that true?

Francois,

Bridge is included free with Photoshop and I have no idea how you can create professional videos without having Photoshop on your computer. What do you use for graphics if you don't have Photoshop? Having FCP without Photoshop would be like having a camera with no tripod.

Francois,

Bridge is included free with Photoshop and I have no idea how you can create professional videos without having Photoshop on your computer. What do you use for graphics if you don't have Photoshop? Having FCP without Photoshop would be like having a camera with no tripod.

Let someone else do the graphics ;-)

I have been trying unsuccessfully to view all my clips one next to the other in one play using XDCAM EX Clip Broser and I could not find the way to do it.


To only way I've found to view all clips sequentially: XDCAM transfer to .mov, then import all clips into FCP, highlight all clips and drag them into timeline sequence, hit play.

1) Yes. Use the Clip Browser to copy clips. It's much safer.
Can some expand on this point? We've been doing a simple WindowsXP drag'n'drop for all our BPAV folders from SxS card to either the internal notebook drive or an external drive. No issues to date after hundreds of cards.

I have not been happy with the Viewing of the files using Clip Browser
VLC does a good job.. Then I found SONY XDCAM Viewer PDZ-VX10 Version 2.30..

WOW I think it's a much better viewer. The playback really looks good...Try it you will like it
Well so much for players...

Just as another note to this topic.

I have been using ClipBrowser to transfer all my clips to hard drive etc. no problem - until now.

When I open any clip (720p) into Premiere CS4 the application hangs for about a minute and then resumes. Add a correction, filter etc. and the same thing happens. I posted a question regarding this on the Matrox RTX2 forum and received this reply.

"How did you get the XDCAM EX files into the system? I had a client with a similar issue, and Adobe recommended that the user directly COPY the folder from the memory card to the computer hard drive. Do NOT use the Sony transfer utility, which does something to the files that Premiere does not like.

Directly copying the XDCAM EX files (entire folder structure) from card to hard drive resolved the issue for our client "

I tried transferring the same clips via windows browser, and presto problem resolved.

Doug, I still can't see any of my clips in Bridge, and I have the latest version of QT pro installed.

Doug, I still can't see any of my clips in Bridge, and I have the latest version of QT pro installed.

Vincent,
Just to be clear, I use Adobe Bridge for MOV files. I can't view MP4 files.
For MOV browsing it is great! I really could not get along without it.

On a typical project, where I am pulling stock clips from my archives, it literaly saves me hours of editing time by providing a quick way to preview clips before I bring them into my project. I especially like that I can drag a clip straight from Bridge onto my FCP timeline. My only complaint is that I can't see the clip length or most of the metadata within Bridge. I'm hoping Adobe fixes that someday, but I can live with it the way it is.

Can some expand on this point? We've been doing a simple WindowsXP drag'n'drop for all our BPAV folders from SxS card to either the internal notebook drive or an external drive. No issues to date after hundreds of cards.

Steve,
There's nothing wrong with moving the entire BPAV folder. If that works for you, keep doing it. It's really no different than moving other data around on your computer.

However, big problems can happen if someone starts moving individual files or folders from inside the BPAV folder. If you only want to convert/import/transfer/backup/archive SOME of the clips -- then you should use Clip Browser or XDCAM Transfer to be safe.

Vincent,
Just to be clear, I use Adobe Bridge for MOV files. I can't view MP4 files.
For MOV browsing it is great! I really could not get along without it.



OK, thanks for the clarification. I too can see MOV files in Bridge but not the MP4 files.

For SD DVD's I use ClipBrowser to convert the files to AVI and I have no problem with them, in fact the 720p files convert very nicely for SD work.