Thanks to David Young (and others) at Sony for this clarification of the way to use Proxy Files from a USB memory stick recorded by a PDW-700 or F800 in Avid Media Composer.

You need to make your USB Memory “appear” as an XDCAM disc

Rename your USB Memory Stick to “XDCAM”
Find the “disc” on the USB Memory Stick, this will be in a folder that will be something like
:\mssony\pro\xdcam\memdisc\“MyDiscCode.. a long number code”

Move the “disc” Root XML files, Clip, Edit, General and Sub to the root of the USB Memory stick.

Start Media Composer as normal
Create a project as normal
Remember to set the correct project format as normal
Ensure Avid Media Access (AMA) Volume Management is switched off

Ensure your USB Memory Stick is inserted into the computer
Select File Import XDCAM Proxy
Select Import on the next dialogue box

Perform your edit as normal using the proxies

When the edit is done ensure that a deck or camera with the matching disc is attached.

Select Clip, Batch Import for the Sequence you wish to conform and avid will import the full res clips.

Alistair:

What if one has the XDCam discs and the 1500 deck? Can we lay off proxies for low rez offline editing from the deck to a harddrive, edit on AVID, then use the deck to do the HD conformation in post?

Or would it be better to downconvert in the deck to layoff DVCam video/audio, edit off line, and then do the HD version?

Not having used XDCam before, I'm unclear if the proxies even carry audio, and if so, if it is full resolution and usable.

Bill,

As long as Move the “disc” Root XML files, Clip, Edit, General and Sub to the root of your storage device, you can use anything. That is USB stick, Memory stick, DVD, hard drive and so on...

Proxy clips do carry audio but it is 8khz audio. It sounds a bit thin but ounce you get use to it, it is very workable audio. If your editing application supports proxy/hires batch import such as AVID or Vegas, your up-rez process to full HD will be much quicker that laying down to DVCam tape for off-lining.

Thierry.