nanoFlash & MovieSlate
 

Hey all,

I've been looking at this: PureBlend Software :: Products . Pretty slick and the user reports seem good.

I am primarily looking at MovieSlate as a replacement for my present... practically non-existant... logging-to-edit workflow. I want MovieSlate to replace the cryptic file names that I import into Final Cut (7.0.3) with useful shot-by-shot information that connects effortlessly to the clips I shot in the field.

Anybody using MovieSlate with the nanoFlash? Any experience bringing the XML files it generates into FCP?

Thanks!

Yes I use it. XML is flawless. You can also sync TC via wifi with 2 movie slates. I use iPad for slate. iPhone for sync at the camera.

Hey Aaron,

A few questions:

- Are you pulling TC from the Camera TC Out or is there a way to do it from the nano?

- Are you using the cables that PureBlend recommends? Seemed a bit kludgy with all the turnarounds.

- How do you get the file names generated by the nano and the file names generated by MovieSlate to match? Is it even worth bothering?

- So once you get the XML files into FCP, how do you Reconnect the XML events to the nano files. TC only?

- When using your iPhone's wi-fi to transmit TC, do you turn off all the other radios in the iPhone? Seems like it might be embarrassing to get a call in the middle of the shot. ;-)

- How about shots that bridge the nano's 4GB file limit? Does the Reconnect process find both "halfs"?

This set-up seems really cool and a huge step forward in not having to figure out cryptic file names. If you are an editor, add this app to the mix (Saitara Software) and you have two great reasons to buy an iPad.

Thanks!

My camera doesn't have a timecode output, it actually has no recorder so there is no need or purpose for timecode on a camera head only. The nano has no TC output either as far I know. Only LTC input.

My cables are custom. It really is just an 1/8" headphone jack to a BNC connector on my XDR. It's a very simple cable. It connects from the iPhone or iPad headphone output to the BNC LTC input on the XDR.

It's impossible to get the file names working correctly since the XDR and nano generate a bunch of small files. The filename feature works nice with my Cinedeck though, which creates sanely named files and they can be very large.

To connect to the media in FCP, right click on the clip name in the browser and choose reconnect media. If your nano made a bunch of small MOV files, concatenate each take into a single file first if you like. This is easy to do.

Remove the sim card on your iPhone or use an iPod touch if you're worrying about getting a call.

Again, concatenate the files of each take first if you like.

I have a $1300 Denecke slate and I haven't used it once since I got the iPad. The movie slate app just does so much stuff, it's hard not to use it. Especially if I have to edit the project after it's shot.

Thanks, Aaron. What's your easy concatenate method? I've never found one that was worth the time.

cat 0120900*.mov > 01209.mov

Aaron,

Are you sure about this? Quicktime .mov files have headers and trailers; they're not raw transport streams. A unix concat doesn't take this into account. I would be very surprised if what you're suggesting works. When someone else asked about this here a year or so ago, I tried to just cat a bunch of nano .mov files together and it produced a file that quicktime couldn't properly deal with (I think it just played the first file).

Billy

In my testing, files from a continuous take had no problems being concatenated that I could see. I can test again.

not sure why i thought this worked before. it definitely doesn't. use FCP to concat without re-compression.

Dear Aaron,

I agree.

I do not feel that a binary file concatenation would work with anyone’s ".MOV" (Quicktime) or ".MXF" files.

These file types have headers and footers which are incompatible with the file concatenation process.

If one wants to group the files together, in the NLE, then this is fine.

If one wants to render the files to create one output file, then this is fine.

This does work
 

I found this:
AddMovie

A little Mac utility that will concatenate files. I stitched 7 contiguous nano files together into file that is 25.42GB... in about 5 minutes. In run time, that was about a 33 minute interview shot 1920x1080 30p@ 100M. Seems to play fine. I haven't tried bringing it into FCP yet.

Dan,
This raises a question I asked over a year ago:
Have you considered consolidating your contiguously created files with a Reference Movie that is generated by the nanoFlash? FireStore has this feature and it is a great one... cutting down on bin clutter and giving the one editor file to work with, particularly with long interviews. The FireStore implementation is..., just prior to dumping the disk..., you run a utility that creates the Ref Movie and then it downlods with everything else. The nano implementation might have to be an automatic utility that creates the Ref Movie just after the string of files has finished recording... and then writing that to the card.

Here's a link to the FireStore manual on Reference files:
http://www.focusinfo.com/dynassets/d...L-1023-10).pdf . The section on Reference Movies is on page 78.

...OR

Is there a complete concatenate routine that could be built into the nano that would create a single piece of media from the string of files? The Add Movie Utility is a manual process. It would be great to have it be automatic.

Possible?

Minor update:

I brought that concatenated file into FCP and it works fine. Interestingly, there are small hash marks in the Viewer timeline that seem to correspond to the individual clips. I deselected "Chapter Marks" in Add Movie but that is what these seem to be.

But the clip plays fine and the TC is good.

Dear Bob,

Thank you for alerting us to "AddMovie". This seems to be a great find.

Were the files that you concatenated 4:2:0 or 4:2:2 files?

If it works with both, and Final Cut Pro treats the resulting file as one continuous file, then this would be great.

We have not had time to develop such a utility ourselves. Our prority was to create a PC based version of our File Converter first.

We have not had time to create reference movies either.

We definitely want to look into "AddMovie".

Personally, I feel that it would be better for us to concatenate the files, via a PC or Mac (or both) utility.

Then, one would just take out the CompactFlash card, load it into a CompactFlash card reader, and then use a program list our File Converter which would concatenate the files properly.

If we do this inside the nanoFlash, then it would be much harder to accomplish.

For example. using the files on the original CompactFlash card, and during the file transfer process, outputing just one concatenated file is ideal, as the original files are not modified in any way.

And the process would take about the same amount of time as a regular file copy.

If we do this ourselves, then we can fine-tune this for our files and make it very easy to use.

Hey Dan,

QuickTime 7 sees the files I recorded with the nano as Apple XDCAM HD422 1080p30.

I agree with not modifying the original files and creating the concatenated file during offload. But... here's one thing to consider:

A lot of us offload our cards through ShotputPro. For me, I use it mostly for it's error-checking and file verification. Occasionally, I will use it to write to multiple drives. Great program. Having to choose between ShotputPro and a CD utility that can concatenate would put me in a bit of a bind. Of course, I want both.

Wild idea... how about working with Imagine Products to produce a CD specific version of ShotputPro that you can both make money on? The alternative is to add error-checking and file verification to your program. Multiple offload locations a bonus.

(yeah, I know... "Geez, these users are never satisfied!" ;-) )

Thanks for considering this!

Hi all as a long time user of ShotPut Pro I love Bob's idea Dan.

Dear Lance and Bob,

I will see what I can do.

Dear Friends,

I am trying to get in touch with Imagine Products.

Phone and text contact here:
https://www.imagineproducts.com/inde...age=contact_us

I think the head honcho there is a guy named Dan. Nice guy. I sent him an email today to ask if he had ever considered concatenating files... so your calling him about this might ring a bell. Calling during the day is best. They are a small outfit. They take a bit to call back and answer emails but they are very good at improving their product. You should get a good reception.

Thanks, Dan! You da best!

Dear Bob,

Dan, of Imagine Products, sent me an email tonight.

I gave him all of my phone numbers.

Good Luck!

Thank you
 

Thank you Bob for that find and Thank you Dan for going after it!
Cheers

Dear Friends,

Dan Montgomery of Imagine Products, Inc. and I had a nice, fruitful conversation this morning.

I also discussed this with our engineers yesterday.

A proper Quicktime File (".MOV") concatenation is rather complex.

Without going into all of the details, here is an approximation of what has to be performed.

For the first file, the header info has to be changed, subsequent headers have to be deleted.

For each file, the file trailer has to be moved and then changed except for maybe the first file.
To state this differently, the indexes in the file trailer have to be recreated,

A lot of tedious work has to be performed, as there is an index to every frame in the file and, of course, the index has to be accurate.

While it would be possible to perform a file copy and file concatenation at one time, I do not think this is prudent. If a problem with the file concatenation ever occured, and was found later, then the original files may not still be available.

Thus, a two-step process is the best choice, in my opinion, at least until the second step, file concatenation is proven to be rock solid.

ShotPut Pro is excellent software for the file copy process, and it is widely respected and recommended.

Thus, I feel that it is best to use ShotPut Pro for the first step.

We are working with Imagine Products.

Dan, you're still da best! Here's hoping for a simple, easy, effective solution!

Thanks!

Alternate offloading SW
 

You guys should check out Offloader from VideoToolshed.

VideoToolShed - Offloader

It already does file verification to two destinations and it's currently donationware.
It can also do transcoding and timecode insertion on Canon 5D files which is pretty handy.

Regards

Dave