Exporting to SxS card in FCP X

[Kevin Langdon]

Is this possible?

If so, can anyone direct me to a step by step guide as I'm not having any luck achieving this?

I need to be able to do this (I've also tried in Avid and failed as well!) when editing on location and exporting the finished piece to a card to give to a satellite operator for play out.

Any suggestions/ideas would be welcomed.

Thanks

[Samer Aslan]

Hi Kevin,
I think you should specify if it's for 35mbs 420 or 50 mbs 422! HD or SD? mp4 or mxf!?
I do it all the time with avid and premiere but only with mxf 50 mbs sometimes sd and other times in hd but i never managed to do it with 35mbs 420 and from what i remember while searching for a solution on web i have discovered it was possible to do with FCP and go back to sxs card!
Sorry i can't help you anymore but i think if you give us more info about camera and format that would help to find a solution! have a look here:XDCAM-USER.COM ? View topic - XDCAM EX workflow overview for FCP, Avid and Premier
regards
Samer

[Kevin Langdon]

It depends on who I'm working for.
One day it may be SD, another day it may be HD at 35mbps 4:2:0 and then another day, HD 50mbps 4:2:2.
I thought the actual process would be virtually the same (except any change to codec, etc) in FCP X?

[Kevin Langdon]

No thoughts anyone?

Samer, you say that you do it all the time in Avid. I also use Avid as well as FCP X, can you let me know what your workflow is?

Thanks

[Bill Davis]

Kevin,

The issue is card format and file format.

Any form of digital storage card is just a bucket for bits.

It's the arrangement of those bits - AND the software available on the computer you're loading it into that determines whether or not a file can be played back.

If the bit bucket is large enough, then just create a Quicktime or DNXHD file and copy it to the card.

Then the receiving computer simply has to have some form of video player that will parse and play the file when it's launched..

There's no universal standard for that, however other than Mac's all understanding basic Quicktime containers and all PC's similarly understanding WMVs.

The best thing might be to create a rudimentary card root directory DVD file in the form of a Video.TS folder contains a VOB file that can be read into any DVD player via drag and drop - but you'll be transcoding to MPEG 1 to do that. Which may or may not be OK quality wise. Sorry it's such a mess. But that's how the intellectual property cookie crumbles in the video world.

[Kevin Langdon]

That is a bit of a mess!

Is there not a way to add a Sony SxS card (SBAC-US20) reader to your Share locations in FCP X and then drag and drop?

I understand the SxS card in the reader needs to be formatted in UDF mode first, regardless of whether the material to be exported is Ex Fat or UDF. I think this is correct??

Would it be any easier with a SD card?? I tried this and can see the exported material on the card if I double click on it, BUT if I then put the card into FCP X it doesn't see the material in Import mode.

I also put this question up on an Avid forum as well and I got a reply that someone was able to export back to a SxS card in Media Composer v8.1 but I have 7.0.3 and will need to update, if this is the case. I haven't had a response from the guy on this forum who says he can do it in Avid but only with certain codecs.

You would really think it would be easy in this day and age to drag and drop material onto various different types of cards. Or, am I missing something??

[Bill Davis]

Kevin,

What you're missing is intellectual property hurdles.

In general, FCP X lets you output to formats in one of two classes. A) formats Apple has developed internally (Quicktime, ProRes, etc.) and therefore have IP rights to use without licensing payments.

or B) non-Apple developed formats where they're either part of a development consortium where they also have clear intellectual property rights. (H-264, H-265, etc) or formats where they've got agreements in place with outside companies that allow them to use the externally developed codec or IP legally. (Sony XDCAM, Canon C300, etc)

Most of these companies (including Sony with SxS) own their IP. so it's up to the technology owner to decide if they want to make writing to those formats something Apple can or can't do. There also may be classes where the companies don't care about the IP stuff, but simply feel there's not a big enough market to spend their own time writing and managing the capability inside the software, and so they leave it to third party utility, app, or codec transcoders to enable the use of format A in workflow B.

That's just how this stuff works.

[Kevin Langdon]

So is there any type of card/media that I can export an edited sequence to in FCP X?

If I have quick wifi, I can export to Desktop then FTP the material to a broadcaster - but this isn't always possible if signal is poor.

I've understand that exporting back to SxS card is possible in Avid, but I still haven't found the correct workflow.

[Bill Davis]

Kevin,

The deal is that for any video file you wish to play back - there has to have SOMETHING installed to enable the playback. There is no "universal auto-play" format.

The closest is probably a VOB file inside a VIDEO_TS folderwhich is the underlying MPEG 2 encoding for a DVD. Most computers play DVDs so there is likely SOMETHING that can open and play them back. But that something typically has to be launched. (Open the DVD player on the laptop, for instance, then point it as the VIDEO_TS Folder.)

All other formats have the same deal. An H-264 file on the desktop can be dragged on top of, say VLC (one of the most popular standalone players) and it will open a window and play back.

But the viewer has to have VLC (or at least something similar) installed, and that program has to be launched and then it has to "see" the video file you're asking it to play back.

There were some rudimentary "auto play a video file" utilities that I messed with decades ago, but I haven't seen any modern ones in decades.

Mostly today, that space has been taken over by services like YouTube and Vimeo that allow you to post a video into the cloud, optionally password protect it, and then allow anyone with web access and password to view it. It's MUCH more convenient than distributing files on plastic or thumb drives. But it does requires web access to at least download the file.

Good luck.