xdcam transfer 2.5.1 for mac

[Andy Mees]

already posted in the EX forum by Craig, but worth reposting here for those of us not using the newer EX
http://www.sony.ca/xdcamex/software.htm

[Greg Boston]

Should be up on the US site as well. Fixes XDCAM Transfer ability to recognize time code shot using clock.

And for me... a NEW Prodisc driver which is fully Leopard compatible. Yes, your disc icon now appears on the desktop and finder as it should. Yeah!

-gb-

[Andy Mees]

Originally Posted by Andy Mees, regarding XDCAM Transfer 2.1

Scenario 1:
Cache location set to startup disc, import location set to external disc, then launch and use the software without that disc attached.

Result:
The software is perfectly happy to function without the targeted import location volume present. When you choose to Import you're prompted that the targeted Import location is missing, and you're given the option to "Look" or "Don't Look"

If you hit "Don't Look" then you get a second location missing dialog (duh!) which you have to acknowledge before you finally get the preferences window so that you can actually reset the Import location. The original Import request is cancelled.

Question: What's the point with the double error message? There are no other options along the way so why not change the bizarrely titled "Don't Look" button to a more obvious "Reset Location..." or similar, and have that directly open the Preference window.

If you hit the "Look" button then XDCAM Transfer rescans for the targeted location ... and if it doesn't find it it resets the location for you, without your permission or instruction! What???? After rescanning the bus, if it doesn't find the target location, it just goes ahead and resets your Import location to the root of your system drive (/) and imports the selected clips to it. It doesn't tell you that its changed the import location, it just does it all in the background ... it will remain set to the wrong location until you manually open the Preferences and reset it again yourself.

"Look" and "Don't Look"? (Is this software for 5 yr olds?) It should be "Reset...", "Rescan" and "Cancel" buttons. No extra dialogs. If the rescan is unsuccessful it should return to the same error dialog with the same 3 options.


Scenario 2:
Both cache location and import location set to external disc, then launch and use the software without that disc mounted.

Result:
The software is perfectly happy to function without the targeted import and cache location volume present! What??? How does it know where to cache my files or find the existing cache? It doesn't. Sony unilaterally makes the decision for us, immediately resetting the cache location to the default (~/Library/Application Support/Sony XDCAM Transfer). Again there is no warning that this has just happened and the user will not know that the app will be using the new (default) cache setting unless or until its noticed and manually reset to the correct location in the application preferences.

Well the good news is that with the release of 2.5.1 the main issue has been resolved, that being that in Scenario 1 the user preferences for the high res media import location is no longer being changed/reset without user intervention.

In Scenario 1 if you choose "Look", to rescan for the targeted directory and that directory is still not found then you are now prompted by a second dialog that you must reset the import location preference. Much better, although I'd still prefer the single dialog with "Cancel", "Reset..." and "Rescan" options, but I guess thats just me.

For Scenario 2 however nothing has changed. If you launch the software without the targeted cache location mounted then the software will still arbitrarily reset the cache directory to the default (~/Library/Application Support/Sony XDCAM Transfer) without any warning that it has just happened. The new setting will persist until you manually change it again.

Ah well, its certainly a move in the right direction, tho' I'd love a bit more polish on these unnecessarily rough edges in a minor point release update. Still a work in progress I hope.


My wish list for XDCAM Transfer 3.0?
1) Ability to name sub-clips in the logging tab, surely equally as important as naming the parent clip itself ... even more so now, given the Continuous Clip Recording functionality in the newer camera firmware
2) Ability to import and export logging data ... this would open up a much needed ability to share logging tasks between different installations, log proxies on one machine, import on another. It could also open the possibility of real world proxy editing solutions for FCP users (if the logging file format adopted conformed to an open standard such as XML).
3) Ability to create and edit Clip Lists in the XDCAM Transfer software, and write these back to the XDCAM discs ... this would greatly enhance interoperability between systems including between Mac and PC versions of the PDZ-1 software.
4) Better feature parity between Mac and PC versions of the PDZ software

[Greg Boston]

I agree with number 3 on the wish list. I was hoping it would show up in this version. However... there is another feature I bugged Sony about that IS in this new release.

If you go to list view mode, you can now COPY that data to the clipboard. That is huge because it opens up the ability to then import that list into EXCEL and add more fields for comments, thumbnails, etc. EXCEL has a very powerful and flexible external data import function.

But not just EXCEL... any application that can use the clipboard data will benefit.

The other option is to buy a SQL ODBC driver for the Mac and access the file directly.

-gb-

[Greg Boston]

I just stumbled on to something that may or may not have been possible in earlier releases.

With a source selected in the left window panel, do a cmd-a to select all. It will select every one of your sources and show them as a master list or master thumbnail view.

You could then sort by everything you shot in 24P, or any number of other criteria.

I was actually trying to select all clips on one disc in the thumbnail view but because my window focus was in the source panel, I found this little gem.

-gb-