pdw-700 version 1.51 proxy files to editing

[Bryan Harvey]

I have a few questions about sending proxy files from the field back to the editing suite, so they can get a jump start on editing. The main issue is we dont want to risk sending the XDCam discs via Fedex overseas.
What would be the slickest way to accomplish this? Is FTP transfer possible or would I need to fedex USB drives loaded with the days shoot of proxy files? How much space do proxy files take up relative to a 50gb XDCam disc?
What issues do I need to be aware of? FCP vs AVID? I've never done this before so obviously want to make this go smoothly for the client.

thanks!

Bryan Harvey

[Greg Boston]

Bryan, the proxy files are small for that very reason. They are intended to be sent via the internet. FTP is the ultimate way to do this over a long distance. It would be a complete waste of money sending them via USB drives IMO.

If you record to the USB stick simultaneously, you could have an assistant (or the producer) take that stick and plug into a PC to be FTP'd to an overseas server while you continue to shoot. Just create a sub folder that contains the same title as your disc's volume label so that it will be easy to match them up later if need be. Send each folder (each containing the proxies for the matching disc) via FTP to the remote host. You can also copy the remaining proxies to the USB stick at the end of the day, then FTP the additional files for that disc.

Lots of flexibility in this system. If your client needs full resolution files, then I would suggest a portable USB hard drive with all the discs copied to it, again using a subfolder to represent each physical disc using an identical name. When they receive it, they should be able to point their NLE or transfer software to that directory and it will be treated as a disc as long as all the files and sub directories are present.

regards,

Greg Boston

p.s. Welcome to DVINFO!

[Alister Chapman]

A hard drive or memory cards would work. FTP transfer also works and I have done this several times for selected clips. If you use a USB to SD card adapter you can use SD cards. 8 and 16Gb cards are reasonably cheap and a lot easier to send in the mail or fedex. They are also less likely to get damaged than a hard drive. If I remember right a full 23Gb disc gives about 900Mb to 1Gb of proxies so for a full 50Gb disc you would be looking at around 2Gb.

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by Alister Chapman

They are also less likely to get damaged than a hard drive.

Yeah, I would only use a hard drive to send full res material of several discs. But with memory prices falling, soon it might make more sense to use CF cards with their larger capacities to dump the whole disc onto.

[Alister Chapman]

If you do go the SD card via adapter route you also need a short USB male to USB female cable. Most adapters and many memory pens don't fit directly into the USB port because of where it is.

[Bryan Harvey]

Many thanks Greg and Alister.

A few follow up questions. Forgive me if these seem rudimentary, but I have not been able to find answers in the manual or in this forum.

Quote: "Just create a sub folder that contains the same title as your disc's volume label so that it will be easy to match them up later if need be."

Where in the file structure do you create the subfolder? There are so many subfolders within the MSSONY folder, I'd hate to make a mistake here.

I dont see where I can determine my "disc's volume label."

How do I name each disc so that a corresponding folder will show up on the USB proxy data? Do I have to go into the camera menu each time I change discs, or can I set up an automatic labeling system that will assign a new name to each new disc as it is inserted and formatted. For example, "storm disc 1, storm disc 2, storm disc 3, etc...


thanks again,

Bryan

[Greg Boston]

Bryan,

At the moment, the easiest method is to put disc in camera or deck, attach to computer in FAM mode (file access mode), and then name the disc, not any subfolders. It's a volume label like the one your hard drive has. Giving each disc a unique volume name helps a lot. We have been asking Sony for some time to allow us to create the disc volume label in camera which would make things much simpler.

Example:

I do a two day shoot and use 4 discs total.

I might label them something like, Day_1 Disc_1, Day_1 Disc_2, etc.

The volume label defaults to Untitled, which is the name you would see on the Mac OSX desktop when the disc shows up. You can single click the name and change it right there if you wish.

Then, when you want to copy proxies to the memory card or whatever you will hand over to client, make the folder name identical to the disc name that the proxies come from.

To further the example above.

Start from root directory of card or hard disc where proxies will be copied. Create a NEW FOLDER and name it Day_1 Disc_1 then go into that subfolder to copy all proxy files from the corresponding XDCAM disc. Rinse, repeat for the remaining discs.

When using the card or USB stick attached to camera DURING shooting, you likely won't be able to select any folder (memory escapes me on that at the moment). But after shooting is over for the day is when you can go back and create cards or hard drives with all the proxies using the example I gave.

None of what I'm saying is required, it's just an example of how to know what proxies came from which physical disc. You could just physically label each disc if that works for you without assigning a volume label to it. Again, just a suggested method of keeping everything organized and locatable on short notice.

-gb-

[Bryan Harvey]

Greg,

I follow you and tested naming the discs via I-link connection to my Mac. Works perfectly as you stated, and I can see how to do this at the end of the day's shooting. Thanks!

I WAS planning on recording proxy files to USB drive DURING shooting, so that I could just hand over the thumb drive to the assoc. producer at the end of the day and let her take care of the FTP transfer. I was hoping to leave a 16gb thumb drive plugged into the camera all day, and hoping that it would record naming or label information that would distinguish between discs, so the editor would have that needed information.

I tested this and named two discs (Storm Disc 1 and Storm Disc 2), shot a few clips on each one, leaving the thumbdrive in place as I changed discs to see what it would do. Then I brought the thumb drive over to my Mac...Within the file structure there WERE two different files distinguishing between each disc, yet their name seemed like jibberish, a bunch of numbers- 20730500935005C10E07080046020226 (for Storm Disc 1 and something similar for Storm Disc 2) They both were in the MEMDISC folder.

Here's the file structure:
MSSONY
PRO
XDCAM
MEMDISC
20730500935005C10E07080046020226 (this referred to the clips on Storm Disc 1)
here was another string of numbers representing Storm Disc 2



Nowhere in the file structure was there a file labeled Storm Disc 1 or 2, so it obviously does not pick up on the disc name automatically.

Could I simply just rename the string of numbers Storm Disc 1? How would I know which string of numbers corresponds to which disc I shot that day?


Maybe I am missing something? If I have to go back at the end of the day and create files etc...(this is a step Im trying to avoid) what's the point of recording proxies during shooting?


Bryan

[Alister Chapman]

As far as I know the long number string is the unique identifier of the disc and cannot be changed.

One workflow to consider is to include the disc number in the clip title, so if you prefixed all your clips as storm01..... for disc 1, storm02.... for disc 2 etc you would know which disc your clips were on. It would not take long to change the clip prefix, but it is something that would have to be remembered as it won't happen automatically.

[Greg Boston]

As Alister stated, that long string of numbers is the 'internal' numbering scheme for the disc. It's called the UMID, for universal material ID. No, I would not change those numbers. They make sense to some of the Sony supplied software like the Proxy Browser for Windows.

-gb-