Editing XD Cam HD

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by Alister Chapman

Spoke to a Sony rep today and he told me that sony have written a plug-in for FCP that allows users to browse XDCAM disks and import both proxies and Mpegs within FCP. The plug-in is due to be released by the end of the month.

That confirms what my contact at Sony has been telling me since NAB.

Alister, I asked before but maybe you didn't see it. Where were you storm chasing here in the U.S. ? I ask because I am a former ham operator/storm spotter but I eventually left my radio hobby behind.

-gb-

[William Gaffney]

I saw the plugin working today with FCP at Broadcast Live in London. It can however only be used with 25mbs footage at the moment (not 18mbs or 35mbs). Sony say they are waiting for Apple to implement 18ms and 35mbs in FCP


wmg

[Alister Chapman]

This year I chased in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, Missouri, Iowa snd Arkansas. Best storms of the year were in Colorado, Nebraska and the Dakotas. The tornado count for May and June is a record low this year, just a dozen compared to the ususal hundred or so.

The sony rep didn't say anything about FCP being restricted to 25mb. He did say that Avid Liquid currently had the best integration.

[Alister Chapman]

Avid have updated the info about 5.5 Xpress pro and it now states that it will support XDCAM HD BUT ONLY AT 25Mb CBR. This goes against everything Avid and Sony have been telling me and now means I have to look for another software package that will work with 35Mb. Guess I'll have to buy Avid Liquid until such time as Avid get Xpress Pro sorted... or will they just include 35Mb in Media Composer?

[Simon Wyndham]

Media Composer does all the datarates. If Avid have limited Xpress Pro to 25mbps they have made a SERIOUS mistake that they are likely to pay for.

[Bill Pryor]

I'm going to that FCP/Sony seminar in Chicago on Aug. 1 about XDCAM HD. I'm hoping they'll demonstrate that FCP does work in 35mbs.

[Matt Davis]

I'm mostly an editor, working closely with a shooting crew on DVCAM (DSR570 or 450). We're usually working on fast turnaround stuff.

There's been talk of using FireStore DTE technology, and this has not worked out well. I'm trying to champion XDCAM and XDCAM-HD, but as a Z1 user, I'm not that keen on the HDV Long-GoP editing experience.

So... What are editor's experiences of editing XDCAM, or more particularly XDCAM-HD?

How well does XDCAM-HD fare for Chromakey?

Would you edit XDCAM-HD on a laptop on-site?

What happens when one switches from 18/25 Mbps to 35 Mbps? Does this help the edit process? HDV can be painful to edit but DVCPRO-HD is almost DV-like. Where does XDCAM land between the two?

Cheers,
M.

PS: FWIW My current outputs (like most of us) are DVD and DigiBeta at SD, but HD is coming...

[Peter Jefferson]

Whats ur NLE?

If xDCam HD is your acquisition, Vegas7 offers the best integration and managements system for the format. Specific XDCam management tools are available in the NLE direct and offer the widest functions possible for the format... even wider than what Avid can offer.

So... What are editor's experiences of editing XDCAM, or more particularly XDCAM-HD?
((Im yet to dive right into this format myself.. im jsut experiementing for now and seeing if the BD workflow and archival is cost effective for me vs tape ))

How well does XDCAM-HD fare for Chromakey?

((I havent messed with chromakeying yet.. but i dont see why it wouldnt be cleaner than DV considering teh Resolution. COlour space is identical to what youre used to (being in Pal land 4:2:0) but another thing with CK is what app your using to do the actual composite. If ur using combusiton, u can get away with murder, if ur using vegas, you need to be VERY careful how u set up your keys, else you can kil the shot. Combustion has tools which deals with all aspects of keying, such as lighting management etc, which vegas doest have. A dedicated compositing app will be far more beenficial, irrespective of your source material. U might have thr best source footage, but if u run t through a not too great compositor, then it defeats the purpose.. Vegas is good, brilliant for basic stuff in fact.. but it IS limited to what u can do within a composite

Would you edit XDCAM-HD on a laptop on-site?
((Defintaley.. we conencted an F330 to my dual core 1.73 with 1gb ram, and ran it stright through V7... u can either transfer the footage locally, or edit offline with proxies straight off the BD Deck/camera. All accessable via the NLE and its XDCam explorer functions. incredible stuff.. and becuase of this editing workflow (not archival..) is why im looking at XDCam vs P2.. as opposed to HDV tape based.. i hate tape and the time it takes to manage and archive.. but i cant deny the reliability of tape... which is why tape is still king in this regard..

Ther are many different variations of how ui can adapt your workflow to suit (online offline etc) , but each one worked flawlessly... i just wish i had more time to mess with it and relaly get into the swing of things..

[Matt Trecartin]

Here is our workflow for longform Documentaries. Might not answer any of your questions but its one way to do it. We had been shooting in HDV and delivering mostly to SD as well. We needed to get into the HD market and bought 2 F350 cameras. We had invested in Avid and wanted to continue with the switch to XDCAM HD.

We are now shooting 35mb XDCAM HD on all our productions.

We have:
3 Avid Xpress Pro HD suites
1 Avid Media Composer Suite

We get our HD onlines done on an:
Avid Nitris DS

Only our Media Composer will import the proxy files and take advantage of the file transfer mode. Unfortunately I don't think Avid is going to have proxy support for Xpress Pro.

On the media composer we simply batch import the low-res proxy files from the disks.
Then edit.
Once we have final cut for online, we decompose sequence and batch re-import only the clips we need in HD.
We transcode to DnxHD220, export an .aaf file, and send the files to our online suite.
On the DS we open the .aaf, which links to the transcoded files. No digitizing.

OR

On Xpress Pro we use the deck to digitize like we would a tape (with RS-422)
Edit.
Output.aaf
Conform to HD in the DS suite by re-diging.
This method means you have to digitize at real time up front but you don't have to re-import the HD clips later. Using the deck to digitize still takes a shorter time than tape because its non-linear access. It just snaps to the next timecode, no FF or RW, cueing, etc.

Of course you can always import the low-res proxies. Edit. Then re-digitize the old fashioned way.

[Gustavo Yanez]

Hello

I have the U-1 of Sony. wen i import the clip i take a HDV file, Sony tell me that i must a transcode to Avid codec.
I do that but the quality ist no good. wen i use a XD-Cam maschine the quiality ist ok.

I have a Avid media composer Adrenaline with HD card

thank you

tamia

[Alister Chapman]

If you have up to date Media Composer software you should be able to import the native MXF files. There should be no need to transcode anything.

[Thierry Humeau]

Originally Posted by Alister Chapman

Avid have updated the info about 5.5 Xpress pro and it now states that it will support XDCAM HD BUT ONLY AT 25Mb CBR. This goes against everything Avid and Sony have been telling me and now means I have to look for another software package that will work with 35Mb. Guess I'll have to buy Avid Liquid until such time as Avid get Xpress Pro sorted... or will they just include 35Mb in Media Composer?

Alister,

AVID has been supporting 35mbps XDCAM HD codec on XPress Pro for almost a year.

Thierry.

[Alister Chapman]

well I did post that almost a year ago!