Assertion Failure

[Les Jarrett]

Hello all,

I'm a new XDCAM 350 owner. Just completed my first project in FCP, have tried to export back to disc. Project is 1080i/60, camera is set to HD 60i HQ. I've tried twice. I get an "export failed", and the explanation is: "assertion failure. successful write".

This is my second go-around with this. The first time I tried, the project came out to 23 gigs, so I decided that I was cutting it too close and took out some previews of other programs available. The sequence that is currently failing is 21.7 gigs.

So what does this mean, and what should I be doing differently.

Thanks!

Les

[Jeremy Spruston]

Hi Les,

Have you tried and successfully mastered a shorter clip from the same project to ensure that things are writing properly?

I also encountered a very frustrating error when first mastering and it ended up being an FCP render problem. My solution (with a little help from my friends on the board here) was to re-render my frames when mastering. There is a checkbox in the in XDCAM mastering utility to allow you to do this.

Good luck!

[Nate Weaver]

Les,

There's some rules on exporting back with FCP, first and foremost is that the audio tracks in FCP have to be set as "dual mono", instead of a stereo pair.

Did you look into this yet?

[edit: I'm just updating my camera to 1.6 now, having skipped 1.58. It looks like there was issue with camera writebacks that is now fixed.]

[Alister Chapman]

The file is too big would be my guess. I cant remember the figures but you need to remember that 500Mb of the disk is reserved for user files, another large chunk of the disk is used for the proxies (2Gb??) and yet more for the XML data. Not sure of the exact amount available for the HD files but it's somewhere around 20Gb. I also seem to remember that sony don't recommend single clips longer than 40 mins.

When a clip is too big the transfer to the camera will finish apparently correctly, then you will get an error as the camera tries to create the proxy and XML files but runs out of space.

[Greg Boston]

I am updating to 1.6 also. I think Alister is quite correct in assuming that the 21 gig file is still too large.

BTW, some interesting functionality in the 1.6 version..

From inside the service menu, you can now decide when using CINEGAMMA whether the KNEE is fixed, like it became in the 1.56 update, or VARIABLE as it was in the earlier version.

Also, the front panel switches like AWB and Shutter on/off can be assigned different functions. I can't imagine who requested that feature.

There are a couple of other bug fixes as well as the one Nate mentioned.

-gb-

[Les Jarrett]

Ok all,

I did as Jeremy suggested (can't believe I didn't try an export long before this). Took a section of a project that was about three minutes long and it exported just fine.

My next step was to try outputting the program at 25mbs, but I got this message:
The preset 'Sony XDCAMHD 1080i60 (25Mb/s CBR) is not installed on this system.

So how DO I get this installed on my system?

Thanks again,

Les

[Greg Boston]

It should already be there. It's installed with FCP starting at version 5.1.0.

-gb-

[Les Jarrett]

In video/audio settings, and in the render menus there are only the options for 35mbs listed. 25 is nowhere to be seen.

Is it possible that when I installed FCP I somehow exluded these?

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by Les Jarrett

In video/audio settings, and in the render menus there are only the options for 35mbs listed. 25 is nowhere to be seen.

Is it possible that when I installed FCP I somehow exluded these?

Wow, I just looked at the list of compressors in sequence preset and you're right, everything other than 35mb is gone.

I know it used to be there because when they brought out the 35mb in 5.1.2, they didn't name it exactly the same as the earlier version so the available XDCAM codec list was fragmented. The new stuff was under XDCAM HD and the older 25mb was under Sony XDCAM HD (like it appeared in your error message).

Hmmmm, don't know what to tell you other than Apple pulled a fast one on us.

-gb-

[Les Jarrett]

Glad to find out that it wasn't me. I was about to go mad.

I suppose for the time being I'll just export the archival copy in chuncks, can always re-import and put them together later.

Thanks for the help.

Les

[Greg Penetrante]

Originally Posted by Greg Boston

Wow, I just looked at the list of compressors in sequence preset and you're right, everything other than 35mb is gone.

I know it used to be there because when they brought out the 35mb in 5.1.2, they didn't name it exactly the same as the earlier version so the available XDCAM codec list was fragmented. The new stuff was under XDCAM HD and the older 25mb was under Sony XDCAM HD (like it appeared in your error message).

Hmmmm, don't know what to tell you other than Apple pulled a fast one on us.

-gb-

Greg,

Apple moved the 25mb XDCam preset to the HDV 1080i preset. So if you need to use XDCam 25mb use the HDV presets.

G

[Greg Boston]

Originally Posted by Greg Penetrante

Greg,

Apple moved the 25mb XDCam preset to the HDV 1080i preset. So if you need to use XDCam 25mb use the HDV presets.

G

Hmmm, what about the audio? HDV is compressed audio whereas XDCAM HD is not. And don't forget the 18mb VBR, what did they do with it?

I still think Apple has pulled the rug out from under us a little bit. 5.1.2 had presets for every XDCAM HD mode you can think of.

-gb-