Transferring old M2Ts back onto DR-60 for HDMI playback? at DVinfo.net

Adam Cook · January 17th, 2008, 07:03 PM

Here's an interesting scenario I've now been thrown into:

I recently recorded a band in studio for 3 months while they worked on their new record. I did the dual-recording mode for the first 2 months, using tapes and the DR-60. After seeing how well the DR-60 was keeping up with the shoot, I decided to stop using tapes entirely. Seemed like a great idea at the time.

Well, now here I am. I've been setting up how I was going to edit this project for a week now. I'm using Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 on a "8 core" MacPro. As most of us already know, FCP hates dealing with M2T files. More specifically, FCP hates the Sony DR-60 drive. Numerous people have posted in these forums about using the MPEG Streamclip workflow to get the M2Ts into a codec the FCP likes to work with. I tried that. There's just WAYYYYY too much footage here from 3 months of shooting to go through that.

So I found what I though was a terrific compromise: Take the tapes I do have (from the first 2/3 of the project) and play those in my Sony M25U HDV deck out via HDMI into my new Intensity Pro card. Then I can transcode/downconvert those in real time to DVCPRO (or Prores 422). I call this a compromise because, while doing this gets me the footage ingested quicker, it also cuts out one of the major advantqages of recording to the DR-60 in the first place: The Cache Record function!
Knowing all those extra 14 second tidbits aren't making their way into the final source material sucks, but that's the trade off as far as using the tapes is concerned.
Step 2 now involves getting the remaining 1/3 of M2T files ingested. Looks like I'll have to use MPEG Streamclip afterall. I thought (WRONGLY) that I'd now be able to take all my archived M2Ts and place them back onto the DR-60 (using the same folder structure the drive used in the first place) to play them back through my V1U via HDMI. THIS DOES NOT WORK FOR SOME REASON. SONY???? WTF???

Anyone that has any thoughts and/or suggestions, please feel free to add to this thread.

For the record, my old PC workflow worked wonders:
I was using Premiere Pro 2.0 with Cineform Aspect HD.

January 17th, 2008, 07:03 PM	#1
Adam Cook New Boot Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 14	Transferring old M2Ts back onto DR-60 for HDMI playback? Here's an interesting scenario I've now been thrown into: I recently recorded a band in studio for 3 months while they worked on their new record. I did the dual-recording mode for the first 2 months, using tapes and the DR-60. After seeing how well the DR-60 was keeping up with the shoot, I decided to stop using tapes entirely. Seemed like a great idea at the time. Well, now here I am. I've been setting up how I was going to edit this project for a week now. I'm using Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 on a "8 core" MacPro. As most of us already know, FCP hates dealing with M2T files. More specifically, FCP hates the Sony DR-60 drive. Numerous people have posted in these forums about using the MPEG Streamclip workflow to get the M2Ts into a codec the FCP likes to work with. I tried that. There's just WAYYYYY too much footage here from 3 months of shooting to go through that. So I found what I though was a terrific compromise: Take the tapes I do have (from the first 2/3 of the project) and play those in my Sony M25U HDV deck out via HDMI into my new Intensity Pro card. Then I can transcode/downconvert those in real time to DVCPRO (or Prores 422). I call this a compromise because, while doing this gets me the footage ingested quicker, it also cuts out one of the major advantqages of recording to the DR-60 in the first place: The Cache Record function! Knowing all those extra 14 second tidbits aren't making their way into the final source material sucks, but that's the trade off as far as using the tapes is concerned. Step 2 now involves getting the remaining 1/3 of M2T files ingested. Looks like I'll have to use MPEG Streamclip afterall. I thought (WRONGLY) that I'd now be able to take all my archived M2Ts and place them back onto the DR-60 (using the same folder structure the drive used in the first place) to play them back through my V1U via HDMI. THIS DOES NOT WORK FOR SOME REASON. SONY???? WTF??? Anyone that has any thoughts and/or suggestions, please feel free to add to this thread. For the record, my old PC workflow worked wonders: I was using Premiere Pro 2.0 with Cineform Aspect HD.