EX1 & final cut

[Paul Kellett]

I need to give a client footage from my EX1 so he can do his own edit,but i'm a pc man so i'm clueless about the mac workflow,can some one explain it to me in simple terms so i can tell him how to import into FCP.

Here's the scenario,i'm filming at his office,which is where the mac is,so with my pc laptop i can rewrap and transfer the footage to my portable hard-drive,then run upstairs to the mac,then what do i do ?

What i'd like is someone to give me step by step instructions,which i can print out and give to the client.

Thanks,Paul.

[Jamie Baughman]

Paul,

If he's on a Macbook Pro and has a slot on the side of his laptop, I'd say that just plugging the card in to his machine is the easiest thing.

If not (if it's a mac pro desktop or a G5) why not just import the footage directly to his machine via the USB cable?

If you plug the camera directly into his computer (or plug the SxS cards into the express slot) your card(s) will show up as external drive. You can then pull the BPAV folder right off the SxS card. Or you can use the transfer tool on his machine to pull the footage off.

Bottom line, sounds like using your computer at all is superfluous.

Hope this helps.

[Christopher Brown]

Originally Posted by Paul Kellett

What i'd like is someone to give me step by step instructions,which i can print out and give to the client.

If your client has FCP installed on his laptop, then have him/her download the latest version of the Sony Transfer Software and set the prefs. Then, as you shoot, you simply insert the SxS cards into his MacBook Pro and he copies & converts the files onto his drive.

This assumes two things: 1) He has FCP installed with all the correct codecs for the EX1 (the transfer software requires the FCP codecs to be installed), and 2) he has a MacBook Pro (which comes with an Express 34 slot).

If it's not a MacBook, but a Mac Pro tower, then you need to have a SxS card reader, and all the software installed.

[Craig Seeman]

Make sure he has Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 on his computer. That will give him the EX1 codec. It MUST be 6.0.2 and not 6.0 or 6.0.1. The update is a free download if he has FCP6.

Make sure he installs the SxS Driver
Make sure he installs Sony Clip Browser if it's an Intel Mac (It doesn't run on PPC Mac)
Make sure he installs Sony XDCAM Transfer Tool 2.5.1 (it fixes issues with 2.1 but 2.5.1 is still NOT on the USA Sony site!). This works on both PPC and Intel.

If he has MacBookPro
Install SxS card in Express port.
Use Sony Clip Browser to copy to hard drive.
Use Sony XDCAM Transfer Tool to rewrap the files as .MOV for FCP.

If he has Intel Mac that does not have Express Port (only MacBookPro)
Connect camera to computer via USB port.
Use Sony Clip Browser to copy to hard drive.
Use Sony XDCAM Transfer Tool to rewrap the files as .MOV for FCP.

If he has PPC Mac (G4 or G5)
Connect camera to computer via USB port.
Use Sony XDCAM Transfer Tool to rewrap the files as .MOV for FCP.

The Intel Mac Sony Clip Browser is similar to the Windows version EXCEPT that it does NOT rewrap to .MXF. It only performs copies and splitting cards if needed.

Sony XDCAM Transfer Tool is specific to Mac and works with both Disc and SxS based XDCAM sources. You need to make sure it's pointing to an appropriate folder to copy the files to in preferences.

The Sony Mac XDCAM Transfer Tool can work as a desktop app independent of FCP. I believe it can still rewrap the clips if he does not have FCP 6.0.2 BUT he will NOT be able to actually SEE the clips. I believe there is a preference setting to use clips even though the EX codec is not installed.

[Paul Kellett]

Thanks guys.
Yes it's a desktop mac,yes it has the xdcam transfer tool on it.
So,i have the sxs card reader,so he can get the driver from the website,i'm not sure which type of mac he's got.It's not really practical to plug cam in so it's gonna have to be th card reader route.
What if one day we're not near the mac pc,only out with my laptop,card reader,etc,could i not just transfer all the BAPV unwrapped to a portable hard-drive then let him plug that into his mac hard-drive?
I'll try and find out which type of mac it is,it is a desktop.

Thans again guys.
Paul.

[Magnus Eklof]

Originally Posted by Craig Seeman

Use Sony Clip Browser to copy to hard drive.

A question about this procedure as I´m still waiting for my camera;
Can´t one just copy the content of the sxs card via drag and drop to any folder on any volume connected the "olde mac way"? Do you have to use the clip browser?? My dealer will barely give me enough time to unbox my camera before I have to rush to Singapore with it for a week and a half of shooting, my battle plan was/is to stick the cards in the MacBook and just dump the footage to an external disk while in the field, preferably via drag and drop.
Guess I can play around with it while airbound...

[Eric Pascarelli]

Magnus,

Yes you can. As long as you have the SxS drivers installed, the card shows up like any other drive on the Mac.

Make sure your Express card slot is working right. Many, including myself, have a broken mechanism in their MBP's that prevents the card from staying in, and makes it difficult to use. Bring the USB cable so you can tether the camera as a backup.

[Craig Seeman]

Magnus, yes you can certainly drag and drop as others state BUT
if you're using 8GB cards you should then burn to DL-DVD. That'll save against the risk of crashing hard drive or overwriting on BPAV with another.

The advantage of the Clip Browser is that it can split a 16GB card into two 8GB folders so you can burn each to DL-DVD.

You may have seen elsewhere on this forum how easy it is to accidently erase your master. DL-DVD is your friend. You can always have it burn and verify while you continue to shoot.

[Magnus Eklof]

Eric, Craig, good advice, thanks! However, I do refuse to deal with optical media :-) In our still photography business, (where I live most of the time), while on the road this is the workflow;
Shooting onto 8GB CF-cards, when full dragged from card via MacBook to 2 raided LaCie "rugged" 2,5" 160GB discs, back in hotel room this gets backed up to third hard disc, going home I carry 1 disc, assistant carry 1, and the last one gets Fed-exed back to the studio (if we are overseas). Back home 1 disc goes into a vault, the raided ones go onto a raid 5 system for storage, the raided small discs get erased, we buy one new and the whole thing starts all over again. Now, I am a newbie when it comes to moving images, but I held out for the EX1 to be able to use the same workflow for taking care of the raw material. I just realized it seems like I hijacked this thread, I do apologize, it was not my intention.
Magnus

[Craig Seeman]

Magnus, whatever works for you.

I've been using computers for about 25 years (or more). I can still read data from CD-Rs that are 15 years old. I can't say that about some hard drives though. There certainly can be good and bad optical media but I've found good optical media is good. Good hard drives can develop problems or even compatibility issues (where can I find that SCSI interface?).

It's OK to back up to multiple hard drives. I just think over many years (if you keep the data that long) there are greater risks.

For me (maybe NOT for YOU), giving a client a hard drive is just "asking" for that phone call, "why is it blank?" or, "where's file x?" Hard drive are erasable. Sure read only optical disks can be damaged but I simply burn them another and send it off.

If a client only needs about an hour of material (16GB) I wouldn't send them a hard drive, that's for sure.

The initial question was about what to hand to a client which may be very different then how one handles a controlled internal work flow.

[Magnus Eklof]

Dear Craig, I certainly didn´t mean to disrespect anyone´s workflow in any way! Furthermore I agree with everything you say, my choice to go with hard-disc drives is totally motivated by time, or rather the lack thereof.
It is way cheaper for me to just buy more hard discs and keep archiving and backing this archive up, then to spend time burning dvd:s, next year things may be different... In the good/bad old days of shooting film, I had 1 set of negatives, should the house burn down, it would all have been lost, still, I slept better at nights then...

[Paul Kellett]

Ok,the client has got an intel based mac pro,2.66qx.
When importing the footage from my EX1 (1080/50i),the aspect ratio is appearing all wrong in FCP,the footage is appearing as 1900x2600.
Can someone please advise me quickly.
Any updates for xdcam transfer which should be installed,for FCP etc.
A job for me depends on this.

Thanks,Paul.

[Craig Seeman]

It's hard to make suggestions without software version numbers.
XDCAM Xfer tool should be 2.5.1
OS should be 10.4.11 (Sony does not yet recommend 10.5.2)
Final Cut Pro should be 6.0.2
He should use the FCP Easy Setup for XDCAM EX 1080/50i

Nothing about Sony Clip Browser or XDCAM Xfer changes aspect ratio so it's likely his FCP setup.

[Paul Kellett]

Craig,thanks for the quick reply.
I shot the footage a couple of days ago,left it on the pc for him,he's got the rewrapped mxf files and the complete BAPV.
I just copied the complete BAPV from my portable hard-drive to the mac,via usb.
Was this workflow wrong ? It seems that the mac workflow is not like my pc workflow.

I take it you use EX1 and a mac.
If you were at the guys mac right now,what would your workflow be ? I have the sony card reader.

Thanks,Paul.

[Craig Seeman]

BPAV are on his Mac, each inside it's own folder.

Make sure he has all the correct version numbers as I mentioned below. IF he's on OX 10.5.2 things should work but he might bump into issues.

Open Xfer tool from the desktop.

Set Preferences to point to the folder he wants to copy the video to.

I might suggest turning off the pref to open clips in FCP. I'd do that manually afterwards. You can open FCP first and use Xfer tool as an import plugin but there were issues with Tool 2.1 doing that so I don't trust that workflow yet.

Use the Add button and point it to each folder containing a BPAV. Do NOT point it at the BPAV folder though.

Then select clips and import.

Open FCP, create project, make sure Easy Setup is set to XDCAM EX 1080/50i and import the MOV files the XFER tool created.