Fastest workflow XDCAM to SD PAL on FCP?
 

Dear experts,

I am considering an EX1 or EX3 to do ENG work. Most of my clients would like to have SD 16:9 or 4:3. What is the fastest workflow with acceptable result?

Thanks /E

Probably NOT the EX1 or EX3.
You will have to convert XDCAM to SD and that takes a lot of time.

You may be better with a camera line the Sony Z1 which will shoot in HDV but give you the option to downconvert to SD. It's the best downconversion possible (hardware rather than software) but of course, the Z1 is vastly inferior to the EX1 / 3 when it comes to operator friendliness.

For sheer quality of footage, the EX also wins hands down, but your question was about fastest workflow not quality.

I'd be interested to hear what others think on this.

New software this month (Clip Browser 2.0 I think) will have it built in... (or maybe its an add-on?)

Prolly wont be too bad, depending on your machine. currently for me, its not bad at all on a MacBook Pro.

I have converted HDV to SD on FCP and that takes quite some time too. 20 minutes for 4-5 minutes on a MacbookPro 2,4 GHz 2GB RAM. How long would it take to convert 4-5 minutes of XDCAM?

Clip Browser converts to DV!
 

"The Clip Browser software supplied with each XDCAM EX camcorder is expected to be upgraded to version 2.0 this summer. Enhancements will include the capability to use XDCAM EX content within a DV editing workflow."
http://www.sony.se/biz/view/ShowCont...veContext=true

I wonder how quickly it converts the XDCAM files and if it also crops them to 4:3?

Erik - for ENG you'll most likely want a shoulder mount camera. If your clients want SD 16:9 or 4:3, the DSR450 or a used DSR570 would be perfect.

My best results have been achieved with an app called MPEGStreamClip. It does the best down convert I've ever seen. Very fast, very sharp results. You can get it here:
www.squared5.com ... and it's free for Mac as well as for Win :-)

FYI the next version of the Bitevice MPEG2 encoder will also be able to downconvert from HD to SD. First samples are very promising.

Best P.