Problem importing XDCAM into NLE at DVinfo.net

Michael Maier · April 13th, 2009, 06:25 PM

I'm having huge problems importing XDCAM.
I shot some footage which I won't be editing myself and I need to provide the XDCAM footage in an editable format to the editor. He uses Sony Vegas, I believe version 7.0, and doesn't have any of the Sony EX cameras.
I use Final Cut Pro. So the first option I thought was to convert all the footage to quicktime and give it to him. But for some reason his Vegas can't open it then. It can open any other quicktime file, just not the ones I exported from XDCAM transfer. So then I figured the OSX version of Clip Browser also offers the option to re-wrap the the MP4 files as MXF ones which Vegas can supposedly work with. I did that and his Vegas couldn't open them. Then I thought, OK, maybe it doesn't work because it was done in the Mac version of Clip Browser, non sense really but in any case I went up to his machine, installed the latest version of Clip Browser and tried doing the re-wrapping on Windows, but it still doesn't work. Vegas just says it can't open the file. So then I found out that smaller files worked fine. One of the clips was only about 300MB and I re-wrapped it to MXF with Clip Browser and Vegas opened it just fine. It is just the bigger files that Vegas doesn't want to open. Clips at 5GB or 6GB. I also found out that when trying to re-wrap these big clips to MXF sometimes Clip Browser will give you an error. I'm wondering if this has anything to do with FAT32 which has a 4GB limit, but besides that I don't know why the bigger files won't work. I tried using a NTFS formatted external HDD when exporting the MXF files out of Clip Browser but it still gave me errors for the big files and those that actually exported still couldn't open in Vegas. For the record all clips play fine inside Clip Browser.
Anybody has had the same experience or know what could be wrong? Thanks.

Brian Barkley · April 13th, 2009, 07:15 PM

I have a client that works in Sony Vegas, and they can handle the files when coverted to MXF. Don't know why your guy can't.

Craig Seeman · April 13th, 2009, 07:58 PM

Without the EX Quicktime codec . . . which is part of Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 and up, he would not be able to play the EX .MOV files.

Calibrated Software sells a decoder for EX .mov for those without FCP.

If you used ClipBrowser to wrap to MXF for NLEs that would work but I believe he'd need Vegas 8 (I think a specific update but a Vegas user can jump in to confirm that).

Michael Maier · April 13th, 2009, 09:08 PM

Like I said, his Vegas can actually open and edit the smaller MXF files just fine. The problem is with the larger MXF files of 5GB, 6Gb. Vegas says it can't open them. Is there a size limit for MXF files?

Craig Seeman · April 13th, 2009, 09:24 PM

If the files haven't been joined they probably won't be larger than 3.4GB. It the nature of FAT32. It should be easy enough to avoid joining the files.

Have you tried smaller files from Clip Browser?

MXF is a wrapper also so you can't necessarily compare importing from P2 MXF vs EX MXF for example.

Craig Seeman · April 13th, 2009, 09:27 PM

Sony site has Vegas 8 workflow

http://pro.sony.com/bbsccms/assets/f...Vegas8_R1a.pdf

Craig Seeman · April 13th, 2009, 09:29 PM

Sony Unveils New Compact XDCAM EX Camcorder for the HD Market :: News :: www.hardwarezone.com.my

The following companies are also planning to implement interoperability with the XDCAM EX, ensuring that users enjoy the highest levels of workflow efficiency and interoperability: (alphabetical order)

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Premiere Pro with MainConcept MPEG Pro)
Apple Inc. (Final Cut Pro Studio)
Dayang Technology Development Inc. (D3 Edit 3000 Series)
MainConcept AG (MPEG Pro HD 3.0)
Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd. (Matrox Axio & Matrox RT.X2)
MOG Solutions (Toboggan MediaTransfer)
Newauto Silicon Valley Video Techmology CO.,LTD. (Himaraya A1000/A1200/A1500 series)
Sobey Digital Technology Co., Ltd. (E7, E2000)
Sony Creative Software (Vegas Pro 8)
Thomson (Grass Valley EDIUS Pro & Grass Valley EDIUS Broadcast)

Craig Seeman · April 13th, 2009, 09:32 PM

Please don't make assumption and do follow the information.

MXF does NOT mean EX codec support. Instead of making assumption follow the information. I've not seen it posted anywhere that Vegas 7 supports the EX codec. EX codec is NOT MXF or MOV or MP4. It's a CODEC that can be wrapped in any of those. It's the CODEC that must be compatible. It's not simply about the wrapper.

Buba Kastorski · April 14th, 2009, 09:42 AM

the fist thing I can think of is a file system on the derive is a FAT32, if he can see smaller files , but not the large ones, it's a 4Gb fat32 file system limit,
I don't think he'll reformat his system:)

Craig Seeman · April 14th, 2009, 10:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buba Kastorski

the fist thing I can think of is a file system on the derive is a FAT32, if he can see smaller files , but not the large ones, it's a 4Gb fat32 file system limit,
I don't think he'll reformat his system:)

SxS are also FAT32. So if the files weren't joined there should be no file size issue.

If he can see the files but can't import them the issue is, as I have said, he's on Vegas 7 and not Vegas 8.

If the issue is that his NLE is using a FAT32 formated disk as a scratch/media drive then he has no choice to go to NTFS for files over 4GB unless there's some file management possibility I'm not aware of.

Bob Grant · April 14th, 2009, 03:40 PM

Vegas 7 can import some of the MXF files as exported by the clip browser.
Precisely which ones I'm not 100% certain of as the gent I helped with this problem had no interest to investigate further once we found the problem was resolved by Vegas 8.
Both Vegas 7 and Vegas 8 can be installed on the same system, the cost of the upgrade is quite reasonable.

Perhaps the simplest solution is to dump the cards as complete images onto a HFS disk and hand him the disk. He'll need Macdrive to read the disk and a copy of the Clipbrowser, the first is very cheap, the second free.

Craig Seeman · April 14th, 2009, 03:51 PM

I'm going to take a wild stab and guess that Vegas 7 can import XDCAM HD MXF but not XDCAM EX MXF. Again it's a codec issue as HD and EX are not quite the same.

ClipBrowser can convert EX to HD MXF but you'll get the MainConcept watermark unless you pay for the plugin. Of course it might make more sense to pay for the update to Vegas 8, which is what I think the user should do in the first place.

Michael Maier · April 19th, 2009, 10:33 AM

Yep, I tested it on somebody's Vegas 8 and it works so I'm just going to tell him the problem is his Vegas 7. Thanks guys.

April 13th, 2009, 06:25 PM	#1
Michael Maier Trustee Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 1,269	Problem importing XDCAM into NLE I'm having huge problems importing XDCAM. I shot some footage which I won't be editing myself and I need to provide the XDCAM footage in an editable format to the editor. He uses Sony Vegas, I believe version 7.0, and doesn't have any of the Sony EX cameras. I use Final Cut Pro. So the first option I thought was to convert all the footage to quicktime and give it to him. But for some reason his Vegas can't open it then. It can open any other quicktime file, just not the ones I exported from XDCAM transfer. So then I figured the OSX version of Clip Browser also offers the option to re-wrap the the MP4 files as MXF ones which Vegas can supposedly work with. I did that and his Vegas couldn't open them. Then I thought, OK, maybe it doesn't work because it was done in the Mac version of Clip Browser, non sense really but in any case I went up to his machine, installed the latest version of Clip Browser and tried doing the re-wrapping on Windows, but it still doesn't work. Vegas just says it can't open the file. So then I found out that smaller files worked fine. One of the clips was only about 300MB and I re-wrapped it to MXF with Clip Browser and Vegas opened it just fine. It is just the bigger files that Vegas doesn't want to open. Clips at 5GB or 6GB. I also found out that when trying to re-wrap these big clips to MXF sometimes Clip Browser will give you an error. I'm wondering if this has anything to do with FAT32 which has a 4GB limit, but besides that I don't know why the bigger files won't work. I tried using a NTFS formatted external HDD when exporting the MXF files out of Clip Browser but it still gave me errors for the big files and those that actually exported still couldn't open in Vegas. For the record all clips play fine inside Clip Browser. Anybody has had the same experience or know what could be wrong? Thanks.

April 14th, 2009, 09:42 AM	#9
Buba Kastorski Trustee Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Toronto Posts: 1,414	the fist thing I can think of is a file system on the derive is a FAT32, if he can see smaller files , but not the large ones, it's a 4Gb fat32 file system limit, I don't think he'll reformat his system:) __________________ I love this place!

April 13th, 2009, 07:15 PM	#2
Brian Barkley Major Player Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Overland Park, KS Posts: 233	I have a client that works in Sony Vegas, and they can handle the files when coverted to MXF. Don't know why your guy can't.

April 13th, 2009, 07:58 PM	#3
Craig Seeman Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA Posts: 3,841	Without the EX Quicktime codec . . . which is part of Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 and up, he would not be able to play the EX .MOV files. Calibrated Software sells a decoder for EX .mov for those without FCP. If you used ClipBrowser to wrap to MXF for NLEs that would work but I believe he'd need Vegas 8 (I think a specific update but a Vegas user can jump in to confirm that).

April 13th, 2009, 09:08 PM	#4
Michael Maier Trustee Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 1,269	Like I said, his Vegas can actually open and edit the smaller MXF files just fine. The problem is with the larger MXF files of 5GB, 6Gb. Vegas says it can't open them. Is there a size limit for MXF files?

April 13th, 2009, 09:24 PM	#5
Craig Seeman Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA Posts: 3,841	If the files haven't been joined they probably won't be larger than 3.4GB. It the nature of FAT32. It should be easy enough to avoid joining the files. Have you tried smaller files from Clip Browser? MXF is a wrapper also so you can't necessarily compare importing from P2 MXF vs EX MXF for example.

April 13th, 2009, 09:27 PM	#6
Craig Seeman Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA Posts: 3,841	Sony site has Vegas 8 workflow http://pro.sony.com/bbsccms/assets/f...Vegas8_R1a.pdf

April 13th, 2009, 09:29 PM	#7
Craig Seeman Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA Posts: 3,841	Sony Unveils New Compact XDCAM EX Camcorder for the HD Market :: News :: www.hardwarezone.com.my The following companies are also planning to implement interoperability with the XDCAM EX, ensuring that users enjoy the highest levels of workflow efficiency and interoperability: (alphabetical order) Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Premiere Pro with MainConcept MPEG Pro) Apple Inc. (Final Cut Pro Studio) Dayang Technology Development Inc. (D3 Edit 3000 Series) MainConcept AG (MPEG Pro HD 3.0) Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd. (Matrox Axio & Matrox RT.X2) MOG Solutions (Toboggan MediaTransfer) Newauto Silicon Valley Video Techmology CO.,LTD. (Himaraya A1000/A1200/A1500 series) Sobey Digital Technology Co., Ltd. (E7, E2000) Sony Creative Software (Vegas Pro 8) Thomson (Grass Valley EDIUS Pro & Grass Valley EDIUS Broadcast)

April 13th, 2009, 09:32 PM	#8
Craig Seeman Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA Posts: 3,841	Please don't make assumption and do follow the information. MXF does NOT mean EX codec support. Instead of making assumption follow the information. I've not seen it posted anywhere that Vegas 7 supports the EX codec. EX codec is NOT MXF or MOV or MP4. It's a CODEC that can be wrapped in any of those. It's the CODEC that must be compatible. It's not simply about the wrapper.

April 14th, 2009, 03:40 PM	#11
Bob Grant Trustee Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Sydney Australia Posts: 1,570	Vegas 7 can import some of the MXF files as exported by the clip browser. Precisely which ones I'm not 100% certain of as the gent I helped with this problem had no interest to investigate further once we found the problem was resolved by Vegas 8. Both Vegas 7 and Vegas 8 can be installed on the same system, the cost of the upgrade is quite reasonable. Perhaps the simplest solution is to dump the cards as complete images onto a HFS disk and hand him the disk. He'll need Macdrive to read the disk and a copy of the Clipbrowser, the first is very cheap, the second free.

April 14th, 2009, 03:51 PM	#12
Craig Seeman Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA Posts: 3,841	I'm going to take a wild stab and guess that Vegas 7 can import XDCAM HD MXF but not XDCAM EX MXF. Again it's a codec issue as HD and EX are not quite the same. ClipBrowser can convert EX to HD MXF but you'll get the MainConcept watermark unless you pay for the plugin. Of course it might make more sense to pay for the update to Vegas 8, which is what I think the user should do in the first place.

April 19th, 2009, 10:33 AM	#13
Michael Maier Trustee Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 1,269	Yep, I tested it on somebody's Vegas 8 and it works so I'm just going to tell him the problem is his Vegas 7. Thanks guys.