XDCAM Transfer and Snow Leopard at DVinfo.net

Lucky Haskins · February 8th, 2010, 02:25 PM

Getting ready to migrate to Snow Leopard on my laptop and it occurred to me....I have the latest SxS Driver software (and I know it's now OK with Snow Leopard)...but what about the latest version of XDCAM Transfer (2.11)? Is that OK on SL?

Thanks

LH

Shaughan Flynn · February 8th, 2010, 03:11 PM

Works fine on mine.

Oliver Neubert · February 8th, 2010, 03:23 PM

Don't do it...

If you don't NEED SL stay with Leopard.

There are many posts about this in DVi - look for it.

I still get kernel panics if I try to insert a SxS card, actually I had the problem fixed but now its back... pfffhhh...

I wanted to downgrade but they told me that my MacBook Pro seems to be incompatible with Leopard... They even gave me a new one free of charge although the other one was already 6 weeks old and started to have shiny keys from frequent use...

Lucky Haskins · February 8th, 2010, 03:39 PM

OK...Seems we have a jump ball so far

Oliver Neubert · February 8th, 2010, 04:04 PM

just try a search for "snow leopard sxs"

I have all the current drivers, latest updates and all. I also use Episode Pro, Flip4Mac and other ripping and encoding software which all worked fine on Leopard.

When I installed After Effects and my RedGiant plugins, I ended up having to wipe it with a special uninstall app from Adobe and reinstall each plugin separately, finding the one who made AE's media core fail. (It was only one plugin and I found it.) FCP AE and CS4 Design Premium now work fine, encoding is also fine, but SxS cards in the slot... -> kernel panic.

I am really annoyed, especially because I did not want to upgrade but only bought a new Laptop because the graphics card in my old MacBook Pro started to act up.

I would ask myself why upgrade - do you have to?

Daniel Wright · February 8th, 2010, 04:09 PM

There has been a lot of confusion about this issue. However, the general consensus seems to be that XDCAM Transfer 2.11 itself works fine on Snow Leopard.

When SL first came out, inserting an SxS card with the driver for Leopard installed meant instant kernel panic. I thought the latest SxS driver had fixed this problem, although it sounds as if I was mistaken. I don't have an SxS slot so I can't speak from experience on that one.

The XDCAM drive software for the PDW-U1 is a definite no-no on SL and should not be installed because it will prevent the discs from mounting. Without it, the discs will mount in read-only mode quite happily.

Sony claim that the FAM driver for the optical disc equipment doesn't work properly on Snow Leopard, although as far as I can gather, people are using successfully. Not sure what is going on there.

At any rate, it may well be wise to follow Oliver's advice anyway and stick with Leopard for a while longer, unless you have a good reason to go for Snow Leopard. Better safe than sorry.

Lucky Haskins · February 8th, 2010, 05:12 PM

All of your responses are appreciated...and your comments are why I have never had any intention of upgrading my production machines (Mac Pro's) to Snow Leopard.

I was going to do it on my laptop just for fun. Frankly the only thing I use my laptop for is to dump BPAV files onto my hard drive on shoots and check the dailies in XD Cam Transfer.

It's no big deal. I can try Snow Leopard on one of the iMacs.

Thanks...I'll check back in six months or so.

Marcus Durham · February 8th, 2010, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oliver Neubert

I would ask myself why upgrade - do you have to?

You can always roll back. You wouldn't upgrade without taking a copy of your boot drive first would you? Take a copy and if it all goes wrong just revert to the backup.

Upgraded the main Mac Pro edit suite last week. Alot of fuss about nothing. Quick and painless and nowhere near as painful as the Mac Pro laptop which I did about a month after SL came out. Back then we had the problems with XDCAM Transfer, the printer refused to work and a number of shareware utilities I had purchased went wrong. All sorted since.

The driver situation has settled down somewhat and XDCAM transfer is just fine. That's why I was willing to try SL on the main edit suite.

Only Parallels refused to function which I knew would happen. If it had gone wrong I could have just swapped to the backup at any time. Easy with the Pro.

Shaughan Flynn · February 8th, 2010, 11:03 PM

I have had no issues <shrug>. Full FCS and Adobe Master suite with lots of plugins. Lightwave 3D and plugins - No issues.

Oliver Neubert · February 9th, 2010, 01:46 AM

[QUOTE=Marcus Durham;1483429]You can always roll back. You wouldn't upgrade without taking a copy of your boot drive first would you? Take a copy and if it all goes wrong just revert to the backup.

Well I did make a bootable copy of my old MacBook Pro (also Intel) but booting from it took about 15 Minutes to come up and when I restored the image to the drive of my new MBP, the system was incredibly slow. I could type something and then wait for it to appear 10 seconds later...? All the disk warriors and utilities did not help.
At the Apple Store, they said it is possible that I cannot use Leopard on the new machine, that it would most likely not function properly. This new machine has something I have not seen yet in a Mac. In the system preferences for "Energy Saver" I can switch to better battery performance which requires me to log out and log back in but will in effect switch the videocard (apparently there are 2 cards in this laptop. A GeForce 9400M and 9600 GT) Maybe that is where the problem is with the restoring of the system. I don't know.
I don't really use this machine for editing much, just when I am in the field to gather and organize my footage. I want to stick the SxS in my Laptop and dump it onto the machine and on a Glyph drive. Back at the office I take the Glyph and copy all of it to my raid and another mediabackup along with the fcp project from my laptop. Worked like a treat in the past and I had all my data in more than one place... I can still do this using USB, but it just takes forever...

Anyway - I just want my machine to work - I don't really know (or care to know) too much about my computers. I guess I was lucky that in the past 10 (?) years of using fcp I never really had to think too much about the hardware...

Oliver Neubert · February 9th, 2010, 01:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shaughan Flynn

I have had no issues <shrug>. Full FCS and Adobe Master suite with lots of plugins. Lightwave 3D and plugins - No issues.

I used to be one of these lucky people too... (snif)

February 8th, 2010, 02:25 PM	#1
Lucky Haskins Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Plantation, FL Posts: 55	XDCAM Transfer and Snow Leopard Getting ready to migrate to Snow Leopard on my laptop and it occurred to me....I have the latest SxS Driver software (and I know it's now OK with Snow Leopard)...but what about the latest version of XDCAM Transfer (2.11)? Is that OK on SL? Thanks LH

February 8th, 2010, 03:11 PM	#2
Shaughan Flynn Major Player Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 272	Works fine on mine. __________________ B-Scene Films

February 8th, 2010, 11:03 PM	#9
Shaughan Flynn Major Player Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 272	I have had no issues <shrug>. Full FCS and Adobe Master suite with lots of plugins. Lightwave 3D and plugins - No issues. __________________ B-Scene Films

February 8th, 2010, 03:23 PM	#3
Oliver Neubert Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Zurich, Switzerland Posts: 101	Don't do it... If you don't NEED SL stay with Leopard. There are many posts about this in DVi - look for it. I still get kernel panics if I try to insert a SxS card, actually I had the problem fixed but now its back... pfffhhh... I wanted to downgrade but they told me that my MacBook Pro seems to be incompatible with Leopard... They even gave me a new one free of charge although the other one was already 6 weeks old and started to have shiny keys from frequent use...

February 8th, 2010, 03:39 PM	#4
Lucky Haskins Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Plantation, FL Posts: 55	OK...Seems we have a jump ball so far

February 8th, 2010, 04:04 PM	#5
Oliver Neubert Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Zurich, Switzerland Posts: 101	just try a search for "snow leopard sxs" I have all the current drivers, latest updates and all. I also use Episode Pro, Flip4Mac and other ripping and encoding software which all worked fine on Leopard. When I installed After Effects and my RedGiant plugins, I ended up having to wipe it with a special uninstall app from Adobe and reinstall each plugin separately, finding the one who made AE's media core fail. (It was only one plugin and I found it.) FCP AE and CS4 Design Premium now work fine, encoding is also fine, but SxS cards in the slot... -> kernel panic. I am really annoyed, especially because I did not want to upgrade but only bought a new Laptop because the graphics card in my old MacBook Pro started to act up. I would ask myself why upgrade - do you have to?

February 8th, 2010, 04:09 PM	#6
Daniel Wright New Boot Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 15	There has been a lot of confusion about this issue. However, the general consensus seems to be that XDCAM Transfer 2.11 itself works fine on Snow Leopard. When SL first came out, inserting an SxS card with the driver for Leopard installed meant instant kernel panic. I thought the latest SxS driver had fixed this problem, although it sounds as if I was mistaken. I don't have an SxS slot so I can't speak from experience on that one. The XDCAM drive software for the PDW-U1 is a definite no-no on SL and should not be installed because it will prevent the discs from mounting. Without it, the discs will mount in read-only mode quite happily. Sony claim that the FAM driver for the optical disc equipment doesn't work properly on Snow Leopard, although as far as I can gather, people are using successfully. Not sure what is going on there. At any rate, it may well be wise to follow Oliver's advice anyway and stick with Leopard for a while longer, unless you have a good reason to go for Snow Leopard. Better safe than sorry.

February 8th, 2010, 05:12 PM	#7
Lucky Haskins Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Plantation, FL Posts: 55	All of your responses are appreciated...and your comments are why I have never had any intention of upgrading my production machines (Mac Pro's) to Snow Leopard. I was going to do it on my laptop just for fun. Frankly the only thing I use my laptop for is to dump BPAV files onto my hard drive on shoots and check the dailies in XD Cam Transfer. It's no big deal. I can try Snow Leopard on one of the iMacs. Thanks...I'll check back in six months or so.

February 9th, 2010, 01:46 AM	#10
Oliver Neubert Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Zurich, Switzerland Posts: 101	[QUOTE=Marcus Durham;1483429]You can always roll back. You wouldn't upgrade without taking a copy of your boot drive first would you? Take a copy and if it all goes wrong just revert to the backup. Well I did make a bootable copy of my old MacBook Pro (also Intel) but booting from it took about 15 Minutes to come up and when I restored the image to the drive of my new MBP, the system was incredibly slow. I could type something and then wait for it to appear 10 seconds later...? All the disk warriors and utilities did not help. At the Apple Store, they said it is possible that I cannot use Leopard on the new machine, that it would most likely not function properly. This new machine has something I have not seen yet in a Mac. In the system preferences for "Energy Saver" I can switch to better battery performance which requires me to log out and log back in but will in effect switch the videocard (apparently there are 2 cards in this laptop. A GeForce 9400M and 9600 GT) Maybe that is where the problem is with the restoring of the system. I don't know. I don't really use this machine for editing much, just when I am in the field to gather and organize my footage. I want to stick the SxS in my Laptop and dump it onto the machine and on a Glyph drive. Back at the office I take the Glyph and copy all of it to my raid and another mediabackup along with the fcp project from my laptop. Worked like a treat in the past and I had all my data in more than one place... I can still do this using USB, but it just takes forever... Anyway - I just want my machine to work - I don't really know (or care to know) too much about my computers. I guess I was lucky that in the past 10 (?) years of using fcp I never really had to think too much about the hardware...