XDCAM Clip Browser / IMAC / Better option??

[Derrick DeWilde]

I have just purchased a new IMAC and I am in the process of trying to go through my last seasons footage and in the XDCAM clip browser, it will not let me edit a title and description, etc... Right now I am documenting clip numbers and creating a word document until I can figure this out.

Since it is on my external drive, I think I can then plug it into my HP and edit those there.

But, this will be a hassle going forward.

What other options / downloads / clip browsers (preferrably clips to quicktime for final cut pro) do you guys recomend? Toast 11?

Anything else? Is there a fix to this problem?

The error I get is I don't have permission to read or write over this clip....I am the admin.

[Alastair Traill]

As your iMac is new have you tried Apple's phone support?

[Les Wilson]

What is the format of the external drive? NTFS is read only on the Mac. If it's a Mac format, your PC won't be able to access it.

If it's a Mac formatted drive, you may be hitting the problem where it was made by a different userid. Click on the drive and select GetInfo from the file menu.
Untwist the Sharing & Permission section
Click the lock and authenticate
Click the Ignore Ownership on the volume checkbox

[Rob Perry]

Originally Posted by Derrick DeWilde

The error I get is I don't have permission to read or write over this clip....I am the admin.

I've run into this before when trying to delete unwanted clips from an XDCAM EX folder/source; make sure the main folder/sub folders/individual files for each clip/etc are NOT set to "read only". I spent about 4 hours changing "permissions" back and forth until I figured this out.

On the other hand, if you are trying to rename clips within XDCAM Browser, it will not let you. The way the file structure is, you are stuck with whatever name the camera recorded the clips as (ie. 125_0001.xxx is a default usually). This is obviously a huge pain in the ass sometimes.

Personally I did figure out a way to circumvent this problem with the use of 3rd party apps, but I can only tell you the process to do it on a PC and am not sure if you could do the same thing on a Mac. Also, I only used this method for changing the file prefix from one number to a different one (ie. all '125_' file prefixes changed to '999_'). Basically you have to rewrite the XML file that acts as the database for all the clips (this is what XDCAM Browser uses to index/read all the clips) as well as renaming the actual folders/clip files.

You must do it in this sequence too, because every time you access a BPAV/XDCAM EX folder in XDCAM Browser, it will automatically rewrite the data... it's slightly more complicated to explain but basically it will render the clips un-readable if you screw up the XML file info.

Step One:
Use Microsoft Word (or another program with this same feature) to open the "MEDIAPRO.xml" file located within the BPAV folder, and use the "find and replace" function to change all of the unwanted letters/numbers; hopefully the string of numbers/letters you want to replace is unique and easily targeted. Then save the file.

Step Two:
Since Word can only do the find & replace function within a single text document, download Metamorphose (a freeware program) and use it to change the data for the entire BPAV folder contents; it will search all sub-folders and files within.

As long as the data in the XML file matches the actual file names in the BPAV folder, XDCAM Browser should be able to read everything just fine.

Like I said, I only needed to change the prefix of all the clips, so this method works great for that. If you're trying to make unique file names for each clip... it's going to be a huge pain in the ass. Technically you would use the same steps of changing the XML file and then renaming each clip folder/files, but obviously it will take a lot of time... especially if you have like 200 clips to rename.