XDCAM for PC

[Leonard Levy]

I have 2 clients coming up who want to be able to use their XDCAM EX files on a PC. In one case I will be doing the editing for now but they ( not video savy) will get the footage and may want to look at it and make decisions. In the other case the client is quite experienced and is editing on an Avid.

I will be working on a Mac laptop to transfer.
I'm used to downloading files onto a Mac formatted drive and every time I've tried to do it on anything else (Fat32 or NT) I get an error message telling me I don't have enough room. I just got that trying to transfer SxS files I first downloaded onto a Mac drive. Of course that means I was trying to transfer Mac folders instead of just the BAVC folder if that makes any difference.

Shouldn't I be able to give them everything on a FAT 32 formatted disk?
Should I tell them to use a Mac formatted drive and get a copy of Mac Drive also ?

I do have a downloaded copy of Sony Browser for PC to give them so they look at footage .

What's the proper procedure?

This seems very basic but I don't come across it very often at all.

Lenny

[John DuMontelle]

Did you mean BPAV instead of BAVC?

If it was me...I'd format a drive to FAT32. Then use Sony's legacy XDCAM BROWSER program to copy and transfer the video to the drive.

Sony | Micro Site XDCAM

Ship the drive along with this link to the SONY download for the legacy XDCAM BROWSER Windows version for them to install in their own computer.

This way they can open the browser and open the video files. See the images as well as have the identical timecode to use for logging.

You probably already know this but FAT32 has a 4 gig limit and many times an XDCAM clip may exceed that limit if you are trying to do it as a .MOV file.

Keeping it in it's original BPAV form, using the XDCAM Browser...which is still free...could be the answer to your problem.

Just a suggestion from me, who lives my life following the KISS (keep it simple stupid) mindset when possible.

There are other, more time consuming options where you import the video into your edit program. Render the timecode over the image, then export it into an easy to read .mp4 file...but I have no idea how much material you are wanting to send them. If it's just interviews and on-camera elements...or every frame you shot for the entire project. Nor do I know what your deadline pressures are.

Hope this helps. I am by no means the end all expert...but this was the solution I used when I was in your situation with a PC only client.

Good luck man.

[Alister Chapman]

If your just copying the SxS files from an EX you should not have a file size issue as the cards themselves are FAT (PMW-200 etc may be UDF) so the file will be under 4GB. It's only if you transcode or convert to .mov where you may have an issue as longer spanned clips are re joined into larger single clips that may exceed 4GB.


You could always use EXFAT.

Works with both Mac and PC and has no significant file size restriction.