XDCAM EX

ceejay7777 wrote on 4/21/2012, 10:09 PM

My NLE of choice is Sony Vegas Pro 9.0e, so when a potential client asked if I could edit some material shot on a Sony HDCAM EX3, I said yes. Unfortunately only the second (smaller) of the two files of the spanned clip would import into Vegas or even Sony XDCAM EX ClipBrowser 2.6 (and even MediaInfo came up with nothing), so I told the potential client that one of his files must be corrupt and passed on the job.

I was subsequently surprised to find that the whole spanned clip imported quite happily into Final Cut Pro using PDZKP1 XDCAM Transfer on a Mac.

So why does Sony's own NLE and browser software on a PC reject what can be seemingly effortlessly imported into the opposition's software on a Mac?

Comments

farss wrote on 4/22/2012, 1:05 AM

I assume the camera in question was a XDCAM EX3. The EX1 and EX3 are indentical cameras in regards your problem.

Should be no problem getting the footage into Vegas, as an XDCAM EX1 owner here's how I'd handle your situation.

1) Using the Clipbrowser, copy and paste all the video clips into the one BPAV folder. You must use the Clipbrowser to do this, it will meld the spanned clips into one ready for 2).
2) Having done that select all the clips and then select File>Export for NLE (MXF) into another folder, I name that folder "MXF".
3) Then in V9 simply drag the MXF clips onto the T/L or select them in the Explorer pane and RClick and select Add to Project Media. Just be patient doing this, V9 can take its time to open the selection window when there's big files selected.

Bob.

megabit wrote on 4/22/2012, 3:49 AM

As Bob says, or -

- use Vegas' own Device Manager to import clips from the SxS card; it will merge the spanned clips for you, too.

Piotr

ceejay7777 wrote on 4/22/2012, 4:46 AM

Either way, the first file of the spanned clip came up as "?" (in Vegas) or "X" (in File Browser). Using both of those methodologies, only the second file of the clip transferred. Hence my thinking that the file was corrupted.

On the Mac, however, BOTH files transferred into FCP. Doesn't make sense to me.

The files were not taken directly from the SxS card, they had already been copied to a DVD.

farss wrote on 4/22/2012, 4:51 AM

"The files were not taken directly from the SxS card, they had already been copied to a DVD"

That might be the problem, both the Clipbrowser and Vegas need all the files and structures contained within the BPAV folder. You might be able to use a binary append to join the two files to solve the problem.

Bob.

ceejay7777 wrote on 4/22/2012, 5:17 AM

Which brings me back to my initial question. Neither Vegas nor ClipBrowser on the PC could read the DVD files, while XDCAM Transfer on the Mac read exactly the same files in exactly the same folders off exactly the same DVD with no problem!

farss wrote on 4/22/2012, 6:14 AM

What file extension were these files?
The original XDCAM EX vision files should be something like "051_0054_01.MP4".

They are mpeg-2 in a MP4 wrapper, I just checked and they all play fine in VLC and go straight onto the Vegas T/L.

The only problem with having only the camera original files and dropping them directly onto the Vegas T/L is because the GOPs are not closed there will be some lost frames / audio at the join.

I'm inclined to think the files you have are NOT camera original, every which way you can get XDCAM EX files into FCP causes them to be rewrapped,

Bob.
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Former user wrote on 4/22/2012, 12:40 PM

Because I end up having single-day turnaround on a lot of projects these days, I just use two monitors: Sony Clipbrowser in one windows, Vegas with the explorer open in anther. I preview/search for what I'm after in clip browser, and then just grab it and drag it to the TL from within Vegas (no copy/paste required).

ceejay7777 wrote on 4/23/2012, 2:27 AM

Yep Bob, like you say, they should play in VLC - but in this case the second file of the spanned clip DID play OK in VLC, but the first didn't. That's why I figured that the first file was in some way corrupted. However, despite all of that, the whole spanned clip transferred fine on a Mac. Just doesn't make sense to me.

farss wrote on 4/23/2012, 4:27 AM

Just a guess as I don't have much to go on, I don't even know the file extension:

The first clip's header probably contains no data about how long the clip is, probably nothing more than a pointer at the end of the file to the next clip. The last file in the group would be closed and could contain valid header data.
As I said if these files were from after FCP had done its ingest thing anything is possible.

Bob.