XDCAM import etc.

dhill wrote on 5/17/2008, 11:33 AM

Hello! I'm doing an XDCAM shoot today. We have a pro shooting, so, this is just an import/workflow question. I have never worked with XDCAM before, but I did just watch the dvd Sony sent me some time ago about the camera and the media, so, I understand the concept.

I have one day with the camera to transfer all of the files (Sunday) so my first question is do I just transfer all of the files to my hard drive and Vegas will recognize them when I open one?

I have VV7 and VP8. Does one work better with XDCAM than the other? I know some times newer versions are not always better in some instances.

Do I just hook up the cam via FW and it appears as an external HD? That's what I just read.

Do you know of any online tutorials for working with XDCAM?

Your time and help is appreciated as always! Thanks. Derek

Comments

richard-courtney wrote on 5/17/2008, 2:12 PM

This might help:

http://www.simonwyndham.co.uk/vegas-7-xdcam-workflow.html

dhill wrote on 5/18/2008, 4:22 PM

Thank you. That link is useful for me.

I so far can not get the Sony PDW530 camera to be seen by Vegas in the Explorer tab though. Windows saw it when i turned it on, Vegas will run the play/stop etc. in capture window (I was just clicking around I know that is not how to get the files transferred) but I thought it was supposed to show up like an external HD and so far it's not. I wonder if it's a setting on the camera?

I did enable the XDCAM option under options/preferences section. Derek

richard-courtney wrote on 5/18/2008, 5:27 PM

Did you load the PDZ program and FAM driver?

https://servicesplus.us.sony.biz/sony-software-model-PDZ1.aspx

I assume you also must return the camera on Monday, so
when you have downloaded the clips both full rez and proxy
eject the media and try to use the media to make sure you are not
accessing them from the camera.

dhill wrote on 5/18/2008, 6:26 PM

Thank you! Yes, that was it along with the xdcam viewer download. Spot just told me the same thing (along with the FAM/XDCAM viewer/etc.) so you both saved me. I'm transferring all the data to my HD right now. So, all is good there now.

Next I will have to learn how to edit with the proxies and then replace with the full rez files, but at least my immediate emergency is over.

I assume you edit with the small files and then hit "conform" when you are done editing and then render. I will try a test segment to make sure that works before I dive into this 30 minutes piece. Thank you again. Derek

ScorpioProd wrote on 5/19/2008, 1:25 AM

Well, the proxies are really more to let you work before you've brought the real HD footage in from the Professional Disc. They're made to save time and bandwidth, so you can start editing quicker.

So since you have all the footage on your computer, just go in and edit the real HD footage directly. Just go right to the clips in the "Clips" folder under the XDCAM disc ID that you want.

Since the real footage is already there, you don't really need to use the proxies at all. Of course, if your computer is slow, the proxies will edit quicker. But honestly, I don't have that fast a system and I just edit with my XDCAM HD footage directly, Vegas is very good at scaling down to slower computers and still giving a great edit experience.

And actually, the "conform" button you mention normally looks to the actual Professional Disc to do the conforming, since normally as I said, proxy editing would only be done before that full HD material is in your computer. So since you have all the files, I'm not sure it would swap to the full HD files in your computer, though it may, I've just never used it that way.

Also remember to put a check mark on the Vegas Pro 8 preference box "Import MXF as multichannel", since most XDCAM HD will have more than two audio channels, so you want to see all the audio that is there.