XDCAM HD Post Woes
Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2009 1:03 am
I recently shot some material on Sony PMW EX1 XDCAM HD at 720p/25. Shooting was fun, the camera is decent, but what i enjoyed most was the ability to shoot upto 50fps and recrding to chip.
But when we came to post, I realized how unprepared we all are with these new formats. Maybe companies like Sony and Panasonic should take classes and workshops at Post Studios to ensure a zero hiccup workflow.
problems:
1) The camera records on SxS Memory cards which you must keep taking backups of, into separate Hard Disks, erase and re-use. Hard disks are highly volatile in their nature and BOTH my Transcend 120GBs were not mounting once back in Mumbai (I shot some 2000km away).
2) The Camera records every shot in a new folder with a distinct data structure, and even ONE missing file will create havoc. attached please see the file structure.The folder named BPAV is the parent folder.
3) I couldnt find a decent post house that knew how to handle this. My first experience was very bad, and I personally had to install teh necessary plugins and software, and managed to import the XDCAM HD footage to FCP. But the Post house's apathy and ignornace coupled with complete unwillingness to learn, made me move to another one.
4) The post guys feel I should export the rushes to SD, place the SD on a new timeline, playback, record to DigiBeta, then grab from this SD DigiBeta for offline and online. I personally feel even if its a 720p/25 XDCAM timeline, I should be able to get a realtime downconversion to SD DigiBeta on playback via a DeckLink Card. The post guys have never done or heard of such a thing. The DeckLink card and website says downconversion via DeckLink is a done thing.
so as of now I am editing in native XDCAM format, will EXPORT ONLY my final edited material. Exporting to Apple Pro0Res and then down-exporting to SD wil take many hours of expensive post time.
Any thoughts, anyone?
But when we came to post, I realized how unprepared we all are with these new formats. Maybe companies like Sony and Panasonic should take classes and workshops at Post Studios to ensure a zero hiccup workflow.
problems:
1) The camera records on SxS Memory cards which you must keep taking backups of, into separate Hard Disks, erase and re-use. Hard disks are highly volatile in their nature and BOTH my Transcend 120GBs were not mounting once back in Mumbai (I shot some 2000km away).
2) The Camera records every shot in a new folder with a distinct data structure, and even ONE missing file will create havoc. attached please see the file structure.The folder named BPAV is the parent folder.
3) I couldnt find a decent post house that knew how to handle this. My first experience was very bad, and I personally had to install teh necessary plugins and software, and managed to import the XDCAM HD footage to FCP. But the Post house's apathy and ignornace coupled with complete unwillingness to learn, made me move to another one.
4) The post guys feel I should export the rushes to SD, place the SD on a new timeline, playback, record to DigiBeta, then grab from this SD DigiBeta for offline and online. I personally feel even if its a 720p/25 XDCAM timeline, I should be able to get a realtime downconversion to SD DigiBeta on playback via a DeckLink Card. The post guys have never done or heard of such a thing. The DeckLink card and website says downconversion via DeckLink is a done thing.
so as of now I am editing in native XDCAM format, will EXPORT ONLY my final edited material. Exporting to Apple Pro0Res and then down-exporting to SD wil take many hours of expensive post time.
Any thoughts, anyone?