The release of Toast 9 is pretty great news. I'm on the verge of buying a blu-ray burner for archiving, and Toast's simple blu-ray authoring will hopefully allow for decent (and quick) HD quality corporate video screeners. I wouldn't use this for anything more involved than a screener though. I'll write about it when I have a chance to test it out.
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March 2008
March 17, 2008
March 07, 2008
How to capture XDCAM EX footage on a Mac Pro without a camera
The Sony XDCAM EX requires XDCAM transfer software 2.5 or greater to get the footage into FCP. I have that installed on the Mac Pro for general XDCAM HD work, but the Mac Pro doesn't have an ExpressCard Slot. What to do?
One of the editors here has a Macbook Pro, but instead of installing the software on his machine, capturing, and then copying the footage over to where it needed to be (requiring multiple steps), I did the following:
- Connect the Macbook Pro to the Mac Pro via firewire cable (both computers are turned on).
- Insert the XDCAM EX card into the Macbook Pro. The volume will mount on the Macbook.
- From the Mac Pro, connect to the Macbook over the network (note: because we have them connected by firewire, the transfer speeds will be quick). When prompted to choose a volume, choose the ExpressCard.
- In XDCAM Transfer Software, under "File", choose "Add Source..."
- Select the remote XDCAM EX volume. The thumbnails will load and you're good to go.
Note: This is certainly not the fastest way to do things... the footage imported at 0.5x. It is, however, very hands off and a quick fix when the camera is out of the shop.
update: We have since purchased a Sony SxS external card reader, which solves all of our problems.
