Final Cut Pro with Sony PMW-EX1 HD camera

Well seems to me that FCP 5.1.4 should be OK with that camera... however the cost of upgrading to Studio 2 is so cheap it's a no brainer... Color alone is worth the price of the upgrade let alone all of the other improvements FCS 2 has in it. Render times with HDV material will improve for sure with Studio 2...

Not only that ProRes is really the way to edit HDV and you'd have to have Studio 2 to get that codec.

Jerry

Message was edited by: Jerry Hofmann

Hello Francois.

I use the Sony EX1 cameras and they work perfectly with Final Cut Studio 2. Very Simple. Forget the clip browser program. Download Sony's XDCAM Transfer Software. Open up the program first, then go to preferences and select your import location. Now, connect you camera or card reader to your computer via the USB cable. Once connected, insert the card into your camera or reader and you should see the files start to appear in the XDCAM transfer program. Select the files you want to import and click on the "import" button. Viola...That easy. This will convert the files to quicktime movies, which you can then import directly from within Final Cut Pro. I love the workflow. Hope this helps.

Ray Roman

I don't have that problem. Timeline settings are already set to Sony EX 1080/30p or Apple Prores 422. If you upgrade to Final Cut Pro 6, you shouldn't have this problem.

Studio 2 includes FCP 6, and when you place a clip in a sequence, it asks you if you want the sequence settings to automatically be changed to match the source clip's properties... so it's easier to work with different formats all the time. Plus you can mix formats much easier with FCP 6.

But all you need to do is match the sequence's settings manually to match those of the source clip's properites, and you shouldn't have to render.

Jerry

Open the mp4 files in Compressor, and export them as QT files using AIC or HDV codec.

FCP 6 would also give you ProRes. Which is much better all around. Might try DVCPROHD with your system too. See what works best.

Jerry

Jerry
To work with the XD Cam EX codec you need FC6.0.2 or better. It is NOT HDV.

Jerry,
The only program to transcode the EX series mp4 files is ffmpegX, ffmpegX.com Compressor doesn't work with these files, "Error trying to open source media file."

You can open the transferred file (that is re-wrapped as a QuickTime .mov) with Compressor to transcode to DVC ProHD, but then you could just use MPEG Streamclip as it is much faster and easier and can batch transcode many clips at one time. www.squared5.com

And again you need FC 6.0.2 to edit with the XD Cam EX series codec.

Working with EX series XD Cam HQ recorded files produces many files inside the BPAV folder that are needed for what various NLE's and computer platform you are working with. You will need the 2.7 XD Cam Transfer software to convert the raw XD Cam files to a QuickTime .mov to edit in Final Cut. With file based media you must use a well organization file system and learn to guard the BPAV folder only placing it inside a separate folder of it's own and naming it properly for archiving. This BPAV folder must never be place with any other BPAV folders and must always be kept in a separate folder to work properly with the XD Cam Transfer software. To work in Final Cut you are going to use the XD Cam Transfer software that makes new .mov files and you must find a place for them to be stored as well. At the end of your edit you have choices to either keep both the raw XD Cam files (mp4) and the new Quicktime .mov files, I keep them both or if I don't have the storage room I keep the raw, this allows me the ability to work on any software platform (PC or Mac) later. You can use the new Clip Browser version to transcode to other codecs and to prepare for SD DVD archiving.

I should clarify that should someone end up making a mistake renaming the BPAV folder and are left with orphan .mp4 files the new Clip Browser 2.0 is said to fix and restore the BPAV folder so you won't need the ffmpeg program. I haven't tried this but there is help for those who mishandle there files.

I do not think this is necessarily true. EX1 shoots in HQ and SP modes. It's my understanding that the SP mode is in fact HDV.

What I said is completely true. The HQ record mode is the XD Cam EX codec and you need FC 6.0.2 or better to edit with it, as I said it is not HDV
and yes SP mode is HDV so you can use FC 5 HDV 60i settings.

Alright... easy bro. I was thinking you were saying anything shot by the EX1 was not HDV, not talking specifically about HQ mode. Thank you for your clarification.

Any reason the video shot in SP mode (HDV) could not also be used easily in FC Express?