To work with XDCAM EX?
by David Dworsky
on
May 15, 2008 at 8:18:19 am
Hi!
Been thinking of investing in two EX1 cameras but is still a bit concerned about the codec. I have been working quite a lot with HDV and let's say I'm a bit tired of the time i takes to render and compress the files. Compared to DVCPRO HD it's a nightmare.
So my question is:
How good is the XDCAM EX codec? Is it as slow to work with as HDV? Do I really have to encode it to PRORES to get the seamless editing feel? (if so, how long does the encoding take?)
Re: To work with XDCAM EX? by Craig Seeman on May 15, 2008 at 5:38:51 pm
It works quickly and easily on my MacPro 8 core. I set the sequence to render in ProRes (that's NOT the same as having to convert the files to ProRes) and it's fast. The above means the renders are in Pro Res so it doesn't have to rebuild the GOP structure when you add filters and transitions in FCP. The same feature is available for HDV though.
I'm using FCP 6.0.3 and I'm not exactly sure when FCP implemented this but it was recently. You do have to know the feature exists though and you do need to change that setting in the sequence since it's not part of the "Easy Setups"
Re: To work with XDCAM EX? by Chris Babbitt on May 19, 2008 at 9:31:19 pm
Yes, the editing is pretty snappy, but it's still takes an eternity to export through Compressor. On my MacPro, it takes about 3x the actual program length to make an SD Mp2, and that's 1-pass CBR.
