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I have a Sony XDCAM-EX clip at 1280×720p25 to be transcoded to ProRes, so it can be used as source for iMovie (for another user on another machine).

In principle it should be very simple: go on Mac, use Compressor to transcode the XDCAM footage to ProRes.  But as usual, things are pernickety…

Sequence:

• First tried dragging the XDCAM [.mp4] file into compressor.
  • Not recognised.
  • Likewise the BPAV folder.
• Next, I transcoded the XDCAM footage to “MXF for NLEs” format, using the Mac version of Sony Clip Browser
  • Not recognised.
•  Next, opened the XDCAM Transfer app.
  • In this app, open the XDCAM’s BPAV folder.
  • The footage displays OK but how do I export it to a QuickTime [MOV] file?
  • Looks like I can’t.  It only offers to export to an [MP4] file.
  • Instead, I guess I’ll have to open it from FCP.
• FCP
  • I opened a random existing FCP project.
  • The footage is 720p but the project/sequence settings are arbitrary (unknown to me)
  • FCP: File > Import > Sony XDCAM…
  • It imported to somewhere … but where?
  • FCP Browser: file > RightClick > Reveal in Finder
  • It was at [/Volumes/GRm HFS+/_Media/_Projects/2010-05-30 (Esp) Alison Doggies/020 Source/Sony XDCAM Transfer/SxS_01]
• File System:
  • In other words, at whatever destination was last used by some app - presumably XDCAM Transfer or possibly FCP
  • The destination path was in fact specified in XDCAM Transfer, under its Menu: [XDCAM Transfer > Preferences > Import]
  • Moved the file instead to [/Volumes/GRm HFS+/_Media/_Projects/2009-11-22 (JRM) Lady of the Silver Wheel]
• Compressor:
  • Open it in Compressor
    • Drag it to the “job-strip” (my term) in Compresor.
  • Compressor displays data about that clip (e.g. 1280×720, 25 fps)
  • Select jobstrip settings:
    • Select Setting
      • Settings: Apple > Formats > QuickTime > Apple Pro
        • Name: Apple ProRes 422
        • Description: Apple ProRes 422 with audio pass-through. Settings based off the source resolution and frame rate
    • Apply (Drag) Setting to Jobstrip
  • Destination
    • Leave destination unspecified.  Then it will be the same folder as Source.
  • Processing (transcoding) of this footage (1280×720p25) took about 3 minutes (on MacBook Pro 2009).
  • Result was not that much bigger than the original:
    • Originally recorded [.MP4] file: 1.19 GB
    • Rewrapped [.MOV] from XDCAM Transfer: 1.14 GB
    • ProRes [.MOV] from Compressor: 1.97 GB

I had a go with iWeb (3.0.4) on the Apple Mac.  It is a mortal-friendly website-editor complete with templates and widgets etc.

Some non-obvious things:

• Opening & Closing the App (iWeb)
  • On opening the iWeb app, you are prompted to select a template. I couldn’t see any way to avoid selecting a template.
  • There is a [File Save] but no [File > SaveAs]
    • So how does it get named?  Where does it get saved?
      • In app’s left-hand pane, select the Site in question, it asks for a Site Name.
  • The [File > Close] action closes the whole app, not just the current project (or whatever).
    • So I guess (???) there is no concept of “empty default page” here (???).
      • Though under each theme is the option of a Blank page.
• Web-Page Editing
  • For the ??? template, you get a page with an elegantly paned “window” of assorted default images.
    • If you drag a new image on top of of one of the default ones, that new image becomes the replacement, and it inherits the “mask/zoom” capability.
    • If you simply drag an image to the same part of the webpage, it has no “mask/zoom” behaviour.  However you can add it via [Format > Mask] etc.
      • Format > Mask Shape ???
  • Setting a hyperlink on text involves an easy and intuitive-guessable method, but setting a hyperlink on an image requires a different and less obvious method.
    • [View > Show Inspector]
    • ???
• Publishing (to Web)
  • You need to establish a location to publish to.  This will typically be an ftp server with upload-access protected by username and password.
    • Before anything else, get your username and password (for that location) to hand.
    • Personally, I like to peek around first, using an ftp client.
      • Mac OS already has a read-only ftp client built-in.  From Desktop, do Control-K.  A “bare bones” instance of Finder appears.  Click the tiny oblong button at top-right if you want to see the usual explorer pane/sidebar.  HOWEVER: it is not really up to the job…
        • I discovered this at http://osxdaily.com/2011/02/07/ftp-from-mac/
        • However it is read-only, hence no ability to add or remove files or folders.
        • Also it appeared (for me at least) not to refresh properly.  Scope for time-wasting confusion!
      • For the Mac, favourite add-on clients (according to the same osxdaily article are Transmit and CyberDuck.
        • Which one is best?
          • CyberDuck runs on both Windows and Mac.
          • There is a review comparing them at http://pixelspread.com/blog/59/transmit-vs-cyberduck
            • CyberDuck is free (but “begs”), Transmit is not.
            • One user (at least) claimed that CyberDuck used to be good once but as more features have been added, it’s getting more bugs.  Unverified.
            • Some users say that CyberDuck runs (more slowly?) than Transmit.
              • A user-comment says that this is because CyberDuck is Java-vased.
            • Both programs have Bookmarks/Favourites and both have a Dashboard widget that lets you drop files into to upload straight to a specified folder on an FTP server.
            • Their main difference is in how Bookmarks/Favourites works.  Transmit has dual panes, for Local and Remote, and when you make a Bookmark it includes both these locations.  CyberDuck in contrast only displays and bookmarks the remote location, requiring you to use a separate Finder for local, hence you drag files between these apps.
          • I see also, from is website, that Transmit has handy peripheral features like a Sync button.
          • I tried them both, concluding:
            • CyberDuck is pretty basic but it appears to work OK.  Setting up my ftp account was easy apart from the password, which only gets asked when you first attempt to log-on to that account.  It seems more for the beginner and explains about Amazon s3 storage etc.
            • Transmit feels “cleaner” to use and the dual-pane is definitely handy.  Also the Sync function is not a bad idea.
  • Before publishing, you need to define the location-to-publish.
    • If you just hit the “Publish” button, it will only prompt you for a MobileMe account.
    • To define the location, first in iWeb’s left-hand “explorer” pane, select the Site (as opposed to the Page).  This brings up a form where you can define the upload (ftp) data etc.
      • One entry in this form is for an email address.  But how securely is that email address presented on the page?  I am in the habit of not making life easy for email-harvesters, so I don’t want the email address to be in plain text in the HTML, I want it encrypted.  So I chose to just put a “dummy” address in here.
  • The webpage (root .html file etc.) gets placed in the specified location as follows:
    • An [index.html] file is created there.
    • Any existing files (other than by that name) are unaffected.
      • That is “safe” and also useful e.g. if you are in the habit of placing “robots.txt” files at webpage root.
    • A folder is created there, named after the Site.
    • The subdirectory is named after the page-name
      • The page-name appears in the app’s left-hand pane, it can be renamed.
  • What happens if you delete a webpage in the app then republish?
    • The existing subfolders for the now-deleted pages are not deleted.
      • I guess one would then delete them manually or else delete everything and republish the whole site.

I bought a discount copy of Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium, because (after much discussion with others) its feature-set seems to match my typical and forseeable production requirements more than those of other NLEs, including my current mainstay, Sony Vegas 9 (which I am still trying to wean myself off, but when any proper job comes along, I tend to fall back on the familiar and trusted, for low risk including avoidance of learning-delay).

Being (so far) a one-man-band who is traditional Windows user, I purchased the Windows version.  But, confirming what I had heard, it does seem that most media people I have met use Macs.  So should I have purchased the Mac version?  Are the versions exactly the same or have they different functionalities?  Is there an option for the license to cover installing the same product on both Windows and Mac OS provided only one of them is run at a time? (e.g. when on the same physical machine).  Ideally at zero or negligible cost of course.  For example Avid Media Composer does have this flexibility.  While the uncertainty remains, I will not open the box (in case it turns out that I need to exchange it).

Here is what I have learnt so far (mainly from web-searching, unverified information):

Differences between the OS-Specific variants:

• It appears that for CS5.5 Production Premium (at least), the Windows variant has slightly greater functionality.
• However it remains to be seen what will be the case for CS6, when it becomes available.

Some options are:

• Volume licensing.
  • Intended not only for businesses but also for individuals.  If the “volume”is for two licenses, they can be for each of the OS’s.
• Crossgrade.
  • But as far as I can tell it’s intended only for one-off (or infrequent) crossgrades, requiring “destruction of the software” on the old machine each time.  Shame it isn’t simply happy with repeatable deactivation/reactivation on each machine / OS.

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Video-editing on-the-move (e.g. on a train) using a MacBook Pro (laptop) with Sony Vegas 9 (64-bit) as NLE (under Boot Camp / Windows 7), my practical experience was that a GRaid Mini external drive was far, far better than a 5400 rpm Western Digital “Passport” drive.   Consistent with the dual use of the MacBook, I partitioned the drive for both NFTS (Windows) and HFS+ (Mac OS), 50-50%.  Due to Boot Camp limitations (explained below), up till now I only ever used it “tethered” to its own mains-based power supply.  But now I see it can also be used mobile, powered from the MacBook - something that up till now I could only achieve under Mac OS, not under Windows.

When using Boot Camp / Windows on the MacBook, I initially tried the shirtpocket-sized Passport drive because it was small, light and powered from the laptop’s USB port.  While its data throughput wasn’t too bad, at least for single-channel HD editing (especially when only 1280720), when it came to cuts from one video clip (hence, in my case, video file) to another, there was a frustrating delay every time.

I also have a GRaid Mini drive, but it wasn’t obvious at first how to use it mobile when using Windows (on a MacBook).  That drive consists of two 7200  drives in RAID-0 configuation (striped, giving speed but no redundancy), and appears just like any single drive to the computer (no RAID management etc. needed).  The drive has not only a USB (2) port but also FireWire 800 (FW800) and eSATA ports.  While the latter two options work fine with the MacBook under Mac OS, they don’t work under Boot Camp / Windows.  I have tried many times and trawled many forums, no solution is apparent.  Under Mac OS the eSATA drive would ordinarily plug into an ExpressCard adaptor plugged into the laptop’s ExpressCard slot, but under Boot Camp / Windows, the ExpressCard slot doesn’t work, while for the FW800 port under Boot Camp / Windows, it appears to work at first but eventually crashes as a device when it attempts to communicate data (e.g. when copying files).

When connected only by USB to the MacBook under BootCamp / Windows, the GRaid Mini is not powered from that port, hence up till now I have relied on a mains power supply to that drive.  However, I discovered if, after first connecting by USB, you subsequently connect also by the FW800 lead, then the drive takes power from the FW800 yet communicates data via the USB lead.   Hooray!  I can use it on-the-move then!

The order in which the leads are connected is vital.  If by mistake the FW lead was connected first, then the drive would sense that as the data communications route, and subsequently fail in use.  It is vital that the USB connection is made first.  Likewise, on disconnecting the drive (following “ejection” by the computer’s file-system), disconnect the FW drive first.  The rule is FW lead: connect last disconnect first.

My experience of editing with the GRaid Mini is far more fluid hence more pleasurable and efficient.  Totally worth it.  None of the per-cut delay effects of the 5400 rpm Passport drive.  And now it can be used on-the-move, even with Boot Camp / Windows on a MacBook.  I just wish Apple would fix that Boot Camp isue with FireWire and ExpressCard ports!

This is a problem I encountered some time ago, when I was running Boot Camp v3.1 on my MacBook Pro.  Since then I upgraded to v3.2.  I know there’s a v3.3 around but before upgrading I thought it worthwhile to see whether v3.2 had fixed that problem (especially since I couldn’t rule out the possibility of v3.3 reintroducing it).   Only one thing to do: prevaricate test.

• Copy file from GRaid Mini (GRm) to Desktop:
  • 2GB fine
  • 12GB appears ok initially but then fails (to zero b/s transfer rate, then the Grm device “no longer exists”, at least until reboot)
• Reverse: 2GB fails (same way) almost immediately.

OK not good thus far…

Next tried an alternative approach: run W7 as a Virtual Machine on Mac Os via Parallel.  I have Parallels v6.  Forum search revealed that there is no FW support in either v6 or v7, though the developers seem interested in knowing why people want it.

• 2GB GRm to W7 Desktop: ok
• The reverse: ok.

Had to stop there due to other work - and a very full W7 disk.

The next workaround to consider is attaching a NAS.  Ethernet bandwidths can be 1Gbps, hence more than FW800’s 0.8 Gbps, though I wonder if there could be any issues of lag / latency in this approach.  I’ll do some research and put up another post about this idea.

One thing that might help when in W7, re-building the set of apps previously installed under XP, would be to migrate the whole XP instance to a virtual machine elsewhere, in practice my MacBook Pro, which has Parallels 6 under Mac OS.

Then, while installing apps to the new W7 instance, can do a side-by-side comparison with the virtual XP instance.  The only unknown is the Microsoft activation/licensing issue - could it “clog the gears” of this proposed process?  Presumably I need to transfer the activation(s) to the XP virtual machine.  But could the W7 Upgrade process itself absorb the XP activation, crippling the XP virtual machine?

Only one way to find out, and that time is not now…

Just for the record, currently this works:

• On Mac Pro, in Windows (XP):
  • Choose any folder. For example:
    • On the RAID, this could be either of the two partitions:
      • NTFS_RAID (an NTFS partition)
      • RAID_ProAVIO (an HFS+) partition
  • Then [RtClk > Sharing and Security… > Sharing > Network sharing and security:
    • Share this folder on the network: YES
    • Allow network users to change my files: YES
      • Because some tools create “sidecar” files e.g. audio peaks or video indexes.
• On Mac Book, in Windows 7:
  • From a file-browser, be it Windows Explorer or part of the File>Open feature of an application, go to [ Network > aComputer > aFolder ]
    • Tested by playing file in Windows Media Player and in Sony Vegas (video NLE).  Worked fine.  Latter added a [.sfk] sidecar-file to the RAID-folder.
    • Worked both for source on NTFS partition and for source on HFS+ partition, except the latter gave rise to prolonged “hourglass” delays before the file was accessed/linked, following which the video played smoothly.
• What doesn’t work:
  • Unable to see Mac Book from Mac Pro.
  • Also, when MacPro is in Mac OS, MacBook W7 Windows Explorer > Network lists the MacPro as [MACPRO-2E4124] yet cannot connect to it, blaming a firewall (presumably the one on MacPro).
    • Network Error: Windows cannot access \\MACPRO-2E4124
    • Tried exiting Kapersky (on the MacPro>MacOS) but no change.
    • Tried stopping MacPro firewall (via Preferences > Security) but no change.

Some software requires user-config to define whether OpenGL etc. are available.  What has my MBP got in terms of graphic card, and what aspects of it are available under BootCamp>Windows?  Below are some answers:

• http://www.opengl.org/discussion_boards/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=245858
  • Q:
    • Do I have OpenGL on my laptop… how to know?
  • A:
    • Check out: http://www.ozone3d.net/gpu_caps_viewer/
    • That will tell you what version of OpenGL your video card supports
    • And if the results are negative, it means you need a better driver…
• http://www.ozone3d.net/gpu_caps_viewer/
  • GPU Caps Viewer. Information Utility for OpenGL, OpenCL, CUDA Graphics Card and GPU.
  • Seems respectable, e.g. reviewd and downloadable at CNET http://download.cnet.com/GPU-Caps-Viewer/3000-2086_4-75449929.html.
• In my case, my 2009-vintage MacBook Pro under BootCamp>Windows7(64) has the graphic card [NVIDIA  GeForce 9600M GT].  The GPU Caps Viewer determined that the graphic card has:
  • OpenGL 3.1
  • CUDA (4 multiprocessors, each 1.25 GHz)
  • No OpenCL

Links:

• http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=783982
  •  Question:
    • FileMate SolidGO 3FMS4D48M-WR 48GB ExpressCard SSD; the drive works beautifully under OS X, but is not recognized at all by Windows 7 when it’s in the ExpressCard slot. In Device Manager, the yellow caution icon appears in front of the Standard ACHI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. The drive does not show under Disk drives or in Disk Manager. The corresponding Device Status message is: “This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use (Code 12). If you want to use this device, you will need to disable one of the other devices on this system.”
    • The drive is recognized as SATA under Mac OS X and also works fine in Windows when plugged into a USB port instead of the ExpressCard slot (at which point it is not treated as SATA, but USB).
  • Responses:
    • (For the newer (non-Intel) chipset) Apple’s BIOS emulation for Windows doesn’t support SATA, only ATA/133.
    • Unfortunately for Unibody … with the Nvidia MCP79 chipset there hasn’t been a solution found yet - it’s discussed towards the end of the thread. … until they find a solution or Apple release what would be quite a simple EFI patch to enable it in the BIOS emulation we’re stuck with PATA and your SSD won’t work

Backup & Restore via Disk Utility (DU) - on Mac OS install-disk - to a fresh hard-drive:

1. Routine: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1553
2. Complication: Backed-up not the whole disk but aMac OS partition alongside a Boot Camp partition.

• DU restores the partition (as a sole partition) but it won’t boot.
• Try install fresh OS X from install-dvd, then use it to create Boot Camp partition (and presumably boot-selection menu) then restore (with erase) to the OS X partition (only).  To save time (hopefully), didn’t actually install Windows.
  • Both the fresh-install and the restoration of OS X took about an hour.
  • Yes it worked! Booted into Mac OS just fine.
  • Left it to “settle” a bit - e.g. until CPU level down around zero.
  • Restart in Shift-Boot mode (to refresh OS’s tables etc.) and log-in as “DefaultEverything” (dummy user created as per advice - I think from Larry Jordan).  Maybe should have done that the first time…
  • Restarted in normal user account, again left awhile.
  • Started WinClone (App, started from MacOS)
    • It appeared to first scan the backup then began to install it.  Not quick, maybe an hour for each of these (two) tasks.
    • Source partition was 232.57 GB - as compared to the destination partition of around 250 GB.
  • Alt-Booted into W7 just fine.
  • Being on the internet, it began downloading numerous system updates - furiously (like it was hard to web-browse even on another computer on the network.
  • Correspondingly, on ShutDown, W7 installed numerous (61) updates.  Took ages - so if ever repeating such a recovery, allow for this…
  • Also on subsequent start-up, updating & registering stuff - took a few minutes - wish I’d run it straight (boot camp) not within Parallels.  But it seemed “happy”.
  • (to be continued…)

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