David Hunt:

Here is a thread which discusses the joining of clips.

http://forums.pinnaclesys.com/forums/thread/488009.aspx

Basically the clips should be joined before transcoding and used in Studio.

Thank you David for highlighting that thread. It made interesting reading, although did not advance my issue. I do have the Sony Clip Browser program installed and have tried using that to join clips and although I am implicitly following the instructions in the manual, I cannot get the program to join any clips. This is typical of these type of software programs designed by manufacturers to overcome  the limitations of their product. They always have incomplete or badly formed instructions.

 

I may need to study more closely what jjn is saying. I am not sure I have totally grasped the concept of what he is saying yet, but I will apply further thought processes.

David Hunt:

Here is a thread which discusses the joining of clips.

http://forums.pinnaclesys.com/forums/thread/488009.aspx

Basically the clips should be joined before transcoding and used in Studio.

Thank you David for highlighting that thread. It made interesting reading, although did not advance my issue. I do have the Sony Clip Browser program installed and have tried using that to join clips and although I am implicitly following the instructions in the manual, I cannot get the program to join any clips. This is typical of these type of software programs designed by manufacturers to overcome  the limitations of their product. They always have incomplete or badly formed instructions.

 

I may need to study more closely what jjn is saying. I am not sure I have totally grasped the concept of what he is saying yet, but I will apply further thought processes.

Hi jjn

Just when I thought I was making progress there is another 'fly in the ointment'. In order to 'stitch' together the clips, I have to export them from the Sony Content Browser program as MXF files. I have tried encoding these MXF files with Media Coder using the settings that you previously worked out for me, but these don't seem to apply to MXF files as the process of encoding is taking an age. I am still waiting after over half an hour has elapsed for a 13 minute clip to encode and I am not sure if it is ever going to.

 Might there be alternative settings within Media Coder to accommodate this?  

Hi jjn

This is interesting. After processing in Media Coder for 3 hours and 18 minutes the one and a half hours of footage was successfully converted from the MXF files from a video point of view with much better picture quality than previously.

 The drawback is that no sound came with the pictures. Can you suggest a setting in Media Coder to ensure that the sound comes in with it? I am prepared to suffer the long time taken to convert as this is obviously how it is producing far superior picture quality than before.

You'd need to send me some files to test Bob, along with the setting you used for the conversion.

OK jjn. As before I will cut down the clip to a very small one so that it meets the criterion for upload. I presume that you will need the clip before I make it into an MXF file as at that stage the sound has gone. I hope you have a means of converting to MXF.

I really appreciate your help on this. It has been a very frustrating process for me but I am heartened somewhat by the dramatic improvement in picture quality offered by the MXF files.

 I used precisely the same settings for the conversion as you provided for the XDCAM EX files.

Bob, I need to start again

You have files on the camera card. What format are these?

You import from the camera card but use the Sony browser software? and this has the option to create files that are either mp4 or MFX? Do either of these formats match the ones on the card? Which files have you successfull converted with Mediacoder, and which have failed? By saying that the MFX files are higher quality than the mp4 files you've got me very confused.

Is all this because of your quest to end up with one long file so you can use the Timecode plug-in? Because its very easy to get the timecode plug-in to work continuously over a range of clips, as I posted earlier. You might be devoting a considerable amount of effort into fixing somethng that doesn't need fixing.

The files on the camera SxS card are XDCAM EX. They are imported into the Sony Content Browser program as XDCAM EX files. The reason why they must go through this step is to seamlessly join them together. I have learned from discussions with Sony Professional that unless I do this the files will appear fragmented in the normal explorer view and be missing information. This is borne out by the fact that if I go to the folder in which the SxS card files are using windows explorer there are 14 files shown. If I look at them in the Content Browser there are only 10. In order to export them from the Content Browser, they have to be in MXF format . There is no option to retain XDCAM EX identity.

I have succesfully converted XDCAM EX files with Media Coder for the purposes of importing them into Studio, but for the reason stated above, there is missing information and I am therefore unable to join them up in Studio. Also, the picture quality is much less good than if I use the Content Browser to convert to MXF first, but the drawback is that although all the files are correctly joined up, they have no sound.

I am not currently seeking one long file as for a football match but looking to import complete races from some motor race event that I filmed at the weekend. There were ten shots taken by me (7 races with one in two parts plus two establishing shots) and these are the 10 that I refer to above as seen in Content Browser.

I have finally decided that I must reluctantly abandon Pinnnacle Studio. I have work waiting to be edited that is three weeks old and customers waitng for the finished product.

I have ordered a copy of Premiere Pro CS6 and built a new PC to accomodate it.

Thanks to everyone that has tried to assist me, in particular jjn.

Sorry you have to give up Bob, but it's probably for the best for now - I'd like to think that Studio will move into the real pro area in the future.

Your camera must have cost over $10k with the memory card, so perhaps it deserves a more expensive editing suite

I am sure that the editing process will be a lot slower for a while, not only whilst I learn the program but also because of the number of features it possesses. I wil also have to re-create all of my saved graphics etc which will be a monumental task, but it has to be done if I am to move forward.

 I at least have it confirmed that I can use the timecode effect to create a clock, which is a vital component for my work.