Daft question time

[MartinWilson]

Now that more and more camcorders are recording to SD card, is there a facility in the new machines to download the footage direct from the card, without having to play out in real time?

Thanks,

[CasablancaExpert]

Martin,

The new (Next Generation) Casablanca units - S4000/PRO and S2000 (along with the Ultra Card Upgraded Renommee/Plus & Solitaire/Plus) enables you to import video footage using a USB port, but there are still limitations.

And this while this is a file transfer it is far from instant -- it still takes time as you import the footage. I would say (un-scientifically) it is just a little faster than real time.

Not all video formats saved to flash media are created equal: the AVCHD file format is the most compatible video format that is recognizable or compatible with the new Bogart SE Operating System. There are some others that are still not yet functioning in the system.

While the Casablanca II units (AVIO and up) provide the capacity to import JPEG photos on an SD card there is no capacity to import video into these editors from that media.

Hope that helps!

Regards.
Chet

[JBrooks]

Martin,

I use the XDCAM EX1 camcorder wich records to SxS express cards using the LONGOP MPEG 2 formats and it can upload to media manager via usb for Bogart based units and via firewire via Non-Bogart units. It generally takes a 4 minute video clip about 2 minutes to import into media manager. There will be some tweaking regarding support for solid state recording formats in the near future however, it is amazing on what we can do now with Bogart.

Joel Brooks
MIT Video

[Jeanton]

I don't agree with Joel that Media Manager is a great feature - I have given up on that part of the S4000. Tried last week to import an Arabesk burned DVD through the DVD reader and it didn't even recognize it - tried some other video this week with the same result.

Regarding the issue of recording to an SxS memory card, those things are way too expensive - you can buy a lot of DV tapes for the price of just one card. I think we are getting ripped off by the card companies.

PS. It is not that bad to upload your footage in real time you can just record it in and do something else in the mean time.

[TimKennelly]

Jeanton,

Expense is a relative thing as you can reuse the cards without fear over and over and they do not suffer drop outs, but yes it will be good as they come down in price as new technology tends to do and especially if third party companies can offer compatible alternatives so Sony does not have a monopoly to artificially keep the prices up.

Media Manger in a few areas is working good as Joel mentions and has major issues in many others and some of it is lack of user knowledge.

I bet if you go into the Option settings and choose Universal Player your Arabesk would suddenly be seen.

Now whether it would import flawlessly or with major degradation is another issue entirely and I have not tried that so am not sure which it would be, but the Universal Player setting allows MM to recognize and see a lot of files that it otherwise will not.

[MartinWilson]

Thanks for the replies guys, I was thinking along the lines that you would be able to insert the SD card and click on the desired file and drop immediately onto the system.

Is this sort of thing currently available on a PC.

Thanks again,