Conforming - why so slow?

[adamt]

why does Smoke takes so long to conform an Xml file and its associated Sony MXF files?

I'm trying to load up a 30s commercial rough edit sent to me with the original camera files, and its taking hours to process. No other edit system i've ever used takes anywhere near this long.

And its not just this project - its EVERY project!

And whilst i'm in a bad mood - why is it so difficult to get a half decent colour transform on Sony material. If this can be done instantly by Resolve, why can't Smoke? I'm sick of having to open RawViewer, open a file, save a LUT, drag it into the Smoke folders then reapply to the footage. A crazy bodge for such a costly system.

adam

[rwtsmoke]

I haven't had to many issues conforming from Sony material, but for some reason Smoke does not play well with the Sony file structures. Back in the day it seemed to do okay with the XDcam stuff...I think it was a BVAP structure.

Then our company moved to the Sony FS700 camera which was AVCHD and that file structure within Smoke was a disaster...especially if you had a lot or very long clips, it would take forever to populate the proxies so in the end I used clipwrap to rewrap the files to QT's.

We've since moved to the FS7 & F5 camera and unfortunately the XDROOT structure still gives the Smoke fits...it can again take an extremely long time to populate the media hub especially with a lot of clips...then add a LUT and it can bring things to a screeching halt....especially if you need to bounce in and out of the media hub grabbing clips.

I'm not sure about your difficulty with color transforms. I have a number of LUTS saved, I tap a clip in the media hub, hit import from the color transformation button, select whichever LUT and I'm good to go. It's not real slick, but not real laborious either.

I think a nice tutorial on the "new" color management system would be nice...but i'll assume those tutorial resources are tied up keeping up with all the new flame stuff.

[adamt]

sounds like you have the same process i have. Our footage tends to come from an F55 camera.

I still usually forget to create a specific lut from each shoot before i start. I find the lut needed depends on which cameraman was used so tend to make a new one (or more if needed) for each shoot.

Once thats in the Lustre colour conversions folder its no problem to select, but waiting for aeons for the files to appear and start importing is such a huge timewaster...  I sent four hours yesterday just bringing in the clips for a commercial. Back when i was using FCP it would have taken me 10 minutes at most.

I'd be very interested to see if Flame imports of the same material were any quicker.

adam

[jaseo]

Hi Adam,

What codec do the MXF wrapped clips use?

Where are they being read from? (and approx how many clips?)

cheers

[sonstegard]

Could it be your Sony drivers?

I had the same problem with Avid and Sony until I installed the proper Sony drivers...what took an hour went down to 1 minute.

[adamt]

what Sony drivers?

where did you find them?

[sonstegard · Accepted solution]

I'm not sure if this will help but, here's what I needed for my XDCAM EX media.

SxS Driver--without it, it took hours to import media.

http://www.pro.sony.eu/pro/lang/en/eu/support/software/SET_BPE-SS-03PN/40

Support for XDCAM EX media--This one is for FCPX/Mac.  I'm an Avid guy (using their AMA plugin) but, I also have this installed on my system.

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/pdzk-lt2 

[adamt]

thanks - i'll give them  try.

adam

[adamt]

just tried installing the XDCam software, and importing the files definitely feels a bit more responsive.

thanks

[rwtsmoke]

Hmmmmm....I just installed the drivers, tried to import footage from both an FS7 camera via a XQD card & reader and also footage from an F5 via an SxS card and reader and I didn't notice much of a difference...actually no difference. 

The drivers seem to be for the PDW U1/U2 unit which we don't import from so when you open the drive utility it doesn't recognize the drive (XQD or SxS) I'm pulling from...so the drivers don't seem to be a factor in the import.