Offloading Media from Card-Based formats

The days of capturing tape are long gone at Drexel. Each camera in the Department of Cinema & Television now relies on various card formats to store our footage. While the SxS XDCAM EX card used for a Sony PMW-EX1 contains a different structure than an AVCHD based card used in the HXR-NX5U, the same philosophy applies to all when offloading footage to a computer.

You must always copy the ENTIRE card when offloading media. Do not simply pick out the MTS files from an AVCHD card or the MP4 containers for an XDCAM EX SxS Card. you must copy all of the files and folders stored on the card. Editing apps, such as Premiere and Avid Media Composer, use metadata which is stored in various files on the card. If you copy just the media files, you break the card structure and the footage will not be able to used in your editing app without a massive transcode.

Here’s how to offload media from Drexel’s arsenal of cameras.

  • Sony PMW-EX1, Sony PMW-EX1R, Sony PMW-350, Sony PMW-EX3 and other XDCAM EX based cameras
    • Plug in a Sony SxS reader into a USB port on your computer
    • Make sure the write-lock on the SxS card is shifted over so you see red. This prevents accidental deletion on the computer
    • Pop the SxS card into the card reader
    • In Windows, click the Start Menu and go to Computer
    • Under Devices with Removable storage, you should see a drive containing your media, so click it to open it
    • Copy the BPAV folder and place it on a folder on your external hard drive. I suggest Project_Name-SXS-Card-001 (or whatever number it is)
    • DO NOT EVER RENAME THE BPAV FOLDER OR CHANGE ANYTHING INSIDE IT. You obviously cannot have multiple BPAVs next to each other
    • Import the files into your Adobe Premiere Pro or Avid Media Composer
  • Sony HXR-NX5U “NXCAM” and other AVCHD based cameras
    • Plug in a SD card reader into a USB port on your computer
    • Make sure the write-lock on the SDHC card is shifted over into lock mode. This prevents accidental deletion
    • Pop the SD card into the SDHC reader
    • In Windows, click the Start Menu and go to Computer
    • Under Devices with Removable storage, you should see a drive containing your media, so click it to open it
    • Copy the PRIVATE folder and any other folders on the root of the drive and place it on a folder on your external hard drive. I suggest Project_Name-AVCHD-Card-001 (or whatever number it is)
    • DO NOT EVER RENAME THE PRIVATE FOLDER OR CHANGE ANYTHING INSIDE IT. You obviously cannot have multiple PRIVATE‘s next to each other.
    • Import the files into your Adobe Premiere Pro or Avid Media Composer
  • Canon T3i and other Canon DSLRs
    • Plug in a SD card reader into a USB port on your computer
    • Make sure the write-lock on the SDHC card is shifted over into lock mode. This prevents accidental deletion
    • Pop the SD card into the SDHC reader
    • In Windows, click the Start Menu and go to Computer
    • Under Devices with Removable storage, you should see a drive containing your media, so click it to open it
    • Copy the DCIM and MISC folder and any other folders on the root of the drive and place it on a folder on your external hard drive. I suggest Project_Name-DSLR-Card-001 (or whatever number it is)
    • The DSLR cards really only need the quicktime .MOV files to function, but you should still try and preserve the structure of the cards.
    • Import the files into your Adobe Premiere Pro via the media browser or Avid Media Composer via “Link to AMA Volume”
  • Red One
    • Use R3D Data Manager to offload cards. In depth breakdown coming soon.