Importing assets from tapeless formats – Adobe Premiere Pro CC v.7.xx User Manual

Page 137

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Importing assets from tapeless formats

Note:

Note:

Import assets from file-based sources with Media Browser
About spanned clips

File-based camcorders from various manufacturers record video and audio into files of specific formats organized within specific directory
structures. These formats include Panasonic P2 camcorders, Sony XDCAM HD and XDCAM EX camcorders, Sony CF-based HDV camcorders,
and AVCHD camcorders.

Camcorders recording in any of these formats typically record to hard disks, optical media, or flash memory media, not to videotape. These
camcorders and formats are therefore called file-based, or tapeless, rather than tape-based.

The video and audio from a file-based camcorder are already contained in digital files. No capture or digitizing step is necessary to bring them into
Premiere Pro. Reading the data from the recording media and converting it to a format that can be used in a project is instead called ingest.
Premiere Pro ingests files in any of these file-based formats from any of their media.

Adobe provides workflow guides for P2, RED, XDCAM, AVCCAM, and DSLR cameras and footage on the

Adobe website

.

XDCAM and AVCHD formats

You can find the video files from XDCAM HD camcorders in the CLIP folder, written in the MXF format. XDCAM EX camcorders write MP4 files
into a folder named BPAV.

For information about the XDCAM format, see

this PDF document

on the Sony website.

AVCHD video files are in the STREAM folder. For more information about the AVCHD format, see the

AVCHD website

The Panasonic P2 format

A P2 card is a solid-state memory device that plugs into the PCMCIA slot of a Panasonic P2 video camera, such as the AG-HVX200. The digital
video and audio data from the video camera is recorded onto the card in a structured, codec-independent format known as MXF (Media eXchange
Format)
. Specifically, Premiere Pro supports the Panasonic Op-Atom variant of MXF, with video in DV, DVCPRO, DVCPRO 50, DVCPRO HD, or
AVC-I formats. A clip is in the P2 format if its audio and video are contained in Panasonic Op-Atom MXF files. These files are located in a specific
file structure.

The root of the P2 file structure is a CONTENTS folder. Each essence item (an item of video or audio) is contained in a separate MXF wrapper
file. The video MXF files are in the VIDEO subfolder, and the audio MXF files are in the AUDIO subfolder. XML files in the CLIP subfolder contain
the associations between essence files and the metadata associated with them.

Premiere Pro does not support proxies recorded by some Panasonic P2 camcorders in P2 card PROXY folders.

For your computer to read P2 cards, it needs the appropriate driver, which you can download from the Panasonic website. Panasonic also
provides the P2 Viewer application, with which you can browse and play media stored on a P2 card.

To use certain features with P2 files, you first change the file properties from read only to read and write. For example, to change the

timecode metadata of a clip using the Timecode dialog box, you first set the file properties to read and write. Use the operating system file explorer
to change file properties.

Avid capture format

Avid editing systems capture footage to MXF files, generally into a folder called Avid Media files, with audio captured into discreet files separate
from the video files. When you import Avid video files, Premiere Pro automatically imports their associated audio files. However, it is simpler to
import Avid project files, in Advanced Authoring Format (AAF), than to identify and import individual Avid MXF video files.

DVD format

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