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Francis Breen
Francis Breen
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Canon MXF File and Audio Problems

Jun 17, 2012 8:34 AM

I recently purchased a Canon XF-300 camcorder to use with my CS5 Premiere Pro system.

I assumes the XF-300 would create one huge video file until I shut off the machine.

Instead it makes several up to 2 GB MXF files and every time I start/stop the camcorder a new video file is created.

And what make it worse is that it puts each MXF file inside a folder.

When I am shooting a long videos there are problems with editing several 2GB clip as opposed to one 13 GB clip that I used to get with tape.

I use the XF utility to transfer just the video files from my CF card to my hard disk.

Then I perfer to use Pr to concatinate the separate MXF files into one MP2 file wasting a great deal of time.

Is there something I could do with the camcorder of the XF utility to get to one large file?

Also when I put an MXF file a Pr sequence the stero audio track that I am used to from tape separates into 2 separate tracks.

One seems to be mono left and the other mono right.

When I combine them into an MP2 file I get one track of mono sound.

How to I get one track of stero sound?

1693 Views   10 Replies   Latest reply: Francis Breen, Jun 18, 2012 6:30 AM
 
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  • John T Smith
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    1. John T Smith,
    Jun 17, 2012 8:55 AM   in reply to Francis Breen
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    You did it the wrong way... you copy the entire folder from camera to your hard drive, and import into PPro from there

     

    Metadata & Project Folder http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1015001?tstart=0

     
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  • Harm Millaard
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    2. Harm Millaard,
    Jun 17, 2012 8:56 AM   in reply to Francis Breen
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    Right click on a clip in the Project Panel and use Modify/Audio Channel and set the channel format to stereo. But what is the problem with having two mono tracks?

     
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  • Tayedrummer
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    3. Tayedrummer,
    Jun 17, 2012 9:01 AM   in reply to Francis Breen
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    If the XF-300 uses the Canon XF codec like the Canon C-300 you can use the 'media browser' inside Premiere.  Once you browse to the master folder it will automatically see the media as XF format, read all the subdirectories and join the spanned clips into one long clip.  Premiere is the only software I use that recognizes the spanned clips from the C-300 (Scratch doesn't, neither does Resove 8). 

     

    I'd copy the media to a hard drive then import into Premiere using the media browser tool.  From there you're ready to rock.

     
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  • Averdahl
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    4. Averdahl,
    Jun 17, 2012 9:44 AM   in reply to Francis Breen
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    "Then I perfer to use Pr to concatinate the separate MXF files into one MP2 file wasting a great deal of time."

     

    Francis,

     

    You can use XF Utility to merge all your individual clips into one (1) single file, with no re-encoding. This will save you time and quality. (In XF Utility, Use Edit > Export to MXF and then select your prefferred export method.)

     

    No, there is no way to make the camera merge/join all clips into one clip.

     

    /Roger

     
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  • Francis Breen
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    5. Francis Breen,
    Jun 17, 2012 1:22 PM   in reply to Averdahl
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    I guess I am missing something.

    When I use Edit > Export to MXF it begins moving files to the selected hard drive folder.

    I do not get a chance to select a "perferred method."

    I am now downloading an update to XF Utilities.

     
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  • Francis Breen
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    6. Francis Breen,
    Jun 17, 2012 1:32 PM   in reply to Harm Millaard
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    That seemed to work but it put the combined stereo audio in audio track 5 instead of audio track 1 where I expected it to be.

    And I cannot move that audio into track 1 as I would expect to do with audio in other projects.

    Can you explain this?

     
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  • Francis Breen
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    7. Francis Breen,
    Jun 17, 2012 2:23 PM   in reply to Averdahl
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    Roger

     

    I updated my XF Utilities program and I was able to "Merge All Clips" and I got one MXF file from the files selected.

    Do you know what is the difference between  "Merge All Clips"  and "Merge each Clip"?

    I looked for documentation on XF Utilities but all I can find is the user manual for the old version without these options.

    The problem I still have is that when the MFX files go onto the Pr sequence instead of one stereo audio track they have mono audio tracks that combine to become just mono.

     

    Frank

     
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  • Francis Breen
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    8. Francis Breen,
    Jun 17, 2012 3:43 PM   in reply to Francis Breen
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    The problem I am still having is that my MXF audio is still coming in as 2 mono tracks rather than 1 stereo track.

    I used Harm's suggestion to force the 2 mono tracks into 1 stereo track but when I put the clip in a sequence the stereo track moved out to audio track #5.

    To move the stereo track into audio track #1, I had to delete all empty audio tracks.

    That is the clumsy method I am using now but there must be a better way

     
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  • Averdahl
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    9. Averdahl,
    Jun 18, 2012 4:12 AM   in reply to Francis Breen
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    Francis,

     

    From the manual i have:

    Merge All Clips = Merges the MXF stream files within each clip and also merges multiple selected files into a single file.

    Merge Each Clip =  Merges the MXF stream files within each clip but keeps multiple selected files as separate files.

     

    Regarding the audio issue:

    In Premiere Pro CS6 you can set the Default Audio Tracks so your files import as stereo instead of dual mono/multichannel mono media. I don't know if this was an option in CS5, but i think it is not.

     

    In CS6 you do this:

    1. Edit > Preferences > Audio ("Premiere Pro > Preferences > Audio" on the Mac)

    2. Under Default Audio Tracks, change Multichannel Mono Media from "Use File" to "Stereo".

    3. Click OK.

     

    Note that it won't affect already imported clips. This preference setting affects clip when you import them.

     

    /Roger

     
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  • Francis Breen
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    10. Francis Breen,
    Jun 18, 2012 6:30 AM   in reply to Averdahl
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    Thanks for the info.

    On my CS5 system I found Edit > Preferences > Audio - Source Channel Mapping - Default track format > Stereo

     

    I switched it from "Use File" to "Stereo" and it seems to make the 2 mono tracks into 1 stereo track when I place the clip into the sequence.

     
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