Are you thinking of buying a Sony EX1 or EX3 camcorder? Are you wondering how the XDCAM EX clips will affect your workflow? Would you like to test drive the actual workflow on your own computer and evaluate four dozen full-resolution native EX clips before you buy a camera? Then Vortex Media's SxS Simulation Disc is just what you need.

This DVD-ROM will perform exactly* like an XDCAM SxS memory card. You simply put the disc in your PC or Mac and it behaves just as if you had inserted an SxS card - thus allowing you to test the EX workflow with 48 original, untouched, unedited, pristine, native EX clips representing every possible recording mode the camera offers -- including both NTSC and PAL formats. Each clip averages 18 seconds giving you a total of 15 minutes of footage to try out. Most clips include plenty of motion like waterfalls, ocean waves, people, traffic, pans, and tilts. Nothing has been done to these clips - not even trimming. They are exactly what the camera shot.

What do you need to test drive the clips? Just a free program called Clip Browser from Sony and the SxS card drivers. After you install the drivers and Clip Browser on your computer you'll be able to browse the contents of the SxS Simulation DVD-ROM and watch the footage.

With the PC version of Clip Browser you can also import the files to your hard drive and re-wrap them into MXF files for editing with Sony Vegas 8 or any other NLE that handles MXF. A free trial version of Vegas is available here.

If you edit with Final Cut Pro then you will also want to download another free Sony program called XDCAM Transfer. XDCAM Transfer will let you browse the contents of the DVD-ROM, playback the clips, read the clip metadata, create subclips, and re-wrap them into MOV files for editing with Final Cut Pro 6. The software is called PDZ-KP1 XDCAM Transfer for Final Cut Pro.

Not sure you'll be able to figure it all out? Don't worry. The EX workflow is very simple and Vortex Media's SxS Simulation Disc comes complete with 10 pages of detailed step-by-step instructions and tutorials for testing the footage on your computer.
Screen capture of Clip Browser for PC
Screen capture of Clip Browser for Mac.
Screen capture of XDCAM Transfer for Final Cut Pro only

Now you can test the entire post-production XDCAM EX workflow without having a camera. How does progressive compare to interlaced? How does the SP mode compare to HDV? How do the various types of clips down-convert to SD or DVD? How does motion look? Does the footage require rendering? Will it playback smoothly in your NLE? Now you can get the answers to these, and dozens of other questions, on YOUR OWN COMPUTER. Don't take anyone else's word for how the workflow goes - test it yourself.

* Importing footage from the DVD-ROM will be much slower than from an actual SxS card. Do not use this SxS Simulation DVD-ROM to judge how long it will take to ingest your clips from a real SxS memory card. FYI, depending on your hardware setup, an 8GB SxS card holding 25 minutes of footage can typically be imported in about 6 minutes or less.

This DVD is NOT sold as stock footage. The clips on the disc are provided for your workflow testing and evaluation only. The clips are not licensed for use in any finished production. All rights reserved.