I've just about had it; X5R Camera Exporter Failures!

[InterMurph]

Edit: I updated the USB driver, using the latest driver on the Gigabyte download page, and now it works. So maybe this one isn't strictly DJI's fault.

Original post: So I finally got a chance to fly my X5R. I got about 200GB or so of footage, and I'm eager to see what it looks like.

I downloaded the DJI Camera Exporter and installed in on my Windows 7 system. I attached the X5R reader to a USB 3.0 port. It mounted OK; I heard the "new device inserted" sound,, and the Windows AutoPlay (new drive detected) dialog popped up. The Exporter software recognized it. I selected the first sequence, which is 1,464 frames long, and clicked the export button.

It got to about 1,200 frames,, then stopped. I heard the "new device inserted" sound again, and the Windows AutoPlay (new drive detected) dialog popped up again. I deleted the files it did copy and tried again. This time it got through 400 frames before it happened again.

I have now tried it ten times, and it has failed every single time.

I own two Atomos Shogun external recorders, and I have used this USB port on this computer to transfer terabytes of footage at a time, all without a single problem.

But I can't transfer a 60-second clip with this DJI garbage.

I think I have had it with DJI.

Edit: I updated the USB driver, using the latest driver on the Gigabyte download page, and now it works. So maybe this one isn't strictly DJI's fault.

 

[InterMurph]

I may have pointed the blame in the wrong direction.

I downloaded and installed the latest Intel USB driver from the Gigabyte web site, and it now seems to be proceeding. It seems much slower than it did before, when it failed. But at least it's not dismounting.

I'll report back tomorrow.

 

[Richard Hurst]

Mine arrives today and I'm looking forward to the days of frustration ahead. Lol

 

[Flying High 1]

I am having the same trouble of cinelight crashing when exporting to any version of prores on a mac.
It works OK when I export Adobe DNG Raw sequence, although 1 min footage does take about 6 min to export iMac i7 Quad, 3.1Ghz
Does anybody have any tips for a good workflow from the card to FCP on a Mac
Thanks in Advance

 

[Brendan]

It does take a long time to export to prores on my Mac book pro 2015 (i7, 16Gig ram, 1tb SSD), but is super fast to export cinemadng. The transcoding to prores really hammers the processor. Cinelight hasn't crashed on my machine though, just took a long time on prores, but very quick on cinemadng.

 

[Richard Hurst]

why bother exporting to prores over .dng. What is the advantages?

 

[InterMurph]

After my USB driver update, everything works fine. It seemed remarkably slow, but I had to go to bed, so I didn't see exactly how long it took.

I have a Gigabyte GA-X99-UD5 WIFI motherboard, and I downloaded the driver from the Gigabyte page for that motherboard (GIGABYTE - Motherboard - Socket 2011-3 - GA-X99-UD5 WIFI (rev. 1.0)).

 

[Brendan]

why bother exporting to prores over .dng. What is the advantages?

I won't be exporting to ProRes anymore. DNG works fine. Only advantage of ProRes I think is potentially a smaller size?

 

[gruvpix]

I won't be exporting to ProRes anymore. DNG works fine. Only advantage of ProRes I think is potentially a smaller size?

ProRes 422 is 220 Mbps, CinemaDNG 750 Mbps at 1080 (or whatever it is), so you are saving quite a bit of space transcoding while not losing a lot of flexibility for grading. Also ProRes is the most edit-friendly codec out there for Mac imo... Those are some good reasons to transcode. That is likely what I will be doing when we get our X5R, transcoding everything right off the hop and deleting original raw files. What would be super nice but unrealistic is having the CinemaDNG profile baked in to Adobe Media Encoder so that we can skip the cinelight BS altogether.

 

[Brendan]

ProRes 422 is 220 Mbps, CinemaDNG 750 Mbps at 1080 (or whatever it is), so you are saving quite a bit of space transcoding while not losing a lot of flexibility for grading. Also ProRes is the most edit-friendly codec out there for Mac imo... Those are some good reasons to transcode. That is likely what I will be doing when we get our X5R, transcoding everything right off the hop and deleting original raw files. What would be super nice but unrealistic is having the CinemaDNG profile baked in to Adobe Media Encoder so that we can skip the cinelight BS altogether.

Thanks, good to know, learn something new every day. At this stage, in my current workflow, the extra storage for the CinemaDNG is worth the benefits in speed of getting the files off the SSD. If I see a dramatic performance difference in premiere pro between ProRes and CinemaDNG then I'll flip it back, with the time penalty in the initial transcode. I haven't seen it yet (actually the opposite on initial grading of CinemaDNG in premiere pro vs ProRes), but that's not to say it won't pop up. Thanks for the info

 

[Vertivue]

How's the footage? Worth the wait? I am considering an X5R upgrade but am not sure it's worth the painful xtra processing time over the X5.

 

[InterMurph]

The footage is fabulous. I haven't had any time in the last week to work on it, but I will eventually post some, I promise.

 

[Brendan]

How's the footage? Worth the wait? I am considering an X5R upgrade but am not sure it's worth the painful xtra processing time over the X5.

I can only speak for myself, but I'm extremely happy with my X5R. I've done extensive filming with the X3, and some brief filming with the X5, and i'm glad I waited this time. The extra processing is fine when you get used to it. It's now adding about an extra 10 minutes to my workflow when I initially pull the DNGs off through Cinelight. This will be longer if you choose to transcode to prores for example, depending on how powerful a computer you have.

The extra processing times are more than worth the effort when you see the results it's great coming home and having the flexibility in the footage after putting in the initial work to get a shot.

 

[RobertKaplan]

It does take a long time to export to prores on my Mac book pro 2015 (i7, 16Gig ram, 1tb SSD), but is super fast to export cinemadng. The transcoding to prores really hammers the processor. Cinelight hasn't crashed on my machine though, just took a long time on prores, but very quick on cinemadng.

Hello, my macbook pro (i7, 2,6Ghz, 8Go DDr3) crashes when i try to convert to Prores (my Imac 5K, 32Go DDR doesn't). Maybe i should upgrade DDR to 16Go? Did you convert 4K with your MBPro?
Thanks

 

[Brendan]

Hello, my macbook pro (i7, 2,6Ghz, 8Go DDr3) crashes when i try to convert to Prores (my Imac 5K, 32Go DDR doesn't). Maybe i should upgrade DDR to 16Go? Did you convert 4K with your MBPro?
Thanks

You could try upgrading the Ram which I think would definitely help, mine doesn't crash, and I converted 4K, it does take a while to convert the 4K though. My Mac book pro is a 15inch retina one maxed out on specs. Are you running an SSD as well? I have a 1TB SSD in the machine.

 

[RobertKaplan]

You could try upgrading the Ram which I think would definitely help, mine doesn't crash, and I converted 4K, it does take a while to convert the 4K though. My Mac book pro is a 15inch retina one maxed out on specs. Are you running an SSD as well? I have a 1TB SSD in the machine.

Yes, i'm running a ssd, too. Maybe my graphic card is involved, it's a Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 Mo, don't know if it's enough...

 

[Brendan]

This is my setup

 

[RobertKaplan]

Thanks. I'm afraid the graphics are the reason why you have better results. I wonder if it's worth upgrading to 16Go...