How to perform Firmware update on Sony PDW-U1

8 Responses

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1. Tom Guilmette said

   on March 11, 2009

   Hey Dennis,
   Thanks for taking the time to post this tutorial. I have searched the net and thus far, this is the only play by play video that shows how to update the firmware. I am going to do it tomorrow!

   Currently, this update only lets you write 422 50mbps XDCAM footage to the disk, exported off the FCP timeline…right? Will we be able to use the U1 to write any type of date to the XDCAM disk? Like MP3s, backup software, ect as if I were using a proper blu-ray burner? I hope so!

   Thanks again for your time. Great blog. I check this almost every day.
   Tom

2. Dennis Lennie said

   on March 12, 2009

   Hi Tom

   I’m being told that there will be a firmware update by the summer that will allow DATA write back to ProDisc thus allowing it to be used like any piece of IT storage.

   I will be updating as soon as i find out when that’s likely to be.

   Thanks for the feedback, I’m glad you find Tapelessmadeeasy.com a useful resource.

   Let me know if you’d like to see a ‘how to tutorial’ of anything I haven’t yet covered.

   - Den

3. Tom Guilmette said

   on March 13, 2009

   Hey Dennis,
   Do you know if I can write back XDCAM 35mbps 422 or does it have to be 50mbps…

   A television network I work for only has XDCAM decks that can read 35mbps.

   Tom

   PS. If you wanted to do a tutorial on how to write xdcam footage (right off the FCP timeline using the built in FCP export) to an XDCAM disk, that would be very helpful.

4. Dennis Lennie said

   on March 14, 2009

   Hi Tom

   XDCAM HD 35mb/s is only 1440×1080 (otherwise known as Thin Raster) It also uses the 8bit 4:2:0 colour space. XDCAM HD 422 is ‘Full Raster’ so 1920×1080 in a 4:2:2 colour space.

   You can only write 422 to a 422 capable machine ie the PDW-HD1500. If you want to write back to an F70 or F75 then you have to convert the files to 1440 x 1080.

   To achieve this in clip browser then in Clip Browser select File>Export>MXF for XDCAM HD and this will begin the transcode of your material

   That will convert your EX files to 1440×1080 4:2:0

   - Hope that helps

   Check out the new post on Clip Browser Version 2.5 on Sunday afternoon.
   -Den

5. Rob said

   on March 18, 2009

   Thanks for the post, Dennis. I second Tom’s request for a video that shows how to actually write to the U1. I’m clearly missing a step somewhere between FCP-export for XDcam-try to write to the clip folder on a disk…(via finder or xdcam transfer).

   Thanks again,

   Rob

6. David Giles said

   on September 4, 2009

   Has anyone been able to write back 20+ GB to the UserData Folder? I cannot get it to take more than about 9GB of data. Thanks, d~

7. Dave said

   on December 2, 2009

   Might be like the issue I had with an SD card recently. I was only about to put about 900 meg on a 2 gig card, even after reformatting. Then I discovered that I needed to format FAT32 and not NTSF and then it took the entire 2 gig. Just a thought since this make the disc like any other destination, “allowing it to be used like any piece of IT storage.”

8. Simon said

   on December 22, 2009

   Hi Dennis,
   I’m trying to find and update the firmware on a newly acquired PDW-F70 recorder deck but just cant seem to find the correct menu level in the menu itself … can you help? The machine itself is around 2 1/2 years old.

   Hope to hear soon

   Simon