Another problem with worthless FCPX

[Joe Batt]

OK, I gave up on FCPX until apple can get it together and update it to be a professional program. In the meantime I'm using 7, but now when I try to round trip from final cut 7 to motion it sends it to motion 5! I lost my ability to round trip through the old software. Oh apple...I don't know why...you would...anyway. Is there a work around that anyone knows about? besides uninstalling Motion5? This program is torturing me without me even opening it. Oh, side note, why does scrubbing just randomly stick on in FCPX and wont let you turn it off?

[Olof Ekbergh]

If you take the new FCP, Compressor and Motion in the Application folder and put them in a folder called FCPX and then put the old FCP, Compressor and Motion in the root level of the Application folder then FCP 7 will round trip just fine.

I have no problem with "scrubbing" or skimming, but it may slow down if you have not created optimized or proxy media depending on your CPU RAM and HD/RAID speed, especially if you have h.264 footage. If on a MBP you will be best off using Proxy for good performance. It is also very good idea to use a fast RAID/HD for media.

[David Chapman]

If you have Motion 4 open, FCP7 will send to that instead. It looks for the Motion open, then if neither are opened, it will open the latest version.

[Joe Batt]

Thanks guys, thats great to know. back in action. as far as skimming goes, I still haven't figured it out. but being able to use FCP7 as usual makes it no big deal! Thanks again!

[Michael Liebergot]

Originally Posted by Olof Ekbergh

If you take the new FCP, Compressor and Motion in the Application folder and put them in a folder called FCPX and then put the old FCP, Compressor and Motion in the root level of the Application folder then FCP 7 will round trip just fine.

I have no problem with "scrubbing" or skimming, but it may slow down if you have not created optimized or proxy media depending on your CPU RAM and HD/RAID speed, especially if you have h.264 footage. If on a MBP you will be best off using Proxy for good performance. It is also very good idea to use a fast RAID/HD for media.

Olaf, one question on Proxy footage and workflow.
If you choose to capture AVCHD and transcode to ProREs Proxy, how does FCPX handle this.
Does it simply create the ProRes Proxy files and place them in a transcode folder, then on output (render) AUTOMATICALLY Swap out the Proxy files for the original AVCHD files?

I always wondered about this workflow, as when I used to work in Sony Vegas, I woudl create Proxy files named exactly the same and work with them in the program. Then I would rename the Proxy folder and AVCHD folder and the program woudl simply swap the files out.

Also I noticed that when I choose Create Optimized Media, that FCPX doesn't seem to swap out the h.264 files for the encoded ProRes files. I know this becuase when I check the media in FCPX after it's been transcoded, it still swhows up as h.264.

Is FCPX supposed to swap out the files in the FCPX Event?
Or, does it simply reference the files and work with them in the transoced media folder?

[Olof Ekbergh]

Michael, if you ask FCPX to create proxy footage it will use that for editing. But when you export you can choose 422 or whatever as your export setting. And it will use your original or optimized media to create the export.

This is how I understand it to work. And my tests seem to bear this out. Proxy footage edits much easier in a MBP.

You can get info about if original or proxy footage is available in the inspector when a clip is inspected in the Event Library. Green means it is there, red it is not.

You can decide if you want to see the proxy footage or original/optimized footage by choosing, better quality or better performance in the Playback Prefs.

It seems to work very well on my MBP even with just the internal drive.

So basically this is pretty automatic. No need to manage footage.

[Michael Liebergot]

Olof, thansk for the info, very informative.

But when you export you can choose 422 or whatever as your export setting. And it will use your original or optimized media to create the export.

How does FCPX know which media to use on export (Proxy or Original AVCHD High Res)?

So if FCPX is only using the Proxy clips for editing and not final export (as it references and pulls the original AVCHD footage), then it renders at what ever quality and codec you select for final delivery (aka, ProresLT, 422, h.264 etc.

What I gather though is that you lose any pre-rendering that may have occurred in the background. As you are not working with the proxy files for final render, and as such it has to pull and apply changes to the higher resolution (AVCHD) files.

Is this correct?

Also would it make a difference if I used ProResLT as opposed to Prores Proxy on a Macbook Pro or 1st gen Mac Pro (2X-Intel Core Duo), it's only a 2.66 quad core.

BTW, I am running Esata out of my MacBok Pro at 300 mpbs. I prefer working off an external drive as opposed to my internal system MacBook pro drive.