Too Much rendering

Hi this is my first post here.

I know I have probably done something dumb but...

I am editing a promotion video for a band.

I shot with two cameras. One was that new Sony HD camera and the other was my own Sony TRV 940.

The bulk is of the footage was done with the HD camera and I just used the second camera to give myself a few more options but there is not that much stuff in the regular DV format that I really need.

The problem I am having is that even though I have the sequence set to match the format of the HD footage FCP wants to render every time I put a new clip in the timeline even though the format of the footage is HD and the format of the sequence is HD and I have no effects on the footage at all.

This can't be right can it?

I hope it isn't because this is really slowing the editing process down.

I would be sincerly grateful to any kind soul that can tell me what I am doing wrong.

There are several things to take into consideration with HD. There are something like 18 different recording formats for HD, so it's possible that you are using two different but similar formats. If even one of those things doesn't match, it could be causing FCP to want to render.

Open up the clip properties of one of your HD clips (CMD+9). Take note of the frame size, the frames per second, the codec you recorded the footage (remember, if you shot it in HD and digitized it in DV then you have DV footage, not HD). Now make sure that each of those things match on your sequence settings (CMD+0). If not, change the sequence settings to match the clip settings, but make sure that there is no video in the sequence when you do as FCP will not register the changes in a timeline that already contains footage.

Andy

Andy Neil wrote:

> but make sure that there is no video in the
> sequence when you do as FCP will not register the changes in a
> timeline that already contains footage.

Thank you!

That last sentence was the key.

I thought the new settings that I was entering into the sequence I was working on were taking but they were not.

I would be nice if you could enter the settings after the fact.

I made a new sequence with the right settings and copied the edits from the sequence I had been working on into it and I seem to have gotten rid of the problem.

I guess a nice feature that would be relevant to a lot of people would be if one could select a clip in the bin then open up the sequence settings window and find a button that said "make settings from selected clip".

'Twould be quick and fool proof.

Also FCP lets you think you are entering new settings data into the settings window of sequences containing clips and not only does it let you enter the data and if you close and reopen the settings you will see the new settings you have entered forever after. Since this means that you can't believe what you see in the sequence settings pane I guess I would have to call this a bug.

> 'Twould be quick and fool proof.

Don't know about foolproof, but it's probably a convenient thing to have. The danger is that it may encourage certain people to stop checking their settings -- a perilous habit indeed. Checking Scratch Disks, User Preferences and Capture Settings are essential for every session -- even if you just used the station the night before.

derekmok wrote:
> The danger is that it may encourage certain
> people to stop checking their settings -- a perilous habit
> indeed.

I don't really see the connection here.

Not all of the media we use is actually captured with FCP.

Good work habits are great but I don't think leaving sensible features out of the program necessarilly encourages them.