Open format timeline not working for DV and HD combined

Hi everybody, I have FCP 6.0 and I'm trying to edit both HD and DV in a single sequence (w/o tedious rendering), I thought this was the highlighting feature of 6.0, but whenever I combine the two in one sequence I still get render lines for whichever doesn't match sequence settiings...I initially set settings to "open" etc...I have not set the sequence to "match" the initial clips format. Also there is no mention of "open format timeline" in the FCP 6 index, I've searched under the words Format, Timeline, and Open, also the in the FCP Computer Manual Search. Its funny that on the FCP 6 box the one paragraph they decide to explain Final Cut 6.0 explicitly mentions the Open Format Timeline, but leave it completely out of the index.

Forgive me if this was a previous thread for it seems to be a very basic problem, but I saw no mention of it in a thread search.

Thanks, Alwerj

Hi Alwerj.

The timelines in FCP6 are "Open", in that FC6 will ATTEMP preview playback in realtime, without rendering, anything on the timeline that it can handle. However, if your computer is not fast enough to do a format conversion in real-time, it will require a preview render. Also, adding effects, etc. wil further reduce the ability of FCP to play specific files.

A faster machine with more memory will be able to preview more video formats without rendering. How fast is your machine? How much RAM? What sequence settings is your timeline set to?

Travis
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Thanks for the reply Travis. I have a dual 2.5 g G5 with 6 gigs of RAM, it should be quite sufficient I would think. I've tried HD and DV sequences, also my clips are original not color corrected or filtered etc. Also I get a proxy and or/red line render not preview render.

Aloha, AL

From my understanding, the open timeline really works best with the Intel Macs. All others are not quite up to snuff for this.

Which is odd since Edius and Vegas seem to do this ALL DAY LONG with no issues. sheesh.


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Speaking of Vegas, I know Vegas deals with M2T files for HD, I have the Sony HVR-DR60 which much to my dismay produces M2T files requiring lots of time converting to quicktime for Final Cut. Does 6.0 have any new capabilities allowing it to use M2T's in Sequences?

Nope...gotta convert


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I've just been testing it on my Dual 2Ghz G5 with 4.5GB and I only get a bright green bar on some types of clips which would need rendering for full quality but good enough for preview.

I ran 3 types of video in 3 sequences:

DV25

HDV 50i

DVCproHD 1080i50


In the DV sequence both the HDV & DVCproHD clips had bright green bar.

In the HDV sequence only the DV clip had bright green bar the others were full realtime.

In the DVCproHD sequence only the DV clip had bright green bar the others were full realtime.


Alwerj , I think you may have a problem with your setup and/or software as your Mac is more than capable of realtime playback of these formats with no serious rendering.

Give us a full breakdown of your kit and software versions that includes your media drives and their capacity and how full they are.


Ben



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

Thanks Ben, the footage I'm working with is from a Lacie 2TB external, it is virtually full (4 gigs left) but I've had no problems with it. I'm running 10.4.10, and my Hard Drive has about 18 of 160 gigs free. Also I'm using HDV 1080i 60 and regular DV.

Also, just out of curiostiy does anyone know just how much faster the ProRess 422 Codec is at rendering than the regular HDV used in older versions of FCP?..vs. 5.0 rendering capablities for example.

As I've just discovered when importing DVCPro 50 material into an AJA Uncompressed 8-bit timeline, Open Format playback is not accurate. We experienced inaccurate timing in a three-screen presentation and it drove us crazy and wasted a lot of time trying to track down the error-- until the off-format material was *rendered.* into the sequence codec, which took yet more time! Not impressive.

This on an Intel quad 3Gz machine, FCS2, QT 7.1.6.

- Loren
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Ouch - get some of the space back on the Lacie 2TB or you are running the risk of losing it all!

Try to get about 250GB space giving you just over 10% free this is the minimum free space you should allow on any HDD or you will have extremely poor performance and also as I said above could corrupt the HDD and lose it all.

Once you've done that try the 3 things I did (albeit with 1 change)

? Make a DV sequence and drop some footage from DV & HDV on to it

? Make an HDV sequence and drop some footage from DV & HDV on to it

? Make a ProRes sequence and drop some footage from DV & HDV on to it


Set all the playback to realtime unlimited, dynamic quality & framerate and see if that makes a difference to the render bars.

Also go into your Mac apps> System Preferences>Energy Saver>Options>Processor Performance: (set to) Highest

Let us know how it goes


Ben

PS: seriously get some space on that 2TB I will not say I told you so if it all goes t*ts up!

...actually I will - but I won't be happy about saying it!



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Thanks again for the replies, I will definately clear that drive space up. I have actually had the drive down to 1.95 gigs...didn't know that there was such a risk of disaster using up the space. Actually I also have 3- 250 gig drives, 2- 150's, 2- 500's and 2 -1 TB's, all of which I have loaded to within a few gigs of max. cap. I've had one of the 250's for about 3 or 4 years with no problems. Ben do you speak from experience from Lacie Drives? Do you know of Lacie drives falling victim to the overload problem. Prior to the Lacie Drives I had a Maxtor that broke within 6 months. Since then I've stuck with Lacie with no problems.

I'm going to try your recommendations later today, I'll let you know how it goes.
Aloha, AL

>>Do you know of Lacie drives falling victim to the overload problem<<

This has been the topic of much debate before on the forum. The jury is stuck at about half for and half against. Those of us who have had Lacies fail (I've seen four) say it's just a matter of time.

But filling up any drive to more than 90% puts a lot of stress on it. I'd try to free them up asap.

Oh most definately - I lost nearly £100,000 worth of work stored on a couple of Lacie HDDs luckily only one project hadn't been mastered (I say luckily cus there was about 5 projects on it) and I managed to redigitise over a weekend and master ontime for the deadline.

The only HDDs to ever break on me have been lacie or maxtor but this is because Lacie use maxtor as mechanisms thats why almost everyone here at LAFCPUG will tell you not to use Lacie.

Although 10% is the bare minimum I always work to a minimum of 15% to 20% free space as this is a good safe buffer and will make sure your disk is still performing fast.

If you don't use a disk much then having it at capacity isn't as serious - however start using it and shift data around on it and you could end up in a repair or reformat situation.

If the lacies are working for you then thats good but I'd recommend getting some HDDs with Hitachi, or Seagate mechs - even building your own is preferable to using Lacie.

Search Lacie on the forums and you'll see the issues others have had.

Once you've cleared some space try those tests and up your Prcessor performance and let me know what your findings are...

Ben



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

Al -
Your system drive is too full as well.

(I'm just catching up on some old threads now -- Everyone else has probably moved on already).

Matt