mixed format sequence crashes

Hi, I have a DV/DVCPRO - NTSC sequence with .m2v PAL and .mov NTSC footage. All footage had to be rendered in the timeline. I've been working on it for 2 days with no problems then all of a sudden today FCP crashes continuously. I'm working in FCP 6. The show is less than 4 minutes and pretty straight forward, not FX heavy at all.

I've never mixed PAL & NTSC in FCP nor worked with m2v format and feel this has something to do with it.

Any suggestions?

you're using mpeg 2 (m2v) files? You should convert that to DV or dvcpro with mpeg streamclip. Next, you shouldn't have to render anything. Is your sequence setting (apple 0) set to dv/dvcpro ntsc?

Avoid mixing pal and ntsc, Final Cut shouldn't be used to convert frame rates. Convert in compressor or use Natress' standards converter for that.

Wow.

Genius.

Thanks!! You just made my day!

I converted the m2v files in MPEG Streamclip to QT movs and they look great and play without rendering. I also figured out that my NTSC mov files were Animation codec which required them to be rendered in the DV/DVCPRO timeline. So I converted those as well. Now all is as it should be.

Thank you strypes.

And to all - I forgot to say please and thank you in my first post. I don't know where my manners were. I was just a bit stressed out. Thanks thx thx!

Michelle

My pleasure.

Wow. Animation codec are they graphics? Graphics should stay in Animation because they'll look horrible in DV. You'll need to render, as they are huge files, but doing so helps preserve quality. Also, make sure the correct field dominance is selected, as DV is lower and animation is usually upper.

Are those animation clips from AE?

Is the final output in NTSC or PAL? Are most of the rushes in PAL or NTSC? What format is your final output? And what format is most of your rushes in?

Half the source footage came in m2v files from Europe, originally those were put directly in FCP. The other half of the footage came from BetaSP tapes digitized into Avid exported as QTs with Animation compression (I don't know why, that's what I discovered when I sat down to work after the project had been set up). I'm now converting the Animation QTs into DV/DVCPRO QTs. They look good. I'm going with that.

Right, graphics from AE will remain in Animation.

I have been asked to deliver an uncompressed NTSC QT.

Thanks again for your help. Now, back to work...

mvs

> at I discovered when I sat down to work after the project had been set up). I'm now
> converting the Animation QTs into DV/DVCPRO QTs. They look good. I'm going with that.
> Right, graphics from AE will remain in Animation.
> I have been asked to deliver an uncompressed NTSC QT.

Whoa, slow down! Before you go making a bunch of decisions, you have to know where the project is ending up. If you're ending up in an Uncompressed SD, NTSC QuickTime movie, then why are you digitizing the footage in Animation, then going to DV NTSC, then going back up to Uncompressed SD? It seems to me like you're going through two layers of compression for no reason.

I'm guessing the reason you'd captured in Avid (cross-platform capturing in itself not a great thing) is that the Beta SP deck was hooked up to the Avid system.

Ideally, the way to do it would have been to simply capture from Beta into FCP in Uncompressed SD, edit in Uncompressed SD, and export Uncompressed SD at the end. No generation loss after the capture, no rendering during editing, and no conversions necessary at the end.

If that's not an option, then at least you should skip the DV step and convert the Animation files into Uncompressed SD. Is there a reason you're editing in a DV timeline?


www.derekmok.com

It's strange that she's getting animation codec to work on...

The general rules in selecting what codec to edit in, presumably you didn't have a choice in that decision before production:

1) What is predominantly your source footage. This is simple.

2) What your final output is.
If there is a discrepancy between both (ie dv footage to digital beta master, etc...), do not down convert any footage. Either convert all dv to uncompressed or upconvert on export.

3) Space available. When there is a lack of space, you might want to adopt an offline/online workflow. Or if that isn't possible, work 1 level down (edit dvcpro50 for digital beta)


Derek, what is the native field dominance for interlaced animation? Coz in PAL country, i usually get my animation in upper. Is there a difference for NTSC?

Thanks guys.

Yeah, this is a corporate video and will end up on computer screens.

I didn't digitize the footage. It was dig'd into the Avid b/c that's where the BetaSP deck is. I think it was input Animation b/c the director/producer comes from a graphics world and maybe goes with what he knows (?). They do all the digitizing and outputting themselves, no doubt to save money and not have to pay me to do it. (So now they're paying me to troubleshoot )

We needed to get an approval cut to the client that night so I went with the flow I was on and that worked. We'll see if any more problems arise. I might be back!