FCP7 Process/Workflow Redux

More for the FCP P/W FAQ...

So now that I've installed the XDCAM HD plugin V 1.2 for MacOSX 10.5.8 (I have more plugins installed here than in my Lion partition and hey, FCP7 ain't 64-bit...)

The big question: am I crazy to edit native XDCAM HD 1920 @23.98 or should I balloon the storage requirement and transcode everything to ProRes?

An upcoming project is going to be a less than 5-min shortform 2- or -3-layer edit-- is this too much for a 2.26 8-core Mac Pro? I am doubling the RAM to 24 GB. Synch is of course critical, lots of talking heads.

Wisdom welcome.

- Loren

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Loren-

I did a job two weeks ago that was mostly native XDCam optical 50mbs footage, but at 60i. Because there were six hours of interviews that were going to be carved up into a handful of :20 bumpers and a couple of 1:00 teases I skipped the transcode step and went native. Loaded the footage from the disks and started carving away.

I have a mid 2009 quad 2.66, not exactly a speed demon machine. However, I like to think I keep it pretty well tuned and it rarely crashes. However on that job, it crashed like crazy. Most of the crashes seemed to be related to output to my Kona 3. The Kona plugin was frequently mentioned in the crash reports. I tried updating to the most current Kona software (it was initially a revision behind), dumping preferences, running cache cleaners. All to no or at least limited result.

Previously I was not really an XDCam hater, but I have to say both my frustration level and patience were severely taxed by the process of "going native".

-Vance

Hey Loren

I'm about to start a huge series with 2 versions of each hour-long episode.

We'll have hundreds of hours of footage and we are using a ProRes work-flow.

Partly because no-one wants to chance the amount of crashes.

However!

I just completed the last edit (6x 30min BBC series) with mixed CODECs on FCP7 including a lot of XDCAM HD 50. Edited on a ProRes 422 Timeline.

Editing native XDCAM HD 50mbps is not like editing 35Mbps XDCAM EX. Its actually a lot more stable but still with the odd crash here and there. I'm guessing because its less processor-intensive to decode than 35Mbps.


Personally I'd say go native as you'd waste time with transcodes if you didn't encounter issues. Just lower your interval time on auto-saves!

Importantly - If you have too many issues simply Media-Manage the project to ProRes 422 and absorb the transcode time later!


Some helpful settings for editing native for the offline:

Lower your Video Processing Sequence settings to ProRes LT

Make it 8bit and change the Motion Filtering Quality to "Fastest (Linear)"


[This will mean renders will be much quicker and lower storage requirement kept down until the online. However you may notice the quality is also lower - this is just the renders not the actual final quality]



For the pre-grade and online:

Media manage the timeline to ProRes 422 (or HQ if Station/Channel specs require it)

Set the Sequence Settings Video Processing to 10bit and Motion Filtering Quality to "Best"



Hope that helps?

...and I've never had an issue with sync on any XDCAM footage - that was back in the days of bad DV codecs!



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

@ Vance

Hey man I feel your pain - I have found the AJA Kona 3 but especially the Kona LHi is VERY prone to crashing FCP when XDCAM footage is on the timeline.

Lower the sequence requirements as I detailed above on the sequence and you should find it's less buggy.

Blackmagic and Matrox fair better but not perfect either.

I've found that very often before a crash you get weird External Video output - looks like a decoding error - often green with pink/purple split screen and partial image. Or sometimes on shared storage a "looped" clip playing instead.

One work-around is to hot-key the External Video "cmd-F12" twice.

This slaps the video output into working again - however if it continues you need to restart FCP.


Another thing to note - scaling the Canvas window to 25%, 50% or 100% seems to help.

Also setting all the RT settings to "Dynamic" for the offline.



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

Have you considered transcoding to Prores proxy for the offline?



www.strypesinpost.com

We are doing a mainly ProRes Proxy Offline to ProRes 422 Online workflow on the next series for the SONY PMW500 and the Canon 300/305s as we have 100s of hours.

The GoPro footage which will all be transcoded to ProRes 422 from the start as there shouldn't be a great deal and not worth the hassle of 2 transcodes.



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

Ben-
Thanks for the tips. I'll keep them in mind the next time I have an XDCam job. Fortunately the problem child job was a one off. 4 days and done. I do have a client that uses XDCam in EX and Optical on FCP with LHi cards. They don't seem to experience the crashes I had.

I found that the machine tripped most often when I was flogging the timeline, jumping around by mouse dragging or triple tapping the J or L key. I do that alot it seems. FCP and the Kona were acting like a man running ahead of his feet.

Too bad, as I am a big fan of the idea of XDCam optical. I VERY much like the idea of putting the original disks on the shelf much the way we did with tape. You pay a small price in import time, but don't have to do the whole back up to several hard drive dance you do with chip formats.

Yeah XDCAM HD 50 is a great format - actually I prefer cards to blu-ray disc because the speed of transfer is far greater and always I maintain HDDs are fine as a backup. Just to keep proving my point I once again loaded up an old FirePower external 5.25" 1st Gen 8.4GB FireWire 400 HDD from the early noughties!

Anyone remember these?:




My only annoyance about XDCAM is that SONY should have made a real Log & Transfer plugin for FCP7 that can transcode (like the Canon version does) rather than using Media Manager to make offline or online transcoded files.

The LHi issues seem to be less with Lion/Snow Leopard than with Leopard.


Those tips work well for any workflow where you are offlining and don't need max quality but need to cut and render fast. I use it on long-form or when clients are in during the creative part - then whack up the quality settings later or if they want to check that the quality is good.



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

Ben, Vance, Gerard-

Great feedback.

I just doublechecked-- it's XDCAM EX 35 Mb/s, not HD. So that means more CPU.

I always cut in 8-bit YUV on this 2009 Mac Pro. Every time I ingest 10-bit material the timeline goes haywire in either footage playback or transitions playback.

CPU is just not up to it, methinks. Might be the 12GB of RAM, too, dunno, until I double it shortly.

Vance's note about timeline scrubbing- I have seen the "feet behind body" effect. Autosave down to 5 minutes.

I may try it native, or as Ben suggests, transcode from Media Manager to ProRes.

I would select Proxy for sure if I had more than a few hours. I'm thinking I'll be OK with regular ProRes if needed-- this is shortform - and after reviewing this thread I suspect it will be needed.

I client-review to a consumer Vizio 37" through a BMG Intensity Pro card which has worked well for DVCOProHD 1080i30.

- Loren

Today's FCP 7 keytip:
Advance to next/previous keyframes in a clip with Shift/Option-K !

Your Final Cut Studio KeyGuide? Power Pack
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www.neotrondesign.com

12GB won't have any effect on FCP7 - being 32bit the whole app only accesses 4GB in total so its useful for other apps and the OS running in parallel but won't add to FCP7 working or not. If you only had 2GB or 4GB then you might see memory issues more often but not if you have more.



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

I guess that's why 10-bit is problematic in anything but Snow Leopard or higher.

- Loren

Today's FCP 7 keytip:
Advance to next/previous keyframes in a clip with Shift/Option-K !

Your Final Cut Studio KeyGuide? Power Pack
with FCP7 KeyGuide --
now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com