The Final Cut Pro X Bug List

In FCP X I have opted to edit in ProRes Proxy. When I'm done editing I want to get a version in a higher quality of ProRes eg Standard or HQ. I go to Share > Export Movie, no matter what version of ProREs I select it alway exports at 25Mbps bit rate. The end result seem to be the correct ProRes type but the bit rate is limited to 25Mbps and all version of the export I do all the way form ProRess 444 to LT and proxy have THE SAME file size weird!

If you're coming from ProRes Proxy I don't think changing your export setting is going to help the quality at all. I'm not sure FCPX

Try this.
In FCPX Preferences Playback button disable Use Proxy Media and enable Use Original or Optimized Media. Quit and open FCPX after doing that. Try exporting and see what happens.

I'm just playing a hunch on this but I'm guessing if you're editing in Proxy it's using that for export rather than the higher quality source or optimized media. Changing playback might access that media. I could be entirely wrong on this as it's not clearly documented in the manual.

When you select your output options also look at the Summary tab and see what size it reports. As you change to the different types of ProRes you'll see the file size change in Summary.

The Consolidate Project Media and Organize Project Media functions either seem mislabeled or buggy:


If I have a project located on one volume which references any media at all (be it one clip or many) on any other volume (be it one volume or many), then chosing a function called "Consolidate Project Media..." should surely, by definition, allow me collect all the project's media into one place. Currently that does not seem to happen.

Create an Event on your local drive, and import media files to that event where the media is held on a one or more different drives/volumes and only *referenced* in the Event (i.e. do *not* copy or transcode the media to the Events folder file). Now create a project on the local drive, link it to the new local Event, and then edit those clips into the project.

At this point you have a local project and Event that reference multiple media files physically located on different drives/volumes than the host. Now right-click the project in the Project Library and choose "Consolidate Project Media..." from the context menu. This produces an error saying that there is "Nothing to Consolidate" and that "The selected project and the Events it refers to are already in the same location."

The issue that both the project file and the Event(s) that it refers too are already in the same location is basically meaningless when the actual media may NOT be in the same location as either the project or the Events that contain it. Remember, the calling function was "Consolidate Project MEDIA..."

Next.

Select the same project in the Project Library window and this time choose File menu > "Organize Project Files". Now we get a drop down sheet that says : "Organize Project Files. The selected project refers to file outside the project folder. To copy all external media into the project folder, click Continue."

Aha. Seems hopeful, indeed it sounds entirley like the missing "Consolidate" option. So why is this option not available in the project's Context menu like the Consolidate option is? And it sounds like it is very much a consolidation function so why has it been mislabeled as "Organize" and split away from the regular Consolidate function? Alright, yes "Organize" is much more consumer and iLife friendly, fair enough, lets not dwell ... but click continue and you get the "There are no external files to organize. This project already contains all needed files." error message.

What about all that media spread across all those other drives that it already (correctly) reported as being outside the project folder?

So after all is said and done, the "Organize Project Files" function actually DOES imply that it will perform a basic "Consolidate Project Media" function ... except it doesn't work, and the "Consolidate Project Media" function itself? Well as we can see, that apparently doesn't work either, at least not under certain conditions, and in the most basic sense of the term.

It seems to me that either the "Consolidate Project Media..." function should allow one to do exactly as the name suggests, which would appear to be relatively easily acheived by simply adding the existing Organize Project Files function to the Consolidate options (and making it work) ... or the function should be renamed more appropriately, perhaps "Consolidate Project Media References...". Yuck.

I couldn't export a simple quicktime movie without either getting distorted audio in the exported movie (export quicktime movie) or running into a Quicktime Error:-50 when going through Compressor from within FCP X. Exporting the project as audio-only also resulted in the distorted audio. Levels, by the way, were more than fine in the FCP X project.

Unless this is an isolated case, I'd say there is an audio bug when exporting a project as quicktime movie.

First of all - thank you Jon for starting the FCP X bug list on your blog. Great work! We need to hold Apple's feed to the fire or they'll never wake up....

I found two bugs:

BUG #1: on "export audio" of a project, FCP X hangs on the very last few moments before it's done exporting. Hower, it still exports a playable file. It just never tells you it's done. Buggy indeed.

BUG #2: if your timeline is set to the default "surround" and you cut with an m4a audio file (from iTunes) - when you try to export that timeline, either as an AIFF audio export or as a quicktime movie (set to ProRes), the audio of that m4a section of the resulting file is distorted/compressed/garbled.

My audio exports sounded fine when I set my timeline to stereo. Same m4a file. Only stereo timeline, not surround. There was also no (export) distortion of a surround timeline when I replaced that m4a file with an AIFF convertion of the same clip.

So it's the combination of m4a and surround.

Keep up the good work!

--- Markus ---

here is a picture of what bug #1 looks like:

Now, I don't know if this is a bug or not, but considering the fact that FCP X is all about metadata, I am puzzled about this.

FCP X cannot read metadata from iTunes files.

What's even more puzzling is the fact that all the iTunes fields for music metadata are there, but they show up empty. I imported the song "Happy Birthday", which was purchased on the iTunes store. Nothing was converted or changed. The unmodified AAC file from Apple. And absolutely zero metadata (other than file name, sample and bit rate) comes across. You can look at all the metadata fields like album, artist, genre etc. in the built-in music browser, but once you put the clip into your timeline, the info window shows up empty. You can't even type anything in. Am I overlooking something obvious here?

--- Markus ---

Here's a strange one - your drive won't appear in the list if certain folders exist on it. The poster in this forum thread says folders called "private" and possibly "backup" can cause this issue:
[discussions.apple.com]

I'd be interested to hear if anyone finds any other folders that can cause the drive to disappear in FCPX.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

Only way to make changes on lower third titles is to leave and restart the info tab (CMD4 off then back on). Otherwise my selection of another title block returns to the previous.

Edits on titles are not saved. I'll reposition characters and their size and upon quitting and later restarting am greeted with NAME for the person previously named.

Many crashes when trying to edit those same titles, too.

-Bill Rogers

Coruway Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Many crashes when trying to edit those same
> titles, too.

To me, it seems to happen when non-ascii chars are used, like åæø.. or ä.
FCPX crash every time I try to enter such text..

I think that crash only occurs when you're using a non-US keyboard layout. I can't replicate it on my US keyboard. You may be able to solve it by changing your keyboard format to US in System Preferences.

My software:
Pro Maintenance Tools - Tools to keep Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro running smoothly and fix problems when they arise
Pro Media Tools - Edit QuickTime chapters and metadata, detect gamma shifts, edit markers, watch renders and more
More tools...

Intermittent bug: Occasionally, DV/NTSC footage digitized in a previous version of FCP will import into FCPX minus the video track. The only way to get it to accept the video track is to run the clip thru Compressor. Happened on about 10 percent of clips from a previous project.

Have you tried a simple Save As or copy-paste in QuickTime Player? Then again, if enough clips do this, Compressor could be faster. Definitely fewer operations.

I actually remember this problem from the past...it might have been transitioning from FCP3 to FCP4. Back then, it was audio tracks going missing, not video. I'm suspecting it has to do with QuickTime metadata.


www.derekmok.com

Good call. The Save As worked. The original clips were digitized on FCP 6 and then media managed in FCP 7 (straight copying, no recompression). I figured it was some metadata thing that FCP X couldn't find. Still, its an annoying bug when you are importing audio and video files and can't tell right away if the audio files in your project are actually supposed to have video attached to them.

The ubiquitous, "Quicktime Error -50" is happening in many different situations for many people, yet I can't find a definition.
I have the same issues when exporting from FCPX menu using Compressor settings. Doesn't matter if its one of the stock settings or a Custom one. It hangs after about 3 minutes and gives me the "50" dialog box.
My only workaround is to export a master directly from FCPX, and close it down. Open up Compressor, then drag and the drop master file into it, applying my choices from there.
The only hole (that I can see) in my theory is that SOME of my "movies" work fine when I use Compressor setting from within FCPX. FYI, I never make movies longer than five minutes and they are nothing fancy.
I'm new to all this, so I don't mind anyone exposing my naivety to the world!

(Using 3.4 Gg iMac 16RAM 7200 Hard Drive after my MacBook Pro started to complain when trying to run FCPX. It was used to Final Cut Express.)

And here is another one...

I just applied a simple lower third (gradient center) to a few clips in my project and all of a sudden mysterious hairlines keep flashing in and out along a certain horizontal line in my lower thirds. It looks like a good old analog tape mystake. Creepy. But there is nothing else I did to the lower third. I just entered text and trimmed it of course.

The bug shows up only once the title is rendered.

This is what the hairline look like:

And I found another bug...

That's three in a short little project of 2 minutes of simple cuts with a few lower thirds... No comment.....

In this new bug, certain lower third effects lose all their custom text entries when a project gets duplicated. Can be quite nasty, when you're working on a longer piece....

1) Create a lower third text effect in a project, enter custome text and then drag a few other lower third design/style options from the effects browser onto the existing lower third effect via "replace".

2) Go to the project library and duplicate the project.

3) In the duplicated project all the lower thirds that were changed around with the "replace" function have lost their custom text and have gone back to the default "name" and "description".

Looks like a bug to me.

Here's a picture of what it looks like:

Wasn't able to recreate the "bug" with the Gradient Center title. Something else is going on there, perhaps something to do with your fonts.

However the Duplicated Project loses custom text bug is reproducible on my machine.

Andy

Andy:

I know, my hairline problem could be many things. I am using Suitcase Fusion 3 for example. Who knows... It also didn't showed up until after a day or so. Not sure what changed. However, I am only using default fonts for those lower thirds.

I am glad that at least the dublicate project lower third bug is reproducable. On that note: I went back into my version 1 project today - the one that still had all the lower third text entries yesterday. But today, even those were gone... The lower thirds do however still carry the correct titles (based on my entries), but all the custom entries have gone back to the generic defaults...

--- Markus ---

It's not really a bug but I can't import video without importing the audio as well. I can deselect the audio but it is still there taking up HD space. Since most of my work is done underwater I really don't need countless hours of hearing me breathing and exhaling bubbles. I can go into the camera and exclude audio but I should have the option in FC and I don't. To me, that's a bug.
Another thing I noticed yesterday when working with Ken Stone on an upcoming tutorial is that when you make a keyframe on the last frame of a clip, while it may work correctly, in the Video Animation window, the keyframe icon doesn't always show.
I also find some of the tiny icons difficult to see and often to grab.
I know how to properly type but this whole thing makes me feel as if they moved all the letters around and created a whole new keyboard. Not a happy camper with X
Steve

steve-sharksdelight

I took some time to search for options with the recently introduced XML import/export. It's not really a bug, but bad experience.

Beside the poor documentation it's at least annoying that keyframes, settings, levels are not transported.
The manual is a kind of light-weight.

Quote
FCPX Manual
Important: FCPXML Version 1.0 describes certain project data that is useful for exchanging with other applications. It does not describe all possible data, and therefore is not a substitute for the native project file when archiving a project or moving a complete project from one system to another.

What is 'certain' ??? Where is it explained ???. It's like saying: "For FCPX certain computers are required."
The given link:
[developer.apple.com]
This link doesn't help at all if you don't have experience with XML and can figure out what they mean. So in my opinion it's a kind of 'manual bug'.

Andreas