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Apple article on Optimizing Media
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT5294?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Irvine, California -
30 Replies
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I hope there is someway to over-ride the dimmed optimize media for certain formats that FCPX deems “the best workflow” is native.
I like to wrap everything in Prores because I often use multiple formats in the same timeline. Even if not, I guess it isn’t that big a deal. It is easy enough to wrap video into Prores via Quicktime Pro or other apps.
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[Clint Wardlow] “I hope there is someway to over-ride the dimmed optimize media for certain formats that FCPX deems “the best workflow” is native.
I like to wrap everything in Prores because I often use multiple formats in the same timeline. Even if not, I guess it isn’t that big a deal. It is easy enough to wrap video into Prores via Quicktime Pro or other apps.”
Let’s not forget here:
FCPX export is different from FCP7 export.
FCPX now works like Adobe Pr. Everything is recompressed on output. So if you have native camera files, you convert to ProRes for edit, you then convert AGAIN on output, even if staying ProRes. So actually, staying native is saving a generation rev.
Also, if Apple is posting this as best practice, then it might be best practice. Just sayin’.
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In FCPX how well do native formats play together in a timeline that has say DV( which has been compressed from sources like betacam and pixelvision), XDCAM, HDV, and film files converted to Prores 422?
I do this quite often and in FCP7 I found it essential to convert these files to as common a codec as possible if I didn’t want to drive myself crazy. (I also found that Prores plays better in programs like Motion than HDV or DV).
Does PPRO and FCPX work better with mixed mediums?
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[Clint Wardlow] “Does PPRO and FCPX work better with mixed mediums?”
That’s a rather loaded question.
FCPX has more control than FCP7, but I can’t promise a 29.97 SD clip is going to look good in a 4k 23.98 timeline.
Composite converted DV is decently low quality and there are varying qualities of HD. You will have to test and see for yourself. You are asking to scale up a low quality image to over twice the size, and then perhaps change a frame rate or deinterlace. There’s going to be a compromise, I wish there was a super magic “enhance” button.
FCPX does have better controls for this though over FCP7, but sometimes a third party might do a better conversion.
Jeremy
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[Jeremy Garchow] “FCPX now works like Adobe Pr. Everything is recompressed on output. “
Only it’s much quicker than Pr
Steve Connor
“The ripple command is just a workaround for not having a magnetic timelinel”
Adrenalin Television -
[Steve Connor] “Only it’s much quicker than Pr”
Yerp.
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As you can probably tell from my use of a pixelvision camera, clarity of image isn’t nessisarily my first concern. Often I find shooting with the various camera gives me a certain feel (I also love to shoot with a JVC VHS camcorder because of its wonderfully smeary look).
My main concern is that the audio and other things in the timeline don’t go wildly out of synch or output in crazy ways. By the by, I always convert to 30fps.
It just kind of bugs me that FCPX makes these decisions on compression for me. But it really isn’t tha big of a deal, because I often rely on different apps to give me what I want (like Quicktime Pro and Compressor) before I use certain footage in FCP7.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “FCPX now works like Adobe Pr. Everything is recompressed on output.”
That’s what I thought, but it’s not true. FCPX still has smart rendering. It’s one of the reasons I am still considering FCPX, but Premiere seems to do it with MXF files now too.
If you for example drop an IMX50 file as a first clip in the timeline and then export with ‘use current settings’ if your intended output is supposed to be IMX50, it will not recompress. Only drawback is if you use export using Compressor settings or via Compressor, then it will recompress.
I tested this by dropping the newly rendered output in another new project and did this a couple of times. Layering them on top of each other with a difference filter, showed them to be identical to the first file. Tried the same thing with Premiere 5.5 and was turned off of it immediately… but CS6 is a step in the right direction.
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[Geert van den Berg] “That’s what I thought, but it’s not true. FCPX still has smart rendering. It’s one of the reasons I am still considering FCPX, but Premiere seems to do it with MXF files now too.”
I don’t render in FCPX unless I absolutely have to, so if there’s mixed codecs, or effects that will need rendering, upon export, everything gets converted to whatever that output codec is.
I work differently than I do in FCP7, as it works differently. There’s no reference files in FCP7, so everything is recompressed on output. It might have some semblance of smart rendering, but it certainly is much different than Fcp7.
Smart rendering is a Quicktime API spec, and FCPX seems to be using AVFoundation as much as possible.
Jeremy
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Concur – i leave auto-render off and just Share when it’s time – last night I was able to burn a Blu-ray right from the timeline to my Bravo XRP! First Blu-ray I’ve done on a Mac let alone FCPX and the quality was fantastic using the default.
Lance Bachelder
Writer, Editor, Director
Irvine, California
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