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I am capturing files in FCP 7 for client who is using FCPX, will they work?
Hi, I just got a frantic phone call from someone who has HDV tapes (Z1) and needs to get them into FCPX. They dont have a HDV deck, luckily I do. I have FCP 7 & Premiere but not FCP X.
I am currently capturing the tapes, will they be able to import them into FCPX?
If not I can transcode them to ProRes. For this footage I would imagine LT would be more than sufficient?
I am going to use MPEG Streenclip to transcode them (slightly easier to use than compresser. I am planing on giving them 1440×1080 (unscaled) prores files and deinterlace the video. Can FCP X handle these?
Ben
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Ben Edwards – Freelance Picture Editor
https://www.funkytwig.comi5 550, Windows 7 / Mac Lion, Nvida 550 Ti, 8GB Mem
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5 Replies
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Shouldn’t be a problem. But I’d go ahead and transcode them. Why don’t you download the 30 day trial and see how the hdv tape import works?
Why are you deinterlacing? That can’t do anything but lower the quality of the image. There’s always exceptions, but I’d say generally if you have interlaced footage at all then you edit in a 1080i or 720p60 sequence to preserve all temporal quality. Any p30 or p24 footage mixes in perfectly, even into a 1080i sequence (which 7 can’t do correctly) and then you’ll have the best quality master possible. THEN deinterlace on output to various formats. For example if you create a 1080i master, you then can deinterlace an output of that for YouTube, and broadcast a 1080i master. Or even deinterlace the whole master if you want. But once you deinterlace that footage, that temporal quality is lost and there’s no easy path back.
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You’ll be fine.
X is reasonably “format agnostic” when it comes to import. There are some exceptions generally around formats that have oddball compression schemes, but if you’re transcoding to ProRes elsewhere before you import – X LOVES ProRes. It’s the programs “native” format.
Too bad you aren’t running X directly. It does really nice capture and encoding from all sorts of sources directly on import without the need for any mezzanine encocding or transcoding steps.
But whatever quality your transcodes have – X should maintain that without a hiccup.
Oh, and I second the idea of not messing around with de-interlacing. No reason to toss out half the temporal resolution until the editor is sure thats necessary at a later stage.
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FCPX can read AVCHD files, though it will want to create optimized media. If you digitize the video into FCP7, you’ll be able to import those clips into FCPX no problem.
However, if you want to transcode them first, be sure to use Pro Res 422, and not LT because LT is not considered an “optimized” codec in FCPX.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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Thanks andy, veery useful answer.
Ben
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Ben Edwards – Freelance Picture Editor
https://www.funkytwig.comi5 550, Windows 7 / Mac Lion, Nvida 550 Ti, 8GB Mem
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The files will import just fine BUT if you capture with FCPX, then the date and time information is maintained, while that information is lost forever if you capture with FCP7. With FCPX both the names of the files and “content created” will indicate the precise time and date when the footage was actually filmed, not merely when it was captured into the computer. (This applies to tapes recorded by the EX1 but I suppose it applies to the Z1 too). Probably this is not important in your case but it might be good to know.
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