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Problems importing footage using an NFS server
I recently had an issue using an NFS server with FCP X. Here is what happened:
I started by dragging the footage from the card onto the NFS server then created a new FCP X project on the NFS server. I then imported the footage into the project. FCP X then gave me the error message “Import Failed: The following clip encountered an error during import and is still referencing media on the camera:”. None of the clips properly imported and the little camera icon was in the bottom left of their thumbnail in the Event window. I didn’t think anything of this as I was able to edit perfectly. Then I went to export and I wasn’t able to export because the footage never imported properly. So I then found out that you have to select the option “Reimport from Cameras/Camera archives.” to import the footage again. This didn’t work. It either gave me the error message “Import Failed: The following clip encountered an error during import and is still referencing media on the camera:” or simply crashed.
After restarting FCP X, restarting the computer, checking for updates, and recreating a hard disk to look like the original card from the camera (complete with folder structure) then importing from that hard disk the same problem kept happening. What was weird is that sometimes FCP X would transcode about half of the clips, but then after crashing and reopening FCP X the newly transcoded clips would still have the camera icon in the bottom left of the thumbnail. When I went to the FCP X project in Finder and used “Show Package Contents” to see if the transcoded clips were being created they were indeed there. So even though FCP X was creating these clips it would not see them after it crashed. I also saw no way of pointing FCP X to these clips. If I could have pointed FCP X to these clips I would have just transcoded the clips manually for this project.
So after this I decided to give FCP X what I thought it wanted. I dragged the project off of the NFS and onto my desktop. I opened the project from my desktop and imported the footage from the hard disk I created to replicate my camera’s memory card. Then voila! I could import the footage and thus export the project. So I found a cumbersome(terrible) workaround.
Has anyone had a similar issue to this? Or does anyone know of anything I can do to ensure that I can import footage while working with an NFS server? Or does this seem like a problem where FCP X just may not like my unique configuration?
***RANT***
I like FCP X’s editing interface, but I don’t like what is does under the hood. Its frustrating that I couldn’t export especially given that I could playback the video. Its also frustrating that FCP X is so fidgety with servers and can have problems if you aren’t importing directly from a camera card. All of these issues are things that Premiere handles with no problems. Sure I could edit off of hard disks, but we have multiple seats here and we’ve invested quite a bit into our server that works great with literally every other program we use it with. I want to use FCP X since it has a lot of great features, but every time I do I run into another remedial issue. /rant -
12 Replies
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Possibly an OS drive formatting issue. NFS is also a kind of vague term- this was on a Mac hard drive? A Network share- over what protocol etc.
Noah
FCPWORKS – FCPX Workflow
FCP Exchange – FCPX Workshops
XinTwo – FCPX Training -
Thanks for the response!
The server we use is a home brewed Unix based NAS which we connect to in the Finder through 1gig ethernet(1 gig works surprisingly well with fcp x). Our IT guy set it up so that I could access certain folders on the server as an NFS for FCP X projects. We used the FAU article about configuring servers for FCP X to do this. https://www.fcp.co/final-cut-pro/tutorials/1197-how-the-florida-atlantic-university-uses-final-cut-pro-x-on-shared-storage
Here are some specs on the server:
FreeNAS 9.3 Stable
Xeon E3-1231V3 3.4GHz
16GB DDR3
4x4TB Disks + 1 Spare
Configuration equivalent to RAID 1+0 (mirror first, stripe second)
ZFS format + LZ4 compression
Dual 1GB ethernet links, bound together with LACP -
I’d be surprised if there’s not something in that share that OS X is barfing on at the Finder level and FCPX is especially finicky on server shares that are not OS-level strictly compatible. There are literally entire integrators and hardware providers out there building solutions to address this very issue- such as Lumaforge and their Jellyfish NAS which is tuned specifically to FCPX.
Noah
FCPWORKS – FCPX Workflow
FCP Exchange – FCPX Workshops
XinTwo – FCPX Training -
So basically the solution would be to rebuild our NAS server using Lumaforge or Jellyfish?
Thanks!
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Well that would be the easy route if you have the budget and need. If you want to make it work with FCPX with what you’ve got I would attack it from a workflow perspective not just straight IT.
Noah
FCPWORKS – FCPX Workflow
FCP Exchange – FCPX Workshops
XinTwo – FCPX Training -
Just looked up Jellyfish…looks like its more of a turnkey solution than software.
Thanks!
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Ok, thanks Noah!
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Yep exactly the point- there’s not an out of the box NFS server that will easily work with FCPX. Not that it’s impossible but if you don’t want to upgrade your hardware you would be best served by hiring a workflow expert to mod your existing setup vs. going back and forth via pure network IT support. They’ll know your storage but few of them are likely to have tons of hands-on experience with FCPX- (and if they did you’d be all set already.)
Noah
FCPWORKS – FCPX Workflow
FCP Exchange – FCPX Workshops
XinTwo – FCPX Training -
Sorry for all these responses…I was trying to multi task at work and failed terribly (I realized I misread your suggestion that Jellyfish NAS is a product of Lumaforge *facepalm*)
Do you have any suggestions for workflow to help with this?
Thanks!
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I didn’t see your post at 1:32:41 pm when I responded.
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