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Realtime effects are only for DV?
Hey guys I’ve been using FCP for a while now and I really like it. The only thing is FCP’s real time engines just sucks. I get really frustrated because at work I’m using Vegas 6 (an OK editor I like FCP’s features better) and I can import any video be it anything from Quicktime, Windows Media or AVI and I can play it fine. I can mix and match different codecs in the same time line no problems without the need to render. They just play back and you can edit hassle free. Also I can use just about any effect and it plays it back almost in real time. I can stack lot of effects together even five or six without the need to render.
If that wasn’t enough I can even take a VOB file and edit it straight in the time line, granted it gets slow but I can still edit it.
In FCP I can’t even use something other that DV because it makes you render everything. If you want to work with a different codec you have to specify everything in the settings which is really time consuming.
You can’t mix codecs in the time line what so ever. You can’t edit VOB’s or MPEG2.
I got a VOB a made them into Motion JPEG with MPEG Slipstream and I fixed all the settings in FCP, I was able to edit that natively but their was no option for RT and there was no real time filters.
I mean everything is cool I can use Mpeg slipstream to convert to somehting else but I don’t want to use DV to save space I wanted to edit it Motion JPEG but having real time effects in different codecs just sucks.
Am I missing something? I mean FCP is great but only for the codecs it’s optimized for like DV and HDV.
I can’t take videos off the web and do quick edits I’ts completely useless for that.
To take something off a DVD you need to copy the VOB to the HD and then convert to DV just to edit decently(that;’s if the DVD is not encrypted)
Is their I solution to any of this? By the way I have a MBP 2.16ghz with 1 gig of RAM and a 100 gig HD.
If there are any workflows I need to know please help!
Thanks
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8 Replies
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The main advantage of Vegas is that it will play just about any format back.
FCP doesn’t do that quite yet.But FCP has much more mature editing tools.
Editing MPEG 2 and all these wacky codecs is a pretty new thing
to video editing. Be patient.As far as FX go, you need to know how to manipulate your RT Pop Up
for the best performance for RT FX.Are you in Unlimited RT? Dynamic Playback? Dynamic Framerate?
Kevin Monahan
Take My FCP Master’s Workshop!
fcpworld.com
Pres. SF Cutters -
Let’s also remember that these issues really only effect the people toying around. Except in rare cases and the occasional clip, professionals are not ripping dvds, using mpeg2, windows media, and avi at all – and definitely not in the same time line. Professionals are shooting, creating and editing original content. My point being that is what FCP is designed for and that’s why the tools are more highly valued than the toys. The pros might shoot some on digi beta and some on DVCam and some on betasp, but they’re most likely going to bring it all in via sdi and a professional card. The mixed format timeline is probably of more importance to someone ripping stuff for youTube.
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Nicley Put Bret Williams
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I totally understand the fact the most FCP users are shooting and capturing their own content. Thats what I used to do all the time, for that everything in FCP in seamless. Once in a while they do give you stuff on a DVD and it’s huge hassle to be “toying around” playing with the diffenrent formats just to take a little clip off of a DVD. Likewise at Church sometimes I help out and while most of the time we shoot little videos our self’s they sometimes ask me to take some funny clips off the web and stuff like that.
It’s just a little frustating specially since I know FCP has all these great tools. It seems you can only really take advantage of all this in DV, HDV and some of the pro HD codecs.
I really hope FCP 6 will allow all this. Also it’s the same thing with iMovie you have to render everything(yes a least it’s in the background). On the PC showbiz shows you everything on the spot. I think Motion in the only app that will play back most things.
But try putting a weird format in Motion then rendeing out to say mpeg1 (using the export with compressor) it takes forever, as oposed t just converting that file with compressor to mpeg1. it’s the same thing but when done through Motion it takes forever to render.
I love Mac and OS X, Motion and FCP but this things seems to have been overlooked. I’d almost be willing to say your most productive(for basic editing) in Vegas. I mean I had a DC G5 that coast like 2600 bucks and the dumb PC at work which coast 1700 like a year ago(at that time now like 1 and a half ago) could do all these things while a had to render every little effect.
Sorry this is my rant a guess. I will be looking forward t FCp 6 I do expect some amazing things. I guess a must be patient.
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Sounds like you should stick to the program you like …..And just have fun
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If you need to easily access stuff on a DVD, check out a program called DVDxDV Pro. It’s a nice piece of software that lets you chose the codec as you rip from the DVD, it lets you precisely set in/out points if you don’t want to grab an entire VOB. And it lets you do some resizing and deinterlacing. I have a couple of other programs for ripping, but this offered the most control and enabled me to skip recompressing “ripped” mpeg2 files.
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[krisnrg] “It’s just a little frustating specially since I know FCP has all these great tools. It seems you can only really take advantage of all this in DV, HDV and some of the pro HD codecs.”
Yes, because FCP is a pro editor and not made for people to throw all kinds of formats into a project. FCP is fully realtime in all pro codecs if you have the right equipment. DV, SD 8 and 10bit, DVCPro HD, HDV, HD 8bit and 10bit and HD 4:4:4.
If I need a DVD clip, I’ll rip it into the correct format using MPEG Streamclip or I’ll simply play it through my AJA Io LA and capture it at the correct format.
If I need a DV clip to work in an HD project, I’ll capture that through my Kona 3 and up-convert it to HD so it works in realtime.
If you want FCP to work in realtime, you need to make the footage match the format of your output.
[krisnrg] “I really hope FCP 6 will allow all this. Also it’s the same thing with iMovie you have to render everything(yes a least it’s in the background). On the PC showbiz shows you everything on the spot. I think Motion in the only app that will play back most things.”
Don’t expect more prosumer things to be added to FCP 6. Mixed formats in the same timeline, maybe, but off frame sizes and codecs, probably not and really don’t need to see that added. If you want to play with all off sizes and DVD rips, use a prosumer product.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters
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I think I’d second that. That’s the point I was trying to get across. I don’t mean to suggest that the church video work is at all toying around, but you yourself admitted in a roundabout way that the projects that you’re given that give you trouble are to a point toying around by grabbing clips off the web and DVDs, etc. Probably copyright infringed, but usually not going to be a problem in a small closed audience or for a non-profit, etc. Probably doesn’t make it legal, but we all know how it goes.
Apple can’t focus on every market. They’ve chosen to focus on the high end market. The people with the big wallets. Apple always has. It’s probably written in their company mission statement. So I’m sure their R&D is focusing on how to make FCP further meet the needs of Filmmakers, Broadcasters and high end production companies first.
Doesn’t mean it’s not a viable solution for you. Like was said, just hook up your DVD as a regular video source. And as far as other clips go, you can nest them all in their own sequence and render them only once and then treat them like a SD or HD clip in the format of your choice.
Maybe a neat addition to the program would be to permit you to up rez a clip right in the timeline like we do audio, and not have to use an external converter. If an audio clip doesn’t match the timeline khz, you can render that clip right in the timeline, essentiall up rezzing it. FCP then references a new version of that clip, even if you move it around, add effects, etc. Hate to say it, but Avid has been working with video this way for at least 10 years. It’s called Destructive compositing and it’s a GOOD thing much of the time.
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