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XDCAM Proxy files and FCP 6?
I recently purcahsed FCP Studio 2 for a directing job that I am doing. One the reasons I purchased FCP 6 was so that I could edit from proxy files from Sony XDCAM. I was told that FCP could handle proxy files with ease. Unfortunately this is not the case. I have downloaded XDCAM transfer utility from a apple site, (I got this URL from a sony and fcp reseller in New Zealand, where I live).
My main aim was to edit in proxy offline reasolution after shooting out in the feild, (short downloading to my new 17inch macbook pro). Then do an offline cut or assemble of the footage which then is onlined on a FCP suite with a desktop set up, high res files etc.
Unfortuantely I have been misinformed, I assume that Sony XDcam files still cannot be used by FCP unless they are converted in a seperated peice of software?
I am a bit pissed I was lead to beleive that one could edit in FCP using XDcam proxy files???
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8 Replies
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The proxy files are MPEG-4 files. Seems to me you could open them in Compressor, then transcode them to a compatible format using the “advanced format conversions”. Match the frame rate you’ve shot, and you should be good to go. I’d run a test first to make sure the timecode of these copies match the TC of the MPEG files before you spend real time editing so the online goes OK.
Jerry
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Your information was clearly rubbish I’m afraid, there is no practical way to use the proxy files in FCP at all. Only thing you can do is to get a large firewire drive and use the XDCam HD files themselves, otherwise buy another NLE that does use the proxies, I believe Avid does although I’m not sure if the Xpress version does.
Steve Connor
Adrenalin TelevisionHave you tried “Search Posts”? Enlightenment may be there.
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The XDCAM file are about the same size a DV = 3.6 mb a second that’s about 30 gig for each hour. You could fit 8 hours of footage on a 250 gig hard drive. Just edit the native XDCAM files then take your project and hard drive to an FCP online bay and finish the project.
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Thanks for that, will give this a try. But hopefully Apple will get this working without the need to convert. I can do a trans code using quicktime, but the timecode get reset when the new QT movie is created.
Peace
Brett C -
yes, you’ve been misinformed.
if you want a offline/online workflow using proxies as the offline then you’re best to use a different NLE … it can be achieved with FCP but I wonder whether the workflow is worth the trouble.
not surprisingly, Sony’s own NLE, Vegas, is said to have excellent support for proxy editing with background conform to high res. alternatively, GVG’s Edius offers spectacular integration :- you import the proxies and can edit with them directly and then conform a timeline to the high res media at a later time, or set a background process to load the associated high res media, and automatically replace the proxies (in the bin and any instance in the timeline) whilst you continue to edit … its quite seamless.
unfortunately Apple are not so open with their applications, however, that does mean FCP maintains a clean, uniform and stable interface where other NLE’s may not.
if you are hell bent on a proxy based workflow there are a number of things to be aware of:
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Don’t hold your breath waiting for FCP to use the proxies, if it could be done easily it would be done by now.
Steve Connor
Adrenalin TelevisionHave you tried “Search Posts”? Enlightenment may be there.
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Apple’s reasoning is that XDCAM files are about the size of DV files, of which, are somewhat small to begin with so why edit proxies when you could just do the online edit.
I realize this seems crazy and a little outlandish compared to other NLE’s but that’s Apple’s stand on it.
You could always import the video and convert it to a lower quality and use that for editing and your higher quality would already be there. Just a thought.
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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com
https://blogs.creativecow.net/waynecarey -
ya, i just did my first shoot on XDCam this week and thought about trying the super dinky proxies for an “offline”, but like we all see, the full-size XDCam files are already dinky and are handled quite well in FCP 6.0.1.
my only problem so far with the XDCam stuff is that when i open XDCam Transfer (from File/Import), it takes quite awhile for all the proxy thumbnails to show up in the window (150-200 clips per disc), and then when i highlight/select them all to import, i repeatedly get several clips skipped that do not transfer over to my hard drive, and thus into FCP. the manual states that “only one file at a time may be copied to or from the disc,” so are they serious in that i would have to sit here and select one, import it, select the next one, import it, etc.????
at this point my workaround is to just try to figure out which ones did not import and go grab them individually, but i’m guessing i’m missing something here (as usual). also, most of the clips import with the clip naming convention i gave them on the camcorder (sequentially numbered after “filename”), and yet some have the generic clip name that starts over at “0” on each disc (which thus yields files on different discs having the same name as files on other discs….
thanks again!
mh
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