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Reference Movie with XDCAM and FCP7
Greetings. I’ve always been a fan of using reference movies to multitask. I’m not a fan of the SHARE feature in FCP7, it seems very slow. So I’m working with XDCAM EX footage for the first time, have sequence set to render to ProRes. I completely render a 4-minute cut and try to export a reference movie and…it takes forever. I’m used to REALLY fast creation of reference movies.
Is this a format issue or an FCP7 issue?
Thanks!
Michael Colin
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18 Replies
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Are you exporting a ProRes reference or XDCam. If you have rendered in ProRes it will have to re-render effectively the XDCam.
Check the codec of the export to see if it is giving you what you expect.
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Yeah, what you want to do is export using current settings. If you worked in XDCAM that’s what you’ll get with no transcoding.
Non-linear: all the time and nothing but.
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If you are exporting as XDCAM, doesn’t it have to conform to rebuild the i frame cadence? Could that be what its doing?
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Okay, so I transcoded the XDCAM material to ProRes 422 and rendered. Then AGAIN tried to export a reference movie. Instead of the mere moments I’m used to waiting for a reference movie of this length (4 mins), the sequence again started to back up to something like an hour.
I’m thinking my beloved reference movie function has been hamstrung in FCP7….
Best,
Michael Colin
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What are the machine specs? For me it would be about 30 secs. A self contained rather longer
Non-linear: all the time and nothing but.
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MPB 2.8GhZ Core Duo, 4GB RAM, G-RAID FW 800, OSX 10.5.8
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well, slower than my MacPro 8 core but faster than my MBP.
I don’t know, but it doesn’t sound right.Non-linear: all the time and nothing but.
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[Michael Colin] “So I’m working with XDCAM EX footage for the first time, have sequence set to render to ProRes.”
Set “Render to Prores” in the end is a very little useful function.
And in your case doesn’t works: Your sequence is a codec different than the renders. If you export an Ref movie, FC needs to render everything to the sequence codec. The Prores render files are for nothing.Set your sequence codec to Prores and render to this codec. Then export your Ref movie.
rafael -
Michael
You’re working in a Long GOP based format, which means that each an every clip instance used in your timeline , if altered in any way from it’s source / masterclip, will require some form of rendering if only top re-conform it’s GOP structure based on it’s new state. This is the nature of working in such formats.
If you want to work with such formats in a native sequence and yet still avail yourself of the speed and convenience of reference movies then you need to “fully” render your sequence before export … that includes rendering those parts of the sequence that FCP would not normally need to render for full quality realtime playback. You can do that by ensuring that all render options are checked under the Sequence > Render submenu including “Full”. If and when you set your sequence’s render codec to ProRes, what you are doing is specifying an interim working codec for the purpose of speeding up your timeline workflow during the editing stage … but when you come to master/export then those interim render files are expunged and your entire sequence will be re-rendered / re-conformed to your target output format as appropriate.
I agree with Rafa, if you really want to export reference movie’s then your better bet is to work with your native XDCAM clips but in a ProRes timeline (ie not a native XDCAM timeline).
Best
Andy -
something is off the rails here. The footage is supposed to in ProRes BEFORE it gets into a timeline. Otherwise a lot of rendering is in the offing.
Non-linear: all the time and nothing but.
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