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h.264 in FCP
Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please can we have some kind of sticky at the top of this forum for people working with h.264 in FCP?
Please?
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FCP and Avid Technical Support
Air Post Production
Shoreditch – London -
24 Replies
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Along with the sticky, when you go to post a question you should be asked. “Are you attempting to edit h.264 files? Because you know thats a dumb idea right!”
**Hindsight is always 1080p**
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Working in H.264 in FCP overburdens your computer processors to the point where you will pull your hair out. Convert it all to ProRes before you even attempt to work in it.
Greg Ondera
http://www.Plexus.tv
http://www.SurgeonToday.org -
When vast hoards of FCP users ask the same question over and over over again it does become irritating, and maybe it is possible to intercept some of those posts with a sticky, but it’s not likely that it will achieve the desired effect of truly circumventing the problem we’re experiencing.
The bigger issue in my opinion is, have the Pro-Apps developers at Apple noticed that there are literally hundreds of thousands of users forced to use workarounds to do even the most basic editing because Apple’s development of FCP is now lagging so far behind the development of mainstream technology in wide use around the world throughout the industry ?
Unfortunately, Apple’s standard modus operandi, i.e. playing its cards close to it’s vest and releasing absolutely no information about current development, has the unintended consequence of making Apple appear to be completely out of touch and completely insensitive to its user base. And, if those things are not true, they inevitably seep into mainstream consciousness anyway, because Apple does absolutely nothing to dissuade public perception to the contrary.
So, the ultimate question becomes, when things no longer work as needed, how many people are willing to stick around when complete silence is the only response they get to their requests for help? I don’t know the answer, but I suspect we’re on the verge of finding out the answer to that important question.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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I don’t blame FCP. And I don’t particularly think it is lagging behind the other NLE’s.
Sure Premiere allows you to work natively with h.264 using it’s Mercury Engine. But you need a specific NVidia graphics card for it to work properly… and even then I’ve heard people having issues with it. And Avid has it’s AMA function… which is great… but you still need to transcode everything if you want to play out to tape or export. You know those things we might occasionally need to do.
I personally avoid all Long GOP formats – even HDV which has been supported for years. I prefer my edit systems to be fast and responsive.
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FCP and Avid Technical Support
Air Post Production
Shoreditch – London -
[Gary Askham] “I don’t particularly think it is lagging behind the other NLE’s.”
It’s not so much that FCP is lagging behind other NLEs, it’s lagging way behind the development of the current popular technology that hoards of people need and want to use right now.
Apple’s FCP paved the way for Sony, Canon, Flipcam, and Panasonic to put a camera in the hands of every human being on Earth, and then they got off the bus and left guys like us holding the bag, having to teach all those hoards of FCP users how do complicated workarounds to do the most basic editing jobs.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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[Gary Askham] “But you need a specific NVidia graphics card for it to work properly”
This is not true. You do NOT NEED an nvidia graphics card to edit H.264.
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Hi,
Gary, just some anecdotal feedback – I spent a few hours testing PPro CS5 on a Mac Pro 8-Core [regular 5770 card, no Nvidia] and it dealt with the .H264 files like a dream.
The same files in FCP on the same Mac literally made the machine puke all over the rug.
If I weren’t in the middle of a massive documentary with precious little time to learn a whole new workflow, I would have jumped ship to Premiere by now for that reason alone.
FWIW,
W.
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I have suggested more than once that there needs to be an extensive DSLR post in the FAQ. All we then need is a sticky saying check the FAQ before asking any DSLR questions and also searching the forum.
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[David Roth Weiss] ”
Apple’s FCP paved the way for Sony, Canon, Flipcam, and Panasonic to put a camera in the hands of every human being on Earth, and then they got off the bus and left guys like us holding the bag, having to teach all those hoards of FCP users how do complicated workarounds to do the most basic editing jobs.”Spot on. FCP 8 should have the ability to edit H.264 natively because quite honestly, converting it all to ProRes gets old in a hurry. Especially when you have hours and hours of it.
Not that we’ll hear anything about FCP 8 at NAB in April. We’ll have to wait until Apple is ready to tell us in their own sweet time and then of course none of will have the opportunity to see it hands on unless you want to go to their wiz bang “national” tour. Try planning your purchases for the next two years when all you get is silence from your primary NLE provider.
I’m afraid FCP 8 will most likely be underwhelming. Could be wrong, but with 10 or so people testing it out (maybe a few more) I’m not really sure who Apple is listening to. Those 10 (or so) people or the 1 million+ registered users. So far it seems they only listen to those 10 (or so) people.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative MediaRegister now for our Open House March 5
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[David Roth Weiss] “have the Pro-Apps developers at Apple noticed that there are literally hundreds of thousands of users forced to use workarounds to do even the most basic editing”
Since when is transcoding footage to editing formats a “workaround?” This literally has been done since the dawn of computer editing systems. Now it is a workaround? When did this mentality pop up?
[David Roth Weiss] “Apple’s development of FCP is now lagging so far behind the development of mainstream technology in wide use around the world throughout the industry ?”
How so? Because it doesn’t work with formats NATIVELY like one or two other NLEs? Adobe and Vegas…thems the two. Avid? AMA allows you to access, but really if you want smooth editing, you have to transcode. SO now that one of the majors offers native editing of footage only if you have a powerful machine and a high end graphics card, FCP is lagging VERY far behind?
Hardly.
[David Roth Weiss] “when things no longer work as needed, how many people are willing to stick around when complete silence is the only response they get to their requests for help? “
What no longer works? What is broken? What worked before and now no longer works? That statement makes no sense. Because it is perceived that FCP should work with ANY quicktime you throw at it, because it uses QT as the main engine for editing…FCP now no longer works? You logic is flawed.
[David Roth Weiss] “It’s not so much that FCP is lagging behind other NLEs, it’s lagging way behind the development of the current popular technology that hoards of people need and want to use right now. “
People’s wants and “needs” don’t always mesh with technology. I want a flying car. Those were promised years ago. WHERE IS MY FLYING CAR? FORD…DAMN YOU! OH, one company does the thing that people want, but only if you get a high end machine, and a high end graphics card…therefore EVERYONE ELSE is lagging so far behind they are useless and broken. You are really saying that?
[David Roth Weiss] “Apple’s FCP paved the way for Sony, Canon, Flipcam, and Panasonic to put a camera in the hands of every human being on Earth, and then they got off the bus and left guys like us holding the bag, having to teach all those hoards of FCP users how do complicated workarounds to do the most basic editing jobs.”
Hmmm…Import P2 still works. XDCAM comes in fine. HDV…yup, via firewire. AVCHD…log and transfer. I don’t see how they got off the bus. Flipcam? Who works with that natively?
[walter biscardi] “FCP 8 should have the ability to edit H.264 natively because quite honestly, converting it all to ProRes gets old in a hurry. Especially when you have hours and hours of it.”
Was it old when you had to capture those hours and hours of digibeta tapes? Import P2? It was old…so what else is new? THis is the way it always has been…why this sudden change of “Well, I used to take all this time to import and organize, but now I want it NOW and INSTANTLY.” You all act as if you never had to do this…as if this is something new.
[walter biscardi] “I’m afraid FCP 8 will most likely be underwhelming. Could be wrong, but with 10 or so people testing it out (maybe a few more) I’m not really sure who Apple is listening to.”
Based on what? FCP 7? OK…fair enough. But they said it would be better. Steve Jobs said so. If you choose not to believe it…go for it…jump ship. And there are more than 10 people. FAR more. I have said this again and again to you and still you spout this crap.
I’m done with the lot of you. You have become a bunch of whiney complainers…and I get enough of that with my kids. Yes, even respected leaders of the Cow are now spouting this stupid crap.
Have fun with your support group.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def
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