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MXF into Final Cut pro and/or FCE HD
Hi, I hope this is in the right section to ask!!
I have a couple dilemas due to now shooting with Cf cards where the same clips are for 1.st Broadcast so all shot 50Mbs, used as Sport highlights and 2ndly to be used as clips edited for Individual DVD’s..
The footage comes back on External drives for the Dvd’s side to be Edited..
I have moved from Mini DV…With FCE.
And now use the Camera Canon Xf305, CF Card with MXF.
So two Macs are Final Cut Express only 1 OS 10.5 +
Also I have MPB Snow Leopard, with both Final Cut Express and FCPro…
I would like to be able to edit the footage on both FCE (if that is poss) and also on FCP on the MBP…
That said what would be the best way to do these projects, which would be the best method and work flow ( I have watched tutorials for P2 cards and the use of Native and pro res etc ).
I am really new to this and to ‘log and Transfer’ and have no luck as yet, or to use Stream Clip etc.
The Clips that I am to use are on the External drive I can watch through VLC player and are MXF.
Each Clip are of a Major Position on a course where many different numbered Riders come past( upto 150 of them ).
They often don’t run in order of number, I need to Know if It’s best to rename/ Re-number each clip to match the riders numbers ( they do have notes of which clip is which number correctly about 90% of the time ) so to do this on the external drive so when they are brought into Final Cut etc I will have all clips relating to that Riders Labeled Number, so that particular number and every thing that relates to it will be then ready for editing..This also helps when sharing projects with others to do..I now need to Know ( And Most Importantly ) the best method to get these clips into Final Cut as each Finished Project will be 20 mins long and be for DVD.
I have read I should Use the likes of Stream Clip so as to save Render Time, which is important as there are batches of 10 projects Importing each time. So knowing whether the LOG and Transfer method to be followed instead is to be better, and whether to do so as Native or no? and whether as ProRes 422 or 422 (LT)…Or to do conversion first with an app like Stream Clip ( if that works ) and then Import as Mpeg 2 1st into Final Cut .. or letting Log and Transfer be the Method to do my batches of 10 or so projects, remembering each contains 9 or so clips to be edited for every project..
I hope I have explained my confusion without confusing the reader, I am at my wits end as I have the Driver From Canon and I haven’t managed to get 1 clip yet inside Final Cut as not recognised…I really need some pointers to which route I need to Tackle…The ‘Log Transfer’ or Importing after coding..??
Many Thanks in Advance……..Brimm
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6 Replies
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You need to install the Canon MXF Log and Transfer software. Either comes with the camera, or something you need to download from their site. And then you need to use Log and Transfer in Final Cut PRO…not Express…this camera does not work with Express…and use this workflow:
Tapeless Workflow for FCP 7 Tutorial
Once converted to ProRes, you might be able to work with the footage in FCE…
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Brimm, use the Canon XF Utility to label your clips. Then use the Canon FCP utility to bring them into your project. You do not have to transcode to use the clips. You can bring them in “native”. Yes, this is one of the formats that Apple supports natively. There’s a dropdown in the L&T plug in that allows you to choose that, or you can transcode if you wish. Take a look.
Once there, you can see that you have your logging data maintained, and in the right format.
Hope this helps.
Alf
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Thankyou for the quick response, ans the Screen Shots.
I wanted to know that because they (MXF Clips) are destined to be added to the timeline and put alongside already imported assets of .movs movies with music also already self contained, and that as so many different projects are to be done which then in turn are destined to be burnt to DVD obviously with their individual edited MXF and .Movs ( mentioned above ) for export as individual projects…
What would be the best of all the ways for A) Quality B) Quickness for render.
So to sum up are you saying only Log and Transfer is the way forward for these many many projects or there is a better conversion format to work with within my Final Cut.. And once deited what should I be exporting them out as I imagine they will be then compressed for DVD.
I have asked alot of Info from you that I know!!!I just want to adopt the most time saving and quality saving direction.
Before I was stuck with just the option of trying in FCE.
A whole different topic is what I should ultimately do as regards to the 3 desktops, as they are Xenon Intel Macs but cannot run FCP…They were fine when every thing was Mini DV, but literally in the last 3 Shoots we have adopted the Cf Card Filming/Capture so as to conform with Broadcast standards as well as the DVD Outlet. The Broadcasters also get the footage edited on Windows Based Editing Software…
Thanks for your time, and with the help..
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Thankyou, I had watched the Tutorial before and it is very informative.
I admit to still being a little confused as to whether ( Remembering the end product are multiple different DVD’s ) Have I the only choice of ‘Log and Transfer’ or is converting to another Final Cut compatible format a choice, and if so would it have any benefit for Rendering and Exporting after wards my completed 20min projects.
I Imagine Size, Quality, and what I then compress it with for the DVD’s all factor into the equation that’s why it’s important I have the best all round solution.Going From MiniDV to CF Card in the last 3 Shoots, Using FCE I suppose doesn’t help.
As I said, Thanks for your Help So Far… -
Wow, Richard, I’m just home from shooting a days worth of video, logging now, and not quite sure I’m totally clear on your end goal. I’m a bit new to the MXF workflow on FCP, as since I bought the camera, I’ve been editing this footage primarily on Vegas, so I’ll defer to others who might have a ‘best’ workflow rather than my limited knowledge. I have brought stuff in, worked on it and exported it, but in a limited way.
If I understand you correctly, you are taking a variety of videos, sort of like a ‘sampler’ of various ‘acts’, then you’ll add markers and export to DVD creating a variety of menu choices on the final DVD? Yes? Or are you expecting to take the one timeline and create multiple renders from it, which it sort of sounds like you are saying.
You can import mov files directly without L&T. And as I understand it, there’s no reason to take the MXF files and transcode, you should be able to render directly to MOV output from the timeline. But I’m unclear as to how FCP will handle a wide array of different types without transcoding. I’ve usually stuck with all Prores or all MXF.
I would make your next step some short test videos, that run your workflow from end to end without adding all the footage, and you should be able to see what happens, time the rendering and get some notion of what works best. We can only give you so much info without you actually trying it out. That’s how I learned this stuff. Trial and error, and questions.
Good luck, and maybe someone else out here on the board has a better idea on this.
Alf
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I have got to the bottom of the Problem RE: MXF into Final Cut..
Your work flow tutorial is great by the way…..
When we filmed on the shoot we didn’t have enough CF cards so we via a Card Reader Took all the Files and Info and copied the info on to external drives.. This needs to be done through the Canon Utility which allows renaming of clips etc, this is an Important stage and there lies the problem, we just copied the whole contents and then RE Formatted THE CARDS FOR re-use..
So now I have a big problem of having 100’s of clips copied from these cards but not through The Canon Utility, I hope I can find a solution to my existing footage..
Worse still we are about to shoot again on a different project which now we have Canon Utility but the most necessary part is to get the footage from all 8 Cameras to correspond to each other ie as it’s sports a Rider has the no. 106 so when the No.106 is searched for all the footage corresponding to that No. needs to show up so it can be ‘Log and Transferred’ into it’s unique FCP project, I just hope this is possible to do..
I hope you can indeed follow what it is Im trying to achieve here..!!
Thanks so far for the pointers…
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