-
Conversion of 59.94 footage for FCP 7
I am going crazy trying to work on this project for work. It has been going super slow for me, and I’m having to render like a maniac. The footage is 1920 x 1080 and 59.94. I started to transcode the footage to bring the frame rate down to 29.97, but it was taking forever. So I’m just using the raw footage on a 59.94 sequence. I’m not even sure which aspect is making it so slow and hard to work on. Any advice on how I can make this footage workable without having to be rendered every 5 seconds? Thanks!
-
6 Replies
-
Well, what format of footage are you working with? What codec? H.264? Or did you convert it to ProRes? FCP only works with FCP codecs. And what are your sequence settings? If you drop a clip onto the timeline and you need to render, that’s the first clue that something is wrong, and you need to stop before you proceed. You shouldn’t have to render. Your sequence and clip settings should match.
But know that FCP and 1080p60 isn’t supported. It’s a very non-standard format, and FCP 7 (discontinued for 3.5 years now) only works with standard formats and frame rates. 720p60 is a standard format, 1080p60 is not.
It’s also a high data rate, and needs a fast drive to play off of. Where is this footage stored, and how is it connected?
[Lynne Stewart] “So I’m just using the raw footage on a 59.94 sequence. “
That is most likely your answer. FCP isn’t designed to work with camera raw footage…Premiere Pro is, FCP is not. It must be transcoded to an editing codec…ProRes 422.
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Hey, thank you so much for responding! Well I started to convert the media again to apple pro res 422 HD at a much lower frame rate. It was H.264. I kept it at 1920 x 1080 though, I hope that’s ok. I am working off a powerful drive, but that wasn’t enough. I originally had the sequence at 59.94 to match the footage, but I’m going to change it to a lower frame rate as well. Hopefully this works.
-
Hey, thank you so much for responding! Well I started to convert the media again to apple pro res 422 HD at a much lower frame rate. I kept it at 1920 x 1080 though, I hope that’s ok. I am working off a powerful drive, but that wasn’t enough. I originally had the sequence at 59.94 to match the footage, but I’m going to change it to a lower frame rate as well. Hopefully this works.
-
Yup. You got it. That’s exactly what to do
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Ok one last question. It’s converting the footage, but it’s making it gigantic. Going from MB to GB. That can’t be right. Any suggestions?
-
Sorry, that is right. H.264 is highly compressed…also one of the reasons it’s difficult to edit, because of that high compression. ProRes has a higher data rate, and makes it easier for editing. Yes, it does increase the file size significantly.
FCP cannot edit H.264 natively…if you need that, you should look at Adobe Premiere Pro…it can. But you do need to have a lot of resources on your computer to allow it to do so…lots of RAM (minimum of 16GB), a good graphics card that enables CUDA (PPro utilizes the graphics card for much processing, FCP does not)…and very fast processors.
FCP doesn’t need tons of resources because it requires the footage to be converted to a managable format. But you will need drive space. Get a bigger hard drive. They are pretty darn cheap…compared to what is needed to make PPro happy.
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up