-
Bizarre FCP/Episode Issues
-
[Becky Geear] “Should it be taking this long?”
You are “exporting” and compressing in one step. That’s what “send to compressor” does. In FCP7, this is done in the background (worth the upgrade).
So depending on your setting in compressor, combined with the complication (filters/effects/layers) of your sequence, this can take a long time. (usually done overnight, unless you have some hardware accelerator, or qmaster set up)
-Jason
-
Hey Jeremy,
Here’s what we’re looking at:
For this particular video I’m running a sequence with the following parameters. 1920×1080 with a Square pixel ratio at a frame rate of 29.97. The sequence is also set to have a compressor of H.264.
Now as for the footage on this project I was given MTS files without a parent directory so I had to run them through Wondershare to convert them.
After converting the files, I brought them into Final Cut. What I usually do is drop a piece of footage on to the timeline and it asks me if I want to change the timeline to match the footage. This I always do. After editing the video (with nothing out of the ordinary occurring) I exported the video as I always do using Current Settings. If I remember correctly, Final Cut unexpectedly quit once or twice while trying to export. But I was able to finally get a complete file out of it.
It was only after this that I realized I had forgotten to place our end credits on the video. So I went back into Final Cut, added the graphics and went to export again. This is when FCP kept crashing and unexpectedly quitting time and time again. I had finally had enough and manually went through and trashed the preferences. And this is when everything went haywire.
Doing the exact same thing I had previously (and again always) done — I exported using Current Settings and I could not get a clean file. Everything came out completely corrupted and has been ever since using that particular setting.
It strikes me odd that I got a clean video out of FCP once with the old preferences and couldn’t after trashing them. And then this leads into numerous other problems that I stated above. If you have any enlightenment or advice I would love to hear it.
Thanks!
Becky -
Ok, great. Thanks Jason. I figured it might take awhile, but wanted something to gauge it by so I didn’t think it was stalled, etc.
I went ahead and exported a version out of FCP with Apple Pro Res 422 1920×1080 30p and it exported it in its entirety and was clean. No corruption.
I will let you know how the Compressor route turns out.
Becky
-
These exports, Becky, look like compression problems.
Can you please fill us in on your workflow?
Jeremy
-
A ha. I knew it.
[Becky Geear] “The sequence is also set to have a compressor of H.264.”
Problem number one. You should convert any and all h264 files in to a more FCP friendly codec before editnig in FCP. And you should most definitely NOT edit on an h264 timeline.
[Becky Geear] “Now as for the footage on this project I was given MTS files without a parent directory so I had to run them through Wondershare to convert them.”
Problem two. Probably made them h264 files I take it?
[Becky Geear] “. If I remember correctly, Final Cut unexpectedly quit once or twice while trying to export. But I was able to finally get a complete file out of it.”
See problem one. FCP does not handle h264 natively very well at all.
[Becky Geear] ” If you have any enlightenment or advice I would love to hear it.”
Convert everything to at least DVCPro HD but better yet ProRes before editing. Use ClipWrap (https://www.divergentmedia.com/clipwrap) to convert MTS files (yes you will need to pay a small fee for it). Edit on a ProRes timeline. Export that out of FCP, then use Compressor to make h264 files for the web.
Don’t try and use native h264 files in FCS3 or lower versions. It will cause nothing but trouble as you are finding out the hard way.
Jeremy
-
Ha…Becky…this isn’t 5d footage is it? That was the point I addressed in the very first post in this long discussion. You can’t edit canon 5d footage, because it’s h264!! Lol…
Are there software programs that successfully handle compressed file formats? Why would people expect this workflow to work? H264 is delivery, not source…
-
Oh for crying out loud…. Yep, you’re right. It all makes perfect sense and I totally know about the whole issue with H.264. But for whatever reason (probably being overworked) 😉 I simply missed it and it didn’t even click. Even when I typed it. Doh!
Now I can’t remember exactly how the footage was converted because it was almost a month ago and usually I stay away from H.264 upon converting, but it must have slipped since that’s how the sequence was set. Yes?
Light bulb moment. Thank you, Jeremy. I feel completely stupid now. =P hahaha
But I do have another question for you….because I was having problems with another project…. Now in this instance I had to add a graphic to a promotional video created by someone else. This video was given to us as an .mp4. Same issue. Haven’t had much experience using the .mp4 format…so does FCP not like those as well?
-
hahaha….wouldn’t that be something? After all this, “Oh wait……it WAS shot with a 5d!” hahaha…. Yeah, as far as I know it wasn’t shot with a DSLR. So at least I got that part right. 😉
Yeah, now that I feel like I have egg all over my face it was something simple. However, I’m still not sure why I was having encoding problems as well….with it truncating the footage and removing graphics (on a totally separate project). I responded to Jeremy’s last post with another problem I was having (and listed in my original post). It’s a promotional video sent to me in an .mp4 format. Just had to add a graphic. Same exporting problems (all corrupted and wonky)…then when I finally got it out clean Episode stripped the graphic I added and corrupted part of the video.
Is this along the lines of the same issue?
-
Mp4 is essentially an h264 file (mpeg4).
You need to convert to a fcp friendly edit codec, like ProRes, BEFORE you edit.
If you get more mts files, check out clipwrap. mp4 files, I’d run through compressor first.
Jeremy
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up