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Can’t “share” project
Started doing a few very basic projects in FCPX to see if it’s worth adopting. Our workflow for Sony NXCAM is to make a disk image archive of the media from the SD card. This is stored on a mirrored RAID drive that is shared across the network. In FCPX, I “Open Camera Archive” from the shared storage and the clips come into the event. Great. I can then edit the clips with a little background “processing” going on. I chose not to optimize or copy the files to my events folder, figuring FCPX deals with AVCHD natively (or so I’ve been told). Editing these files works just fine.
Then I go to “share” these projects. First I choose send to compressor. Pick an H.264 preset, submit, and wait. Come back in a while, “Successful”. Cool. Open the exported file. I get 90 minutes of “Missing Camera”. Wow, weird. Go back to the project, all the footage is still there.
I figure “sending to Compressor” is a little too complex to ask, so I try another route. I choose “export using Compressor settings” to make a DVD. That works just fine. Cool.
So I try that route to make h.264. No go. Missing Camera for 90 minutes (using “Export using compressor settings”).
So I try the “Share.. Apple Device”. “Missing Camera” for 90 min.
OK, well I gotta get this stuff out of FCPX somehow. I choose “Share.. Export Media” to make Prores files. Works fine. Then I open those in Compressor to make my H.264.
I’m confused as to why FCPX “sees” the media when doing some types of export, but not others. Any insight would be helpful.
Thanks,
Gordon
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4 Replies
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Very odd. A few questions:
Where are you storing your events? On your networked RAID?
Are you working with transcoded or proxy footage by chance?
If you export media to h264 instead of prores, does that work?
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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque -
Timothy,
Projects and events are on local storage. Footage is not transcoded or proxy. I’m working directly with disk images (archives) of the camera cards (Sony AVCHD).
The problem is when I export to H.264. No matter what route I try, I can’t get it to work. If I export to other formats (ProRes, mpeg2), it works fine.
It would seem that FCPX doesn’t know how to go from H.264 to H.264 without making some intermediate file.
I realize that my workflow is not optimal. I was just trying to see what FCPX would do with AVCHD over the network. I was surprised that it worked at all. The fact that it works for some formats is promising.
G
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Actually your workflow sounds fine. I, as well as many of us here on the Cow have done many h264 projects without any problems. In fact h264 workflow is excellent in FCP X. So something else is up with what you are seeing. It is either your Mac, your OS, your project, the apps themselves (FCP X or Compressor).
So to help you troubleshoot, what kind of Mac do you have, what is your OS, what version are the Apps. Also when you say you are working directly with disk images, do you mean that you are note copying your files to FCP Events?
Also I’m still not clear if you have tried to “Share > Media Export” and then choose h264 as the destination codec without using compressor. Have you done that?
BTW. If you are in a hurry, you might want to give Apple a shout and they can troubleshoot this on the phone. Make sure you ask for Final Cut Pro support.
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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque -
iMac 21″ i5 4GB RAM, OS 10.7, FCPX 10.0.2, Compressor 4.0.1. This machine also has FCS 3 installed.
Here’s the workflow: Using NXCAM, we shoot on SDHC cards. We use Log and Transfer in FCP7 to create archives of the cards. You can then mount the card just as if it was still plugged in. These card archives are stored on a shared drive. So I’m accessing the card over the LAN. Once I mount the card archive, FCPX sees the card and you can open the card in the “Import from camera” window. There is even an “open archive” button that allows you to do this all very simply.
At this point, I’m not copying any files. The footage shows up in the event like any other footage. I assume FCPX is making it’s alias pointer files in the event folder, though I haven’t checked to see if that’s in fact true.
Yes, I have tried to export to H.264 without using Compressor (using Share.. Apple Device).
I have not tried Export Media using H.264 as the codec. Will try that.
I’m not in a huge hurry. In fact, I’m off until the New Year and will pick it up then.
Thanks
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