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Edit to Tape wants to write video on an already rendered sequence?
Here’s the sit:
I telecommute, working 20 hrs/week at home on my MacPro which has Final Cut 5.1 studio. I then bring finished sequences in to print to video on one of the Final Cut systems here at the office (same version). I use a G-raid external drive to bring home the necessary components to edit the sequences, as well as transport the finished projects back to the office for printing.
Basically, I’ve been using the G-raid to hold ALL necessary files (captured video, render files, LiveType files, audio, etc) for the sequences I edit. When I bring the finished project back to the office, I hook up via Firewire800 to one of the Final Cut systems and open the project from the G-raid.
I’ve lately experienced a problem where, when I open the project with the finished (rendered) sequences on one of the office Final Cut systems, here is what happens:
– The sequences which I have rendered at home appear totally rendered when opened in the office Final Cut system (all blue/grey bars along the top of the sequence). It also plays back as rendered.
– However, when I attempt to Edit to Tape, and drag/drop the sequence to Insert, the system begins to write video as if the sequence had never been rendered. Typically this is taking anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours, based on the intricacy of the LiveType files I have placed on the sequence (basically the only kind of graphics we use for these projects).
– Once it’s done doing this “re-write,” it then proceeds to Edit to Tape with no further problems.The time factor here is the major problem – I’m rendering these sequences at home, only to have them re-rendered at the office before we can print them to tape. We have ensured that my Final Cut program at home mirrors the settings (ALL of them) of the Final Cut programs on the office computers.
Also, each time I connect the G-raid I use to any system I am going to edit/print on, I immediately set up the G-raid as the Scratch disk for all necessary procedures (capturing, rendering, etc) so there is no divergence as far as destination files for working with the project.
Any ideas???
My next step in working around this problem is to see if the project settings for my LiveType files are somehow askew. Last night, after I had rendered all of the sequences I worked on, I checked LiveType project settings on one of my graphics, and the only potential discrepancy I could see was that it was showing “None” for field dominance, when typically we use “Lower (Even)” for our video projects. Would this make enough of a wrinkle to cause another system to re-write the already-rendered video?ANY help/comments/input would be appreciated. Thank you!
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10 Replies
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Do you have a lot of nests in your sequence? I feel it’s related to that. If you don’t, them I’m wrong.
joe
joe
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No … not much nesting. The basic program we do entails 1 track of video, with about a 10-second LiveType graphic every 30 seconds, simple crossfade transition on either end.
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My experience is similar to your own, whenever moving a project from facility to facility, computer to computer, or hard drive to hard drive (even using Media Manager with render files option checked) it seems FCP somehow manages to lose track of at least some render files. My question to you is, in your case, instead of struggling, why not simply export your finished project as self-contained QT and Edit to Tape at work?
DRW
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Yes, I was discussing just that option with a coworker earlier. Since I usually let sequences render overnight on my system anyway, it wouldn’t make much difference.
Question re: QT export – is there a way to export all open sequences to QT video, just as you can render all open sequences? If so, that would definitely be a viable option (no hand-holding to export each sequence individually).
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I should also add – prior to trying to Edit to Tape on the system I bring the project into, even though it appears rendered, I’ve also tried to command it to render the sequence, and it doesn’t do it. It only starts to write the video after I drag/drop to Insert Edit to Tape. Then it’s “write to video” forever! 🙂
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[LadyDisdain] “is there a way to export all open sequences to QT video, just as you can render all open sequences?”
You can use Compressor to set up a batch export, but a straight export from the timeline on a MacPro is so fast that you shouldn’t have to do that. On my aging G5 2.3ghz machine an 86-min export of a 10-bit seq. takes about half an hour. How long are your seqs?
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They are 28:30 from start to finish, and the LiveType files are the major part of the rendering. Once in a while I may have to color-correct a video file, but that doesn’t happen often.
I’ll try a single sequence export to see how that goes – if it’s way fast, no sweat. If not, I’ll try the batch export as you suggested
Thanks a ton! 🙂
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Export really flies. I’m confident you will be quite happy to do things that way from this point.
Good luck,
DRW -
Do you have any hidden (control-b) or turned off layers in your sequences? When you ETT suddenly FCP thinks it has to rendering SOMETHING for every instance you have a clip that’s hidden or turned off…. even though you’ve rendered it….
For over a year we always had the roughcut clips turned off in our online sequences, and wondered why it was an hour’s render for every #@$& ETT we did. Then we deleted those clips before ETT and ZOOOOOOOOOM
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First of all, what codec are you using? If it’s HDV, this process is normal.
Next, if it’s not HDV you still have to make sure that all of your ‘full’ rt effects are rendered before mastering. Go to sequence > render all and sequence > render selection and make sure that all the options are checked, including the full option and all the audio options. Once that is done hit option-r to render all, then master.
Jeremy
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