FCP6-Multi formats in same timeline without need to render

[Steve Eisen]

Based on your system specs and your hard drive speed, you may be able to view multi format clips (DV, HDV and HD) in your timeline without the need to render.
You will still need to render your final output.

It is still recommended to chose one format and either up or downconvert your your footage to match your final delivery.

Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Board of Directors
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group

[Andy Mees]

Well its far from revolutionary as far as such technologies go, but its certainly a good thing.
If you have a hearty machine then yiu can get a pretty good idea of what to expect by simply turning on Unlimited RT. You’ll get pretty much the same thing in FCP6 it’ll just be automatic and far smoother.
Mixing NTSC and PAL certainly does not live up to the hype. In FCP 6 it sucks big time offering a very very poor conversion. FCP5 was far superior in this regard.

[Dom Silverio]

It is fine for previewing your edits. Performance is purely based on the power of your Mac and storage – CPU being the most important.
For final output I would not use it even if you render as the frame rate conversion and resizing is of poor quality when compared to hardware solutions. For example, 24 to 30i seems to apply an incorrect pulldown conversion. 720 to 1080i is soft compared when using Aja or Blackmagic hardware.

[Shane Ross]

I can mix DVCPRO HD, XDCAM, DV and uncompressed 8-bit just fine. I get the green render bar for a few of these, but they all mix and play back fine on my MacPro 3.0Ghz.

Now, if you try mixing codecs not found on the Easy Setup list…MPEG-4, H.264, MPEG-2, Sorenson and any sort of web delivery codec…then no, you will not get this performance. The footage needs to be one that is in the Easy setups, and having a faster processor and decent drive speed (ie not a dinky firewire 400 drive).

Sony Vegas and Adobe Premiere are good for those sort of file types.

Shane

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[Gewan Brown]

There is an issue when mixing DVCPro HD and Apple ProRes422 (HQ) though. At least I’m running into an aspect ratio issue. If I choose to edit in DVCProHD, then my ProRes footage scales but the aspect ratio is wrong (elongated). And visa-versa with starting in ProRes (squished DVC). I guess FCP doesn’t auto distort between those formats.

IF IT DOES, please let me know how to do it. It would be nice to not run into this.
Right now I have an existing timeline I’d like to convert to ProRes.

Anyone know why this happens????