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FCPX duplicating footage that’s being imported?
I remember being excited upon hearing that FCPX would edit DSLR footage natively (no more transcoding I thought), but it’s not true. It still transcodes the footage; just in the background so the waiting has been eliminated (makes my system real laggy when I try to edit while transcoding). Here’s what’s bothering me – even though I unchecked the “Copy files to folder” option on the import preferences, my footage is still being copied and now I have a new 111 GB folder on my drive. Am I doing something wrong or is this just the way FCPX works?
One of the things I hated about iPhoto/iMovie was that they both duplicated your footage/pictures eating up a lot of space on your HDD. Seems FCPX does the same thing. I know Premiere Pro is supposed to edit DSLR footage natively, but does anyone know if it duplicates the footage as well?
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12 Replies
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On a project I am experimenting on, I moved my original clips to an external drive, and I then deleted the clips from the main drive. Then, in order to “re-link” the media (I had already started to edit the footage), I re-imported the clips from the external drive, with the option to copy the files to the main drive turned off.
In spite of that, FCPX still wants to copy the clips to the main drive whenever I restart FCPX (I have to turn off the copying in the background activity monitor). This seems to be a bug.
However, on material I imported without first editing (and without the need to re-link the media), the clips were not copied to the main drive, properly staying on the external drive.
(I hope that makes sense).
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All my footage is on my external HDD (I keep nothing on my internal), and that’s where FCPX duplicated them. In fact, it made two main folders – one on my external drive (named FCP Events) with all the transcoded footage and a second smaller folder (3.17 GB) called Final Cut Projects (which holds high quality render files) on my internal drive.
As a test, I deleted the transcoded folder (within the Final Cut Events folder) from my external and when I booted up FCPX, it – obviously – couldn’t detect the media, but my timeline and all my cuts were still there (just disconnected). So I quit the program, put back the transcoded folder and deleted the render files folder from my internal drive. When I started FCPX again all my footage was there, but my timeline was gone. I don’t mean disconnected, I mean gone – disappeared. So it seems FCPX is saving in two places – one for the transcoded footage and one for the rendered timeline. That’s quite ridiculous.
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You can turn that auto-copying of imported media off in your Preferences. It’s on by default.
Noah
Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio with Call Box Training. Featuring the Panasonic GH2 and Canon 7D.
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btw. if you guys experience terrible performance you should boot your macs in
64bit kernel and extensions… it helps soooo much…I must say I was optimistic about FCPX but when I first tried it was horrible, I
quitted it after first 15min 🙂 …but as I started setting it up, changed my boot to 64bit
I must say I am really starting to like it, only thing I really miss now is XML support
so I can send my footage to Resolve 8 (when it comes out)… -
You can also turn off the auto-transcoding and it will work directly with your .h264 files. Uncheck “Create Optimized Media.”
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H.264 is not an editing codec. It never was. It is a delivery codec.
It’s best to create media and edit with an editing friendly codec. This is true in premiere pro too. Get a hundred shots in H264 in a timeline and it will choke, especially if you mix codecs.
David
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Believe me. Everything is a lie. -
[Michael Largé] “I remember being excited upon hearing that FCPX would edit DSLR footage natively (no more transcoding I thought), but it’s not true. It still transcodes the footage; just in the background so the waiting has been eliminated (makes my system real laggy when I try to edit while transcoding). Here’s what’s bothering me – even though I unchecked the “Copy files to folder” option on the import preferences, my footage is still being copied and now I have a new 111 GB folder on my drive. Am I doing something wrong or is this just the way FCPX works? “
If you want to edit natively without transcoding, you need to turn transcoding off in the preferences. By turning off “Copy files to event folder”, you’re just stopping it from copying the original files over. If you leave transcoding on, FCPX will still transcode them and place them in an “optimized media” folder. If you have both turned off, FCPX will edit the original files natively and leave them wherever they are. This can be dangerous as you might inadvertently delete them (for instance, if they’re still on your camera card). Despite native support, it’s still advisable to convert any H264 files to ProRes422.
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Dumb question but, how do you boot in 64bit kernel?
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[Jean-François Robichaud] “Dumb question but, how do you boot in 64bit kernel?”
When you boot up your mac, hold the 6 and 4 keys down.
[David Battistella] “It’s best to create media and edit with an editing friendly codec. This is true in premiere pro too. Get a hundred shots in H264 in a timeline and it will choke, especially if you mix codecs.”
Are you saying that PrP 5.5 doesn’t edit DSLR (h.264) footage natively without running into severe lag trouble?
[Stephen Bakopanos] “If you have both turned off, FCPX will edit the original files natively and leave them wherever they are. This can be dangerous as you might inadvertently delete them (for instance, if they’re still on your camera card). Despite native support, it’s still advisable to convert any H264 files to ProRes422.”
I don’t see an option to select ProRes422 in the prefs. I only see boxes for transcoding. I’m assuming FCPX automatically uses that codec?
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Anyone know if PrP 5.5 slows down when editing h.264 footage natively?
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