FCPX holding my timeline hostage; need a negotiator

[Jeremy Garchow]

What reader are you using now?

Also, can you give me an exact rundown of what happened? I confused if you imported from the card or hard drive.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Mark Suszko] “I did things the “safe” way, outlined above, but still, FCPX somehow got confused and refused to recognize the media unless it was the live p2 card.”

By the way, this is what I mean. Drag the folder that holds the P2 media on your A/V drive like this:

Or do it from a Finder window like this:

Then choose File > Import > Reimport from Camera/Archive.

You’ll get a warning like this:

Click Continue.

You should see a little white clock on the bottom of each clip while it reimports.

You have to add the folder to favorites, though, or else this doesn’t work.

[Bill Davis]

I don’t actually use Apple’s Disk Archive – tho I have and it works fine.

I mostly use Andreas Keil’s excellent free utility: Create Disk Image – to make standalone Sparse Disk Bundles.

I like them because they make superb archives that can be cloned for multiple safety backups and when double clicked, mount exactly like a drive volume, so X sees them and instantly re-links to the involved storylines.

SCDI is here if you want to check it out: https://www.spherico.de/filmtools/

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Bill Davis]

FCP X is most happy reading “mounted volumes.”

This allows it to operate well in networked systems.

A folder full of files is not a mounted volume.

It may work that way, but it’s not the first place the software looks.
(Also consider that a mounted volume is ALWAYS on the root level – the desktop. A folder of files can be 5 levels deep today, and six tomorrow after a desktop cleanup. The files can be anywhere!)

X is a database. Knowing where things are is critical to any databases operations. That’s why I think systems like disk archives and sparse disk bundles are the “easiest” way to work with X. No matter where the files are stored (hidden!) when the volume mounts, X can locate them in an instant.

YMMV.

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Jeremy Garchow]

I find in a networked environment, disk images don’t do much but cause pain, especially when sending out to other facilities for collaboration, and restoring media in case of loss, disaster, or a simple mistake.

I also don’t rewrap (although P2 forces a rewrap). With MXF coming in natively to FCPX, there’s less and less reason to use .mov, and therefore, less and less reason to make a disk image. Each MXF file is accessible to every computer. If something breaks or dies, all you have to do is go get the original media from backup (just the clips you need, not the entire card structure). Almost every other NLE or finishing device can read MXF files in all camera codecs, and this allows direct access to media instead of making yet another copy of media that is harder to track and subsequently remake (as Mark is seeing) in the case of disaster.

This is not discounting making disk images. That’s a fine way of backup, but I prefer having direct access to the media that I can see on either a very large storage system, or from a list of catalogued archives. I can search for “ABCD1234.MXF” across what represent over 200TBs of media a lot easier than I go find a disk image, restore that disk image, and find the file or two that I need from a 128GB Disk Image (and hope that’s the right one).

[Bill Davis]

[Jeremy Garchow] “This is not discounting making disk images. “

I understand Jeremy.

If someone is in a sophisticated enough operation to have large shared storage issues, Sparse Disk Images are more hassle then they are worth Post 10.0. Particularly since you’ll already probably have facility level file back up going.

I agree Disk Images work best for solo practitioners and very small teams. Not networked operations. Which is how I read the OPs status.

I might be wrong.

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Mark Suszko]

(sitting here furiously scribbling notes)

Please, do go on: I’m learning a lot from this discussion.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Mark Suszko] “Please, do go on: I’m learning a lot from this discussion”

Sorry, I should have drawn an arrow to the “favorites” section on those import windows to represent the drag and drop you have to do.

I updated the images in my last post: https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/344/39120

If this method doesn’t work for you, please let me know.

[Craig Alan]

FWIW I have found that when FC can’t read a copy of a P2 card, that if I copy the copy back onto an empty P2 card and then let a P2 camera read the contents (clips) and then reimport the card back into FC. FC will be able to read it and import the clips. The camera will initially give you an error message but if you ignore this it will rewrap the P2 footage in a form it can play back.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Jeremy Garchow]

Importing in to a new library also usually works.