FCPX proxy workflow with full HD proxies?

[Jeremy Garchow]

Fcpx does not allow reconnection of a subset of externally created media.

If you need full resolution to judge a few shots then simply switch prefs to high quality, judge, then switch back to proxy for edit.

What’s your source material?

[Bill Davis]

[Jakub Vomacka] “I think that for monitoring on external TV half HD proxy is bad choice, although its fine for the fcpx viewer. When deciding on quality of effects (slow motion for example) or clarity of focus of the particular shots, i have big problems on TV with half HD proxies.”

Are you sure the problem is with X’s proxy structure?

If you’re using an actual TV SD TV display for your monitoring, then understand that you might well be doing a conversion to a relatively low resolution and interlaced display. Even if you’re using an “HD TV” most of those are also interlaced and many times resolution limited by the need to display in common TV resolutions. I have a 32″ sony HD display that sits over my editing station so I can get at least some idea of what my broadcast work looks like when it hits a home TV screen – but every time I use it to display a source from my editing system, I have to be mindful that I haven’t “mis-set” it to one of it’s legacy “tv station broadcast standard” resolutions like 480p.

Using such a system for judging “resolution”is as likely to mislead you as help you.

FWIW.

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]

Fcpx creates 960×540 proxy files from 1920×1080 media, as well as knocking the data rate down to near nothing.

This is a true proxy, and Jakub wants a higher resolution proxy.

Currently, this isn’t possible with fcpx.

But, transferring between fcpx created proxies and native or optimized is really easy. It should be a toggle on the timeline itself, but I digress.

[Bill Davis]

[Jeremy Garchow] “This is a true proxy, and Jakub wants a higher resolution proxy.”

I kinda got that Jeremy.

The red flag for me was his mention of the TV.

If he’s using an actual televsion for a monitor, he may want a higher rez proxy, but if he has nothing to display that on but an interlaced TV set – that may be knocking his resolution right back down again via interlacing. So I figured that “might” be important to note as well.

I’ve seen a LOT of guys who hook up consumer TV sets as an inexpensive way to get a “big monitor” not understanding the difference between a TV and a real video monitor.

Jakob might work in Flanders Scientific Land – or he may work in LG TV from Best Buy land. No real way to tell from the question other than his use of the term TV rather than Monitor.

If my presumption is wrong, it won’t be the first time!

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.

[Jakub Vomacka]

thanks for the advice and information to both of you

Jeremy understood exactly what i had in mind.
Concerning the source material: I understand the quality of fcpx proxies really depend on the source, but either way, fullHD proxy is faster to work with and 3x smaller than regular prores. For me its optimal quality with optimal size.

The projects i work on usually have about 80h of mixed XDCAM, AVCHD and GoPro h.264. Im working in legacy on these longform, fcpx for short projects and i prefer to store my original footage on external drive and creaty proxy for editing on internal drives. Im exploring to switch on longform to fcpx as you see.

When i tried fcpx proxy from Sony F3 XDCAM footage, i wasnt very satisfied with the result. Not even talking about the GoPro material.

As for monitoring i use prosumer plasma from Panasonic with Blackmagic Intensity to playback. I know what to expect of the quality and resolution i can get from this set (i dont really need best color accuracy, grading is done elsewhere).

Of course what Jeremy suggests works, just switch to original to judge, or directly edit with original media. Or maybe i will edit with proxies without TV and go original media for the final edit and TV monitoring. It is just a “wish” for me i guess to have a setting in preferences or easy hack to get FullHD proxies.

anyway, thanks for your time

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Jakub Vomacka] ” It is just a “wish” for me i guess to have a setting in preferences or easy hack to get FullHD proxies.”

It’s a good request. You should let Apple know:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/finalcutpro.html

Jeremy

[Bill Davis]

Glad it was cleared up.

But it makes me wonder what a “Full HD Proxy” would entail?

Is it “full HD” if it’s been compressed? If not, then is it actually a proxy?

I get that there are alternate ways to encode proxies than the way X does it, but considering the way that adding either extra bit depth or more real resolution scales so rapidly with HD rasters, how much more quality in resolution could you expect before you’re getting awfully close to the original data rate of your HD target?

Honestly curious.

What might be a “sweeter spot” that provides significantly more resolution yet STILL preserves a whole lot of bandwidth savings?

And wouldn’t that make someones system a whole lot more “fragile” since adding additional streams of data with more robust proxies would quickly tax a system.

Interesting discussion.

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]

1920×1080 for staters.

This way you don’t have to look at a half HD proxy blown up on an HD TV.

You can do this yourself, Bill.

Take a full res 1080 ProRes (or HDSLR in your case) movie.

Make a ProRes Proxy 1080 movie, then make a 540 ProRes Proxy movie. Compare both when played out on baseband video.

[Bill Davis]

[Jeremy Garchow] “This way you don’t have to look at a half HD proxy blown up on an HD TV.”

This is my confusion.

I do this literally every single day.

I work in Proxy mode all the time. I have no problem judging color or resolution issues. I can see them on my computer – and I can park on a frame and the 32″ LCD suspended over my edit desk shows me exactly what that image will look like when rendered out.

Essentially instantly.

Is the problem the ability to judge something relating to the behavior of motion files? Is it that you need to present better streams for client viewing in a suite style situation?

I can get that.

As X migrates from being a personal editing tool into being a more collaborative one, I can see the need for these capabilities. But it’s pretty obvious to me from the WWDC annoucement that Apple understands this and shouldn’t the 3 streams of 4k live monitoring from the new MacPro make this a total non-issue for most editors soon?

So given Apple’s very public posture about working on tremendously improved monitoring in the near future tied to new hardware, what would be the the point of this request?

Just trying to think this through.

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]

[Bill Davis] “I work in Proxy mode all the time. I have no problem judging color or resolution issues. I can see them on my computer – and I can park on a frame and the 32” LCD suspended over my edit desk shows me exactly what that image will look like when rendered out. “

Well, then I guess you and I see things differently.

FCPX generated ProRes Proxy, on my monitor, does not look like the final version when rendered out at full quality.

[Bill Davis] “Is the problem the ability to judge something relating to the behavior of motion files? Is it that you need to present better streams for client viewing in a suite style situation?”

Jakub’s first post clearly sums it up: “I think that for monitoring on external TV half HD proxy is bad choice, although its fine for the fcpx viewer. When deciding on quality of effects (slow motion for example) or clarity of focus of the particular shots, i have big problems on TV with half HD proxies.”

Then more reasoning: “Concerning the source material: I understand the quality of fcpx proxies really depend on the source, but either way, fullHD proxy is faster to work with and 3x smaller than regular prores. For me its optimal quality with optimal size.

The projects i work on usually have about 80h of mixed XDCAM, AVCHD and GoPro h.264. Im working in legacy on these longform, fcpx for short projects and i prefer to store my original footage on external drive and creaty proxy for editing on internal drives. Im exploring to switch on longform to fcpx as you see.

When i tried fcpx proxy from Sony F3 XDCAM footage, i wasnt very satisfied with the result. Not even talking about the GoPro material.”