Importing Media FCP X 10.1

[Nikolas Bäurle]

Take those Movs out of the DCIM folder. This way X will see them as footage and not as a connected camera.Then you should get the import options you need.

“Always look on the bright side of life” – Monty Python

[Peter Vandall]

Ok that did work. Thanks so much.

Here is another question though. I transcoded media to my event library. However the files in my final cut project still link back to the old H264’s.

If the program is going to transcode media to prores, and my plan is to cut with those files, why is it linking back to the old files?

It seems to me that I need to relink to those transcoded files? Shouldn’t that just happen automatically?

Thanks,

Pete

[Bret Williams]

It will always use optimized (transcoded) over original if it has it. But reveal in finder will show the original. Also, inspector data displays the original. However at the bottom of the inspector is data on what flavors are available to the system. Optimized, proxy, original, etc. If theres an optimized available, and you’re set to playback original / optimized, then it’ll playback the optimized version. But there’s not much point in giving data on that file, as they’re all ProRes 422. And there’s not much point in revealing it in the finder as they’re all in the same place. At least that’s X’s thinking.

[Peter Vandall]

Thanks Bret,

So right now I can dismount the drive that I have the old H264 files and put that on my shelf and not have to relink?

Also,

I looked in preferences and I remember in old versions of FCPX you can set it to automatically playback optimized media. But I can’t find it anymore. Do you know where it is?

Great help thank you.

Pete

[Bret Williams]

This is not a workflow that I use, so I don’t know the proper method of dismounting. But why bother? I’d quit fcp, eject, and then relaunch FCP and see. If you’ve optimized all the files and they’re not on that drive you’re ejecting, should be fine in theory. But you don’t want to get rid of those h264s. Those are your originals to relink back to. To recreate the optimized files from if need be. Those are the files you’d relink to if the optimized ones got wiped.

In 10.1 the playback prefs are in the drop down menu at the upper right of the viewer window now. Proxies, better performance, etc. You can also create keyboard shortcuts. It’s pretty nifty to switch between proxy and optimized DURING playback. Buy this FCP X thing is just a toy, right? 🙂

[Peter Vandall]

Hi Bret,

I tried it and it does work.

Yeah you are right on to not get rid of those H264’s. However I am trying to figure out a reason to have them on the same drive that I have my transcoded media on, in the same event library. To me it takes up twice as much space, and if my editing hard drive fails, I lose everything. That to me is the purpose of keeping those old H264’s on a separate drive right?

[Bret Williams]

Call me crazy, but when footage come in, like from a DSLR, we bring it in on a USB 3 or FW800 drive, with a copy of the card structure that we (or the camera op) copied over on location. I then copy THAT folder of h264s to my Pegasus raid and import them. I don’t transcode. Works great on my iMac. Those with MacPros may have different stories. But even if I did transcode, I’d keep everything in one nice little job folder. Hopefully the raid will do it’s job in case of a drive failure, but with 10.1 the library is also being backed up to the internal drive every 20min via the new autosave. So with the originals on an external on a shelf, the raid, and the autosave I feel ok. But do sometimes backup the whole project folder to another drive if it’s a long project.

If those are your only copy of the h264s, yeah, I’d dismount, make a couple copies, etc. During production we often have 3 copies of the original. If I have time, I’ll copy to two drives at once from the card, and sometimes the internal on the laptop. Love those little USB 3 drives. So much faster than the FW800s.

[Peter Vandall]

Yeah that’s the thing I need to get a raid system. That way I don’t have to worry. How is yours? What model?

Thanks Bret for this help.

People crapped on FCPX for a while but the more I use it, the more I think it is pretty awesome in a lot of ways.

[Bret Williams]

Pegasus R4 8TB. Gives you 6TB to work with. I had a problem with the chassis about a yer ago, and they sent me a replacement chassis. Gives you write and playback speeds in the high 300-high 400mb/sec range.

[Peter Vandall]

Cool. Thunderbolt?