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Ingest duplicates Original Media
Hey folks.
Okay, sorry for this dumb/basic question but here goes. While often use EditReady to transcode footage to ProRes before ingest, sometime I use FCPX’s native optimization process. Works great. The issue is that even if I select “leave files in place” it also make a copy of the original media in my storage folder. So, now I have two copies. I always keep a copy of the original media on an external portable field drive that it came in on. Don’t need a copy of the original media in my project storage folder–I’ve got the transcoded pro res (and yes, I clone my external storage drives).
So I end up manually deleting the “original media” files on my storage drive.
What am I doing wrong? Just want the transcoded pro res, not the “original media” during the ingest process.
Thanks as always.
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6 Replies
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This can happen if the original media is a long-GOP format such as H.264.
Noah
FCPWORKS – FCPX Workflow
FCP Exchange – FCPX Workshops
XinTwo – FCPX Training -
A few things could be happening.
If you tell FCPX to make “Optimized Media” it is ALWAYS going to make new files inside of the library (or wherever you have your rendered files targeted) because you are telling it you want to transcode the files into ProRes 422. This will happen even if you have already transcoded your original media into ProRes. If you have already transcoded into ProRes using another application you have no need to create optimized media.
The other reason that FCPX will make copies of the media (usually it wont give you the option to “leave in place”) is if the original media is in the file structure that it appears in on the camera cards. FCPX sees it as a media card and therefore not a place it can use as storage, so it will make a copy.
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Yes, thanks for this.
Totally understand and want the Pro Res files place in my storage location.
It’s the unnecessary/unwanted duplicate “original media” files that is a problem, as it reduces storage capacity on my external drives by 50% until I spend time manually deleting. Shame this functionally can’t be turned off. Seems like an easy fix.
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The only reason you would get “original media” copies inside your library is if you use “copy to library” at import. If “leave in place” is not an option it is because FCPX does not recognize the location that you are importing from as a safe location to leave media files it might need to access. This happens all the time with clients of ours that copy entire cards, file structure and all, onto hard drives.
The two solutions for this that come to mind are
1. Trancode to ProRes using Compressor, or some other software, and import the ProRes files and “leave in place”.OR
2. Use FCPX to import the files from the cards directly and use the Library management panel to dictate where the files are being stored.
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Yeah I would actually suggest mentioning it to EditReady because I doubt their workflow is intended to dupe originals like that. In a perfect world you shouldn’t really need to prep dailies outside of X as it has great proxy and optimization on ingest built in.
Noah
FCPWORKS – FCPX Workflow
FCP Exchange – FCPX Workshops
XinTwo – FCPX Training -
It could be worth reinstalling FCPX or deleting its preferences. I use EditReady to convert all my camera files and I have never had FCPX duplicate or need to reencode media on import.
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Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer & Cinematographer
Hobart, Tasmania | Twitter: @jeffkirkland
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