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Log & Transfer tool not transferring full duration of clips!
Hello-
Running FCP7 on Dual Quad Core Mac Pro, OS 10.6, capture scratch on external Firewire drives.
Working on big documentary project shooting almost exclusively 1080 30p files with Canon HDSLRs (5D, 7D, T2i, T3i.) Transcoding the footage – to Apple Pro Res 422 LT 1080 30p – thru FCP’s log and transfer tool has been a successful workflow up to this point.
But recently discovered that a healthy chunk of footage wasn’t fully transcoded – original clips were all represented but NOT in their entirety, ie all the clips were there, just not in full original durations. (When originally did the L&T transferring, FCP didn’t give any error messages; I only discovered when it seemed like there were large chunks of missing footage.)
And it’s been hard to discern a pattern. Annoyingly, these partial durations are not true off all the clips in any particular L&T batch, just some. Nor is there any kind of distinct duration cut-off point; the abbreviated clips all seemingly end at random times. I seemed to have isolated problem clips to a week’s period of intensive L&T work back in early Feb. And since that point I have been able to L&T transcode full durations successfully. And I have been re-transfering the partial files – on the same system – and it seems to be transcoding clips in full.
Anyone ever run into this issue? Any idea why/how it happened? Couldn’t imagine there’s some buried preference setting that’s inhibiting transferring the clips in full.
I guess I’m just going to have to re-transcode all the incomplete clips but bigger worry is preventing this in the future. Tough workflow going forward if I can’t have confidence in L&T tool not to transfer in full. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks, Nick.
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9 Replies
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When L&T is in progress do not try and use the computer for other tasks, particularly FCP. It might seem like it is a background task but I discovered early on that doing other tasks during the L&T stage would cause incomplete transfers.
Not had any issue since I have left L&T to itself with 5D footage.
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Make sure you have the latest canon l&t plug in installed as well.
Jeremy
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Many thanks Michael. Definitely makes sense – have noticed FCP gets a little wonky when I try and multi-task in the app when there’s L&T transferring going on. Will definitely leave the app alone when transferring. Or start using MPEG Stream Clip or Compressor to transcode. Nick.
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I’ve run into this problem. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch it under after the original footage was discarded (hopefully not you scenario).
For my money now I only use MPEG Streamclip (or Compressor or 5DtoRGB). I don’t rely on L&T. I’ve found it to be intermittent and buggy. For me, it’s not worth the hassle or possible mistake. If you must use L&T then I agree with Michael, don’t do anything else while L&T is working. And once it’s done immediately double check the transcoded footage to make sure it’s all there.
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.com
vimeo.com/ryanholmes -
Thanks Ryan. Guess I’ve been a little naive in trusting L&T. Starting to think I should try another method.
One thing, part of the reason I like L&T is the batch re-naming it does. If I go the MPEG SC route, I don’t think I can re-name in that app, can I? Any good batch re-naming apps I can use, after I’ve done the batch transcode out of MPEG SC.
Thanks, Nick. -
I use Automator (standard app built into any Mac OS). Make a new workflow and select the “Rename Finder Items” function in there and you can batch rename. Use the search field in Automator to find it. You can add date/time, add text, change case, make sequential, replace text, etc. I don’t think many people know about Automator, but it’s a really powerful app built into the OS. Try it out.
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.com
vimeo.com/ryanholmes -
There are two benefits to L&T. Reel names and timecode. Some other methods do not use the timestamp info to generate code. With code & reel names you can do an offline/ online workflow. Also Media Manager requires reel names so if you are handing over to grade and online you will have to add reel names to everything before MM.
Compressor and MPEGStreamclip do not add code/reel name metadata. Some of the other options like Grinder an 5DtoRGB might but check. Changing file names after conversion also breaks the link back to original media if you have a drive fail or need to re convert, so another reason to use L&T which allows the rename but keeps the trace to file info intact.
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Understood Michael. Yeah, in my new found hate for L&T tool forgot about those 2 pretty significant benefits. TC also extremely helpful for transcribing – which we do a lot of. So thinking I’ll stick with L&T to do the bulk of our transcoding work and just be careful not to do anything else on FCP concurrently, and then do spot duration checks after the transfer.
Ryan, thanks for the Automator suggestion. You’re right – an awesome app. Might not use in this particular situation, but guessing can be really helpful in with other stuff.
Thanks everyone, Nick.
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Thanks for the thread guys, just started a project that was shot on RED, canon and Panasonic, woof….was having the same incomplete clip problem, and starting putting my play head on the out point. I think FCP was defaulting to the playhead as the out.
suppose I prefer transcoding to actual digitizing, but this is most definitely not less work.
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