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Media Managment in FCP HD
Several Years ago we bought a FCP system with Kona card to add another non linear workstation to our editing facility. We mainly shoot Beta SP.
Up to that time the only system we were familiar with was the Media 100 which has served us well for 7 years.
Our experience with FCP was not a happy one…mainly because of the way FCP handles media management.
With Media 100 it was a no brainer. Bring footage in at low resolution, edit, then stick tapes in and Hi rez…
When we tried that with FCP we were disappointed to find that it wasn’t that simple. We were not alone. Many users complained about the poor way in which FCP handled media management
So Even though FCP had many fine editing features we decided to stick with the Media 100 and used FCP only on short projects where the media was easier to manage.
Two years later and our FCP system still sits hardly used as a backup system.
Can anyone tell me if FCP has made any great advances in Media management since version 3. (Their website makes mention of improved media management but I spoke to an Avid representative the other day and he showed me a printout comparison of Final Cut Pro vs Avid. Top on the list of differences between the two systems was “media management”…so it sounds like Media Management is still and issue that FCP hasn’t been able to fix) -
3 Replies
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Well, I’m not sure if anything could touch the ease and use of Media 100s media management system. FCP5’s media management is okay. Some people have luck, others don’t. You really have to baby it, but once you get the workflow, it works for me.
The advantage media 100 has is that it’s offline/online codecs play in the same timeline, not true with FCP. You have to really think more about media and format when using FCP. You have a couple of options. Digitize in a codec that is small enough that space doesn’t matter. DV50 comes to mind. it’s a codec that’s about 7MB/sec or so, has 4:2:2 color space and relatively light compression, and does not hog up resources. If you digitize in this codec, it is a great compromise between file size and compression. You’ll avoid the media manager all together.
Or you can buy more storage where fiel size won’t be an issue
OR you can learn the media manager and see how you like it. This article should get you started:
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/basic_onlining_jordan.html
Jeremy
PS Of course the Avid guy is going to say Avid is better.
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> you can learn the media manager and see how you like it. This article should get you started:< Media Manager is a sore subject around here. Over on LAFCPUG, the opinions are mostly on the negative. These aren't crazed sterno bums, they're pros in the southern California production business. Here, the sympathies indicate Media Manager's failures are almost always user errors. That means you and I are incompetent. We're in excellent company. bogiesan This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”
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[bogiesan] “Here, the sympathies indicate Media Manager’s failures are almost always user errors. That means you and I are incompetent. We’re in excellent company.”
Hmm, don’t know quite what to make of that.
Are you saying if you don’t live in california, you aren’t professional? If I have have good luck with media managing, I am not a professional? The people in the “Southern California Production Business” don’t make mistakes?
Explain yourself to me……please…….oh great bogiesan.
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