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Media Representations
I would be very grateful if someone could make the following clearer to me. I have a few Uncompressed 10 Bit HD clips that I am using in FCPX. I have created proxy and optimised media versions of these and can easily switch between the two within the playback preference option while I am editing. However, it seems to link to the optimised Prorez version of the clips when I select either higher quality or better performance, so what exactly is changing when I switch between these options and how do I get it to reference my original uncompressed media for a final export of my project?
In the inspector window i shows that I have all 3 media representations available to me.
From what I see when I export my timeline is that it uses whatever media you are currently linked to, so in that sense it would seem if i chose to export in uncompressed it would transcode the optimised ProRez versions of my media rather than just using the original?
Am I missing something here? I hope that makes sence! Thank you in advance.
Ollie
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4 Replies
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[Olivier Lockhart-Matthews] “However, it seems to link to the optimised Prorez version of the clips when I select either higher quality or better performance, so what exactly is changing when I switch between these options and how do I get it to reference my original uncompressed media for a final export of my project?”
Changing to higher quality or better performance is not actually changing to a proxy or original clip. It is very similar to FCP 7’s dynamic playback settings but much better since it now has a 64-bit engine and can use your GPU (graphics card) to its limit. These also only affect your playback while editing and not your final output.
– Higher Quality will give you the best looking preview of your clip in the timeline playback but will sacrifice frame rate in order to give you the highest quality preview
– Better Performance will try its hardest to keep the frame rate at full speed at the expense of playback video quality
As far as referencing your original clips and not the optimized for playback (ProRes 422) clips try this:
Go to your project settings and set the render to Uncompressed 10-bit and then try and export using Current Settings. I don’t have 10-bit material with me to try this but from my understanding that is how to do it.
Also, are your Uncompressed 10-bit clips 4:2:2 or 4:4:4? I don’t think FCP X will let you export to native 4:4:4 clips yet unless it’s ProRes 4444.
tony
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Thank you for clearing that first bit up for me Tony.
My footage is 422 so I am sure that you’re method of rendering in the 10Bit codec would be the best option in this instance. I guess I am also thinking about this in terms of the furute when I am cutting in a codec that is not either ProRez or Uncompressed, which seem to be the only two render options.
Within the inspector it tells me that all threee versiouns of my media are avalible, but it seems once transcoded to proxy and optimised media, you can only switch between Proxy or another flavour of Prorez, which is fine for the edit but when exporting using FCP or compressor for a master, I can’t seem to work out which version of my media it is using to output from, in some instances I am sure it would be useful to have this output directley referencing you’re souce material, which maybe of a higher quiality so that you avoid using the transcoding mulitple times and suffer from generation loss.
Thanks again for you’re help,
Ollie
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Final Cut has always created export outputs by re-rendering from the original media (I.e. not by reusing already rendered media), so I think it’s a safe bet FCPX is using NOT using proxy media to create your outputs.
I don’t know for a fact, just that that’s always the way it’s been and I think the FCP team is smart enough to get this one right.
Nate Weaver
Director/D.P., Los Angeles
https://www.nateweaver.net -
[Nate Weaver] “Final Cut has always created export outputs by re-rendering from the original media (I.e. not by reusing already rendered media), so I think it’s a safe bet FCPX is using NOT using proxy media to create your outputs.
I don’t know for a fact, just that that’s always the way it’s been and I think the FCP team is smart enough to get this one right.”
Yeah, the user manual doesn’t explicitly say that it uses original footage when exporting, but nearly everywhere that proxies/optimized media are mentioned, it mentions that these are used for playback, e.g.
Use original or optimized media: Click this button to use the optimized media for playback. If optimized media is not available, Final Cut Pro uses the original media for playback. In that case, use the Playback Quality pop-up menu to choose whether to always use the highest-quality video for playback or downsized video for better playback performance. In Final Cut Pro, optimized media is in the Apple ProRes 422 format.
If it used the optimized media for exporting as well, they probably wouldn’t say “for playback” so many times.
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