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Mixed Timeline Problems
So here is my situation: I am editing approximately 20 hours of footage from stock librarys. The footage is delivered to me in multiple formats, everything from 1080i, 720p and multiple framerates 25, 29.97, 30, 24, and so on. Most, but not all, footage is in Photo Jpeg format.
I have just picked up FCP6 and was hoping to take advantage of the open format timelines with all these mixed formats. The manual says that as long as the ExtremeRT system can handle the format, then mixing formats should not be a problem, and they explain that Photo Jpeg is usable by the ExtremeRT system. In my expereience they are not.
I have tried everything I can think on to get these formats to work together, but to no luck. Does anybody have any experience with this sort of problem?
Typically I would just run the footage thru compressor to create a standard format, but with approximately 40-60 hours of footage and 5 editors to transfer it to, this is next to impossible.
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8 Replies
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[Josh Wells] “I have tried everything I can think on to get these formats to work together, but to no luck.”
That is not nearly descriptive enough Josh to ellicit a helpful response.
You need to first tell what timeline setting you’ve decided upon (set your timeline to), as that is always the first step when managing an edit with multiple formats.
And, tell us what you mean by “get them to work together.” If you mean, without rendering, that will never happen.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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Also, a BIG factor in being able to play back this footage in real time depends a lot on the hardware you are using. G5 with a firewire drive won’t cut it. MacPro with eSATA or internal RAID, much better. Faster processors, faster drives.
Also know that in the end you will need to conform all your footage into one uniform format…if you want it too look good. Mixed formats on a timeline is a good way to offline edit, but to online? You need everything to match. Compressor is a good way to get that done
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
The final Delivery format will be DVCPro HD 1080i60. I have attempted using timelines using settings DVCPro HD 1080i60, OfflineRT HD 29.97, and then I have also let FCP6 create the timeline settings based on the first clip I import which typically creates a Photo JPEG 1920×1080 29.97 or 1280×720 29.97.
The footage that I have to use is in Photo-JPEG format (Multiple different dimensions but all HD, and multiple different time base), when I relink to do the finishing the footage will be provided to me in DVCPro HD 1080i60.
My problem is not my playback capabilities, but the need to render everything that does not match the specific sequence settings and thus produces a red render bar. I was under the assumption that FCP6 allowed mutiple formats on the timeline. I am using eSata drives and a gigabit SAN connected to a Diamond Raid Array on an Dual Processor (Xeon Dual Core’s 3.0GHz) Intel Mac with 4gb of ram. That, plus the Photo-JPEGs that I am using have been rendered at an offline ratio so that they opperate at approximately 4.0 Megs per second . So access to the media is not my problem.
I am not new to either editing or computers, just FCP6. I believe the heart of the issue is that FCP6 is incapable of handling mixed formats of the Photo-JPEG format, even though they claim to have open timelines.
Thanks for any help you can provide.
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IIRC full frame Photo-jpeg is not a ‘blessed’ codec in FCP so while you can use it you won’t get any RealTime performance so everything that doesn’t strictly match the sequence settings will have to be rendered.
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[Josh Wells] “The footage that I have to use is in Photo-JPEG format (Multiple different dimensions but all HD, and multiple different time base), when I relink to do the finishing the footage will be provided to me in DVCPro HD 1080i60.”
I think you will be able to relink the footage with a different size and a different codec, but not sure if you can relink the footage with a different Time Base.
rafael -
Thank you all for your help, I think Andrew hit it on the head. I just did not want to accept that, as it adds many more hours and days to my workflow.
Once again, I really appreciate all the help.
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You should use compressor to convert everything to the common codec/frame rate.
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I recently used the media manager to get three different codecs conformed to one. ProRes HQ. Seems to have worked just find.
Also, PhotoJPEG Offline RT is not aptly named. Recall that it came into play before RT Extreme. And yes, you get no real time benefit with it.
Tell me which page in the manual that you found where it said that Photo JPEG was a good real-time format and I will make sure the right people will get the info.
Kevin Monahan
http://www.fcpworld.com
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro
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