multiclip

[Michael Lynch]

I don’t really have an answer, but I’ve run into similar problems editing multi-cam off of a networked drive. Personally, I don’t think the connection is fast enough to support multiple video streams. I know it sucks space wise, but multi cam has always worked best for me on a local drive.

MacPro 3.0GHz 8 Core – 4GB RAM
FCS2; AE; PS

[Sean Harris]

Actually , I am opening a project from a networked computer, but saving the project to a local drive and editing from a local drive. It will play and seems fine, but cannot be tweaked.

It is only functioning properly when edited through the network.

Sean

[Michael Lynch]

Sean,

I’m guessing that your MEDIA is on a network drive and therein may lie the problem. I’ve had synch issues as well because the network could not keep up with my project (on the local drive) as it was trying to access the media from the networked drive.

MacPro 3.0GHz 8 Core – 4GB RAM
FCS2; AE; PS

[Sean Harris]

No, the media is on both the network and a local scratch drive. That is why I am so puzzled. I reconnect the media to the project from the local drive and it will play fine, but when I try to tweak the cuts…no go its out o sync or not even showing up in the viewer (even though it is there in the timeline)??!! How can it be in-sync on timeline playback but out of sync when a new angle is desired?

[David Heidelberger]

This seems like it’s a Final Cut problem. Has nothing to do with networks. I’ve encountered the same problem and there’s a thread on the Apple support forums going back to September with people who are having the problem as well (although it hasn’t had any postings since early January, so not sure what to say about that). It may be helpful to give both the drives the same name, but that seems to have mixed results.

It might also be helpful to make it so that the project file has to look in relative and not absolute paths for your media. In other words, If both of the drives are exactly the same, but your project file is on another drive or else buried within your file structure somewhere, in order to connect to the media, Final Cut has to know an absolute path to the media, which includes the drive name and then any sub-folders. On the other hand, if your project file is in the root of the drive, in order to reconnect the media, Final Cut doesn’t need to know any information about the drive, it only needs to know folder names (which are presumably the same on both of your drives), and therefore doesn’t have to search as hard to reconnect. The whole problem seems to stem from some error in reconnecting media, so the less Final Cut has to search for that media when it opens the project, the better off you’ll probably be. That said, this may not be a foolproof solution either.

It seems like a serious bug and it doesn’t look like it’s been fixed. What version of Final Cut are you running? I haven’t started any multi-clip projects on 6.0.2 yet, so maybe it’s better now, but I’m not optimistic.

– David

[Sean Harris]

I am on 6.0.2, but the real puzzler to me is that the multiclip in the timeline will play all the angles and in-sync…SO it must be connected in order to do that, BUT when I want to adjust or change an angle its out of sync or not even there!! (I am talking about the local computer&drive)

The current work around is to edit the thing through the network (and get those pesky dropped frame warnings) then copy the project to the local computer and reconnect to local drives for speedy playback and finishing.

Thanks All,

Sean

[Jasper Mcinerney]

HI Sean,

Multiclip does not work properly!!!! Believe me, you are doing nothing wrong.

I work for a national TV network and we’ve just switched from Avid to FCP. After two months of complainging about multiclip sync problems, the local Apple support team have finally admitted that it does not work, and the problem is with the FCP software (currently 6.02).

Multiclips will lose sync when you shut the project, or if you disconnect & reconnect media. And some other times too. Sync difference is double the offset of starting timecodes if they are different on different cameras.

This is a very freakin’ serious ‘bug’, and Apple know about it, but so far, no solution. It makes editing with multiclip nearly impossible.

You may also notice that the length of your multiclip is extraodinarly long, and if you are in a 16:9 project, some of the clips will now be 4:3 for no good reason.

You can try grouping the clips again and recutting, but you will have the same problem with the new group.

Mind you, some projects will occasionally work ok.

Also of note, is that shots already in cut sequences do not disappear out of synce. It appears that clips in the timeline seem to create their own ‘invisible’ master clip; although they seem to refer to another clip, they are really they’re own animal. If you switch angles on the timeline, it will go out of sync (often to black), but if you ‘undo’ it will return to the right point. Of course this does not help solve the problem.

Even after consulting the boffins, waiting for an answer, it looks like we’re going to have to get some Avid suites installed because we can’t edit half a dozen programs that are sitting on the shelf.

My advice after two months of trying to work around the problem, is to avoid multiclip. If you need to edit multiclip, don’t use FCP, because you’ll suffer a lot of frustration for nothing.

[Sean Harris]

Jasper,

Thanks for the advice.

Even though the current work around is to edit the thing through the network (and get those pesky dropped frame warnings) then copy the project to the local computer and reconnect to local drives for speedy playback and finishing. There are still issues with finishing.

GUESS WHAT?? It still gets out of sync sometimes and then sometimes magically fixes itself if you simply try again. I made six beta SP attempts today. One did work.

FCP crashes when you try to render or export long multiclips as well. So I have to render little bits at a time.

You would think a MAC with 8 processors and the newest FCP could….but for now they just can’t cut it!!

Apple please do SOMETHING!! and make Compressor faster while your at it. My MAC PRO is slow there as well. ( Try Compressing a 30 minute HDV show to a DVD. )

Sean