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Offline Editing
Hi All:
How can I safely make already captured footage into low res file for off-line editing to my laptop? I have the footage on my external hard-drive but I would like to have the flexibility to edit without needing to mount my external hard-drive.
Do I then make my MAC HD drive the primary scratch disk so when I open FCS2 it does not ask for LACIE drive?
Any and all help greatly appreciated.
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6 Replies
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Its not recommended. Media needs to be on a separate drive.
If you want to learn the hard way, read up on the “Media Manager” – that’s the tool within FCP that can create alternate versions of your source footage.
But, its a bad idea. Don’t do it, in this case.
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Hey Bill:
Ok, I am officially nervous about doing this. Can you elaborate why its a bad idea? Everything I been reading / tutorials suggest to use Media Manager. Did you have some experience with this you care to share. Thanks for the heads-up.
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Ok – I’ve always been warned from the start never to put media on the system drive, so I don’t have any personal/horror story to share. I’ve helped friends with system trouble, and not capturing to the startup drive has often solved problems. This is how I understand it (in my non comp/sci mind) –
Editing video requires a large amount of memory and data transfer. There are processes that the system uses the startup drive for that happen simultaneously while video is accessed (i.e. virtual memory and other system processes). Attempting to edit video stored on the system drive can reek havoc with these system processes, causing instability and data loss. Additionally, the constant data access will put a lot of wear on your relatively fragile, internal laptop drive.
Apple touches on this in Volume I, Part III, Chapter 14 – “Determining Your Hard Disk Storage Options”.
I’d look for a small f/w drive that you can make work on-the-go. Hope this helps – Bill
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I’ve done this using DV to Offline RT. I didn’t have any problems editing it on a G4 Powerbook. Use Media Manager to create the OfflineRT project with the media transcoded to Offline RT. It wasn’t difficult, but I imagine there are traps. Just read up on Media Manager and OfflineRT.
Caveat: I’m not a pro, and my editing needs were moderate. However, I was very pleased.
My guess is that you’ll need the most help to online the project once you’re done. I can’t be more detailed: It’s been too long…
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I explain this exact workflow in an article I wrote for this online magazine:
https://www.lafcpug.org/nab_supermag_08.html
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
There’s also a section in the manual called “Example: Recompressing Media Files for an entire Project for Editing on a Powerbook”
its on page IV-101 in my set…
… ya learn something new every day…
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