offline/ online workflow for file based media

[Diego Lopez]

[Shane Ross] “[Rob Nairn] “How does batch capture know to transcode the files on drive rather than capture from tape?”

Because it’ll know the footage was imported via Log and Transfer opposed to captured from tape. It’s part of the metadata.”

I ran a quick test of this before I started my most recent project and it worked well (after I had to make some changes in the Audio/Video settings). Things reconnected with handles nicely.

Now I am trying to do it after picture lock and I’m having problems.

I isolated only the clips that I wanted to recapture (as this edit is mixed with HDV and full res ProRes) and went to batch capture after using media manager to create an offline sequence.

Half of the clips connected just fine… the other half refuse to.

One confusing issue is that when I try to recapture the sequence, FCP tells me that there is tape-based media mixed in with the tapeless stuff, and that it will do it first. It then complains about the A/V settings (I have the capture preset set to “Generic capture template” because that’s the only way I could get it to work before), and when i click through, FCP goes ahead and recaptures the rest of the media.

This leaves me with offline clips that are found on the SAME CARD as some of the clips that were successfully recaptured. I can’t figure it out and it is quite frustrating..

Has anyone come across this or have any ideas?

Also, I might as well double-check, where should I have my A/V settings for recapturing in a tapeless workflow?

I hope I’ve described this well enough.

[Diego Lopez]

So I just figured out the link between all the files that won’t “batch capture” properly…..

Markers.

Our production house has moved away from subclips and used markers instead to log footage. We find it to be cleaner and easier to navigate around a long interview (go to next marker instead of clicking on next subclip, etc). When I try to execute the offline/online tapeless workflow with these clips with markers, it doesn’t work. These are the clips that FCP for some reason thinks are tape-based.

Has anyone come across this and back up my assertion?

Does anyone have any way of resolving this issue aside from re-transferring the whole clip again and re-linking?

Further, if you make subclips from longer clips and then try the media manager offline/online workflow, does it work?

Thanks in advance

[Diego Lopez]

Somehow things are getting worse…

Now I tested editing a regular clip with no markers and no subclips into a sequence, using media manager to make that sequence offline… then when I try to “batch capture”, FCP complains about the A/V settings.

What should they be set as when doing the offline/online tapeless workflow?

The settings that were working for me before were:

Seq preset: ProRes 1208×720

Capture preset: generic capture template

Device control: non-controllable device.

Now those same settings no longer work

[Shane Ross]

How odd. I just did a quick 2 min cut with 45 or so shots using Markers for my IN point. Did that quick cut, Media Managed using MAKE OFFLINE and chose the codec I wanted to reimport… Batch Captured…just fine. This with Canon DSLR footage. What footage are you using again?

I’ll try with AVCIntra, I have that. Or AVCHD. Whatever you are working with.

How did you bring it into FCP to begin with? Log and Transfer? If you didn’t use Log and Transfer for ALL the footage initially, this will not work.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Diego Lopez]

Shane,

Thanks for the response. The footage I am trying to online is AVCHD. It was most definitely all logged and transferred. The source footage in this project isn’t even ON a tape (except for the HDV footage mixed in, but that footage was also definitely logged and transferred and not captured)

The sequence is mixed with that, HDV (L+T from a BPAV), and ProRes (LT) from a 5d

However, before I went to media manage MAKE OFFLINE, I collapsed all my video tracks and got rid of all non-AVCHD footage. (as the AVCHD footage is the only offline footage)

One question I’m really curious about is whether or not the A/V settings matter at all in this scenario. If so, where should they be?

The weirdest thing is that when I try the workflow, all the B roll gets “batch captured,” but none of the A roll does — and the only difference I can see between them is that the A roll has been edited with markers and the B roll doesn’t have markers. Also, for some reason, FCP thinks the A roll was all captured from tape… even though they are in some cases on the same “reel” as the B roll…

Very frustrating.

[Diego Lopez]

Talking through it here at the office, one question came up… does my problem have anything to do with length of clips? It appears that the longest clip i’ve been able to online was about 6min long. All the A roll clips are 12min or longer.

Has anyone come across this or can directly prove me wrong that this has nothing to do with it? It would suck if it did. Suck a lot.

Thanks again for trying to help

[Shane Ross]

Hmmm…I don’t have long clips of AVCHD…only short ones provided to me for demoing purposes. SO I can’t test that out.

This is certainly a pickle.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def