Sony FX30 media to ProRes

[Jeremy Garchow]

There are six flavors of ProRes:

Proxy

LT

SQ

HQ

444

444XQ

The data rate for everything but Proxy is going to be higher than fx30 mp4 files, so bigger files should be expected. Final Cut does just fine with any flavor of ProRes, but depending on your system, you may need to boost either your drive speed, processing speed, or both.

Please give us more information about your setup.

[David Mayer]

Thanks, Jeremy.

I just updated my creative cow tech info.

My projects usually combine media from my FS5 and FX30.

Wondering if that is one issue.

Also should i upgrade my edit drive?

2 TB Samsung Portable SSD T7 Touch

(1,000 MB/s)

[David Mayer]

is editing with the much smaller .mp4 files off the FX30 card an option?

[Jeremy Garchow]

Your drive is great, love those little powerhouses, it’s your MacMini that is probably struggling with the 4k ProRes. Yes, you can use the mp4s.

[David Mayer]

OK. Using the .mp4 files might help a lot. Any downside to that?

[Jeremy Garchow]

Not really. You can always transcode to ProRes at any time in Final Cut by right clicking the media and choosing Transcode Media > Create Optimize Media.

Edit Ready may insert timecode in to the ProRes files, and FCPX usually imports mp4 files with 00: tc, so that would be the only downside, in that you might not be able to link the orig mp4 to the EditReady made files, but you’d have to test that.

[David Mayer]

great info, thanks again Jeremy

will transcode to prores in final cut result in bigger files?

will final cut be happier with prores?

[Jeremy Garchow]

Yes, ProRes will be bigger, just like the EditReady made ProRes files.

FCP can handle either the mp4, or ProRes, but the Mac mini will have a more difficult time with the ProRes files since they are larger and have more data to process.

[David Mayer]

Makes sense.

Will try .mp4 next time.

Just checked file sizes.

The job was about 90-minutes.

FS5 ProRes direct from the Ninja – 381 GB

FX30 mp4 – 74 GB

EditReady converted .mp4 to ProRes – 766 GB

Is there a more powerful Mac mini now or would I need a

different computer?

[Doug Metz]

One other thing to consider is the cable connecting your drive to the Mini.

I had a 2020 M1 for a few years and didn’t have any issue with 4K ProRes files, but I was working off an 8-disk RAID with a certified TB3 cable. You should test your cable to be sure you’re getting every bit of bandwidth that T7 will handle.

Same connector ≠ same functionality.