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Sony XDCAM, Final Cut, downsizing, and working on a server
Hello,
So I’ve got a situation, here. At work, we are supposed to work off of a server. It is about 1TB in size. My supervisor wants me to downsize my XDCAM-to-MOV files so that they will fit on said server, so I used Streamclip to lower the quality (from a converted MOV to a lower res H.264 MOV). ALSO, per supervisor, I must work within a 4:3 frame space — NOT an HD one — and so my system settings do not match the clips I am using.
Now my render time in FCP is HORRENDOUSLY LONG.
Does anyone have any suggestions of what to do, given my limitations?
Thanks so much,
Rosa -
9 Replies
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Downsize XDCam? I think you are going to need a bigger server.
Jeremy
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Why did you do that?
Matt. -
Ugh!!! First, tell your supervisor that 2Tb hard drives are now only $79, and anyone using a 1Tb drive to serve up video to one or more editors over a server is not only cheap, but a moron. (Okay, don’t say that to you supervisor, just think it…)
Next, as a FCP editor, you should be paying enough attention here and around the Web to know that h.264 is not a realtime editing codec in FCP. In fact, XDCAM is a highly compressed codec, ready for editing as is. Even if you transcode to DV, the files are going to be approximately the same size as the XDCAM files.
This is typically accomplished by first editing the XDCAM footage, then moving the cut to a 4×3 DV or DVCPro timeline – resizing and repositioning – then exporting.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comDon’t miss my new tutorial: Prepare for a seamless transition to FCP X and OS X Lion
https://library.creativecow.net/weiss_roth_david/FCP-10-MAC-Lion/1POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
Creative COW contributing editor and a forum host of the Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums.
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Ugh is right. Supervisor is an AE editor, not FCP, so I think that’s why she recommended the H.264. I know it’s not good for editing… Sigh. I really want to edit the XDCAM stuff as is, and might just pull the whole thing onto my computer…
Blerg.
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FCP7 edits XDCAM natively, doesn’t it?
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Sure does. They just want me to reduce file size to keep stress off the server.
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[Rosa Jurjevics] “ure does. They just want me to reduce file size to keep stress off the server.”
Exactly what kind of “server” is this?
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You know, I honestly don’t know. I’m not even sure where it is located. (I just work here) I think I’ve got a solution, however…
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Big question is what’s your deliverable? If it’s a 320×240 corner on a website you might not need to be working in HD. Sometimes it’s worthwhile to cave in for the sake of peace…
That said I would probably go buy a 2TB firewire drive on the company VISA and ask for forgiveness. It’ll solve your problems for…as long as 2TB lasts you.
Sidenote: Going to H.264 will probably cost more space than it saves when your render scratch is considered.
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