still driving me nuts

[Steve Connor]

[Mike Warmels] “But AVID’s mediamanagement system makes the media work very direct plus a lot of effects and stuff are real time in the sense that it either is really REAL time or doesn’t stutter, like FCPX does when effects ae involved.”

If you set playback to “better performance” you shouldn’t get any stuttering at all. I get none on my 2008 MP even after applying CC and other filters.

[Craig Alan]

1) on a lesser machine mine loads instantly in browser even if the browser window is closed to begin with. Does this happen with you after allowing time for the waveforms to fully load in the browser after an import?

3) Agreed, “share” is stupid. And I don’t know any consumer level computer literate person that does not understand import export. So who does this help? You can export to master file and under settings tab you do have choices. Maybe not as many as you need? I always used compressor with FCP 3-7.

4) in the browser, click the gear and choose group clips by none.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Mike Warmels] “That should suffice, I would say.”

Yes. It should be good. My machine doesn’t slow down after 1-2 hours, though. What version of fcpx are you using? I will say that if you import clips that have 8 channels of audio and 6 of those aren’t being used, it’s best to turn off all the unused channels.

1) No doubt, reveal in browser/match frame needs help, especially with multicam.

2) I routinely use MXF material in fcpx without converting to ProRes or rewrapping to .mov. Native MXF has been available to all users since 10.1.2 I believe. With Sony material in particular, you must drag and drop the material from the Finder, otherwise the importer will rewrap to .mov. MXF works very well in fcpx.

3) I’m not sure what codec you need out of fcpx, but you can use Compressor presets right in fcpx. It couldn’t be much easier. From fcpx you can export all flavors of ProRes, AVC-I MXF, MP4, h264 mov, uncompressed, xdcam mov or MXF. What else do you need and how hard is it to setup a Compressor preset that is available in fcpx?

4) in the bottom left corner of the browser, there’s a little gear icon. Click it and choose Group Clips > None. This is super basic fcpx knowledge.

[Mike Warmels]

Oh yes, that’s a good: watching my HD footage in some crap resolution as it keeps changing the output resolution based on how busy FCPX is. I thought the time of SD was over.

[Mike Warmels]

I often export in lower resolutions to send off to commissioning editors or producers. No need to send them X GB sized files.
And sometimes people need it in particular specs for internet, animation or particular SD purposes. And I fin it bothersome to go to a different program…well, bothersome. Let’s just say I find it totally Unprofessional. FCP7 used to be able to do it, so why not FCPX.

About the native stuff. It works natively, I know, you can use it. But that’s not the point. As I said: with native MXF you’re only using ONE core… Not the SIX Apple gave me. And MXF is a pretty big compression. So now you have to work with that compression and NOT use the 64 bit technology. So why can’t FCPX just import and convert the stuff to Apple Pro Res? It’s just silly.

[Robin S. kurz]

[James Ewart] “Call it a timeline. “

So… who’s keeping you from doing it?

In all of four years, I have never said “timeline” to an FCP X User and not had them understand exactly what I mean.

[Steve Connor]

[Mike Warmels] “And I fin it bothersome to go to a different program…well, bothersome. Let’s just say I find it totally Unprofessional. FCP7 used to be able to do it, so why not FCPX.”

I assume you are being forced to use FCPX as you seem to find so much of it “unprofessional”?

[Mike Warmels]

I find it “not finished”. It’s just a tool. I have several clients who work with various NLE’s. So I just adapt and work with what they prefer.

It’s just that after a few months intensively working with it, although I’ve had it and used it a few times before in the past few years, I don’t get the “best and fastest NLE EVAH!!” praise it’s been getting for quite a while now. I don’t think it’s the best, and I seriously question that it’s the fastest.

And yes, there are things very unprofessional about it. It’s not great in working with other systems, it needs a lot of space (Libraries reaching sizes of well into the double digit GB’s), it needs a LOT of memory… and it’s not downward compatible. Something that FCP7 had already, except at that time using XML to go ‘down’ to previous versions worked well. In FCPX you lose a lot of crucial data by doing that.

So it’s a serious tool, but to be honest, it’s just not finished IMHO. I think they threw it on the market too soon and it’s being reworked, refined etc ever since. I’m sure one day it’ll be a fine working NLE.

[Mike Warmels]

Yes, and I just explained how that works if my MAJOR client uses it for the projects I do for them and they CAN’T update.

Now, AVID isn’t perfect, I’ll give you that, but it certainly doesn’t give a hoot in what version people work with. You have to understand that larger companies, editing facilities work in huge server based environments that are for instance still based on Mavericks. They cannot “just” upgrade to FCPX 2. (which ONLY works under Yosemite) because that would have huge and pricey ramifications for the ENTIRE set-up. If FCPX would be upward and downward compatible, there would be no issue.

I hope you can understand that. That being said, you act as if these options you refer to are the basic elements FCPX has to offer as in “always”. FCPX 10.2 has JUST been released a few weeks ago.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Mike Warmels] “I often export in lower resolutions to send off to commissioning editors or producers. No need to send them X GB sized files.”

So you can’t send an mp4 that will allow you do go all the ay down to SD resolution from 4k (or higher)?

[Mike Warmels] “And sometimes people need it in particular specs for internet, animation or particular SD purposes. And I fin it bothersome to go to a different program…well, bothersome. Let’s just say I find it totally Unprofessional. FCP7 used to be able to do it, so why not FCPX.”

So setting up a preset in another program like compressor, and then having that preset available directly in to FCPX is bothersome and unprofessional, and Quicktime 7s old 8 bit pipeline is somehow more professional?

[Mike Warmels] “About the native stuff. It works natively, I know, you can use it. But that’s not the point. As I said: with native MXF you’re only using ONE core… Not the SIX Apple gave me. And MXF is a pretty big compression. So now you have to work with that compression and NOT use the 64 bit technology. So why can’t FCPX just import and convert the stuff to Apple Pro Res? It’s just silly.”

Because certain codecs are already optimized in the eyes of FCPX. There would be zero gain to convert 50Mb XDCam to ProRes unless you just want to waste more disk space.

I don’t understand what you men by one core, but some codecs are still 32 bit, a lot of them actually, so it may be a limitation of the codec, not FCPX.