Stopping FCPX From Copying Files Between Libraries – Possible?

[Jeremy Garchow]

[James Ewart] “Okay thanks for bearing with me on this. But why would you want to? Just so long as it exports okay at the end of the cut does it matter?”

I talked about it earlier.

In a shared environemnt, I wouldn’t have to make multiple copies of Proxy and Optimized media in every Library, rather, I can use ONE copy in many Libraries.

Currently, the Proxy and Optimized media can not be consolidated out of a Library.

For single users that have Libraries across multiple attached drives and they need to move media to different Libraries they could have ONE copy of Proxy and Optimized instead of a copy in every Library.

[James Ewart]

In which case does it not make sense to always use externally managed media even if the folder is on the same drive as the Library and have original, optimised and proxy lies in that with just Sym link files in Libraries at all times?
But then I ask myself war is the point of having proxy files as “externally” managed media anyway? Do you still get faster performance even though they are nay linked files?

best

James

[Jeremy Garchow]

[James Ewart] “In which case does it not make sense to always use externally managed media even if the folder is on the same drive as the Library and have original, optimized and proxy lies in that with just Sym link files in Libraries at all times?”

I think we may be misunderstand each other.

You can’t sym link Proxy and Optimized file easily. This is the whole problem we have been discussing.

[James Ewart] “But then I ask myself war is the point of having proxy files as “externally” managed media anyway? Do you still get faster performance even though they are nay linked files?”

It depends on what work you do, but Proxy files are certainly faster, yes, especially with high resolution multi cam.

When using LongGOP media, Optimized files (ProRes) yields better performance.

It might not make sense for everyone, but it would be great for us if we could have external Proxy and Optimized files that everyone can use, instead of wasting time making a who new set of Proxy or Optimized per Library.

Jeremy

[James Ewart]

thanks I am still out of my depth with this. got some Ripple tutorials to go…will digest them before asking more dumb questions.

[Hans Douma]

At the moment I am transferring all my tape recordings to FCPX into a media library. My intention is to apply keywords and notes to all clips to make it easier to find clips when creating a project. I’d rather not create the projects in the media library. What I read from this thread is that creating external files (rather than an FCPX managed library) is the preferred way to allow aliases to be used in projects. If I would consolidate my media library to create these external files, will the keywords be copied as well or do I lose everything except the clips ? Can I apply keywords to externally managed clips ?

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Hans Douma] ” If I would consolidate my media library to create these external files, will the keywords be copied as well or do I lose everything except the clips ? Can I apply keywords to externally managed clips ?”

Sorry for the late response, but you can drag key worded clips from one Library to another. The keywords do not live with the actual files on disk, so if you need to transfer keywords, use FCPX to make new libraries, or use XML.

In your main library, open the keyword collection, select the clips you’d like to drag to the new library, and then drag those clips to the new library. the external files remain external, the keyword collection and files appear in the new library.

If the files are managed (inside the library), a new copy of the media will be placed in the new library. This is why external media works best in these situations.

Jeremy

[Hans Douma]

This is just to share some experience with externally managed files.

The principal is working fine, but I am running into serious performance problems when using AVCHD video (MTS files). FCPX will apparently read all the footage over and over again when events are browsed or when the library level is selected instead of an event in that library. I have my HD footage organized in a single library using links to the actual files. Over time, the number of events in that library will grow and so will the time needed to select all footage in the library. (This may be necessary if I want to select footage based on a keyword selection). It will now take minutes before FCPX has processed all events. Also editing from a single event will take ages. So you will have to make a trade off between bad performance/limited space requirements on one hand (with externally managed files) and reasonable performance but a huge space requirement on the other hand (with native library footage)