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Use Proxy Files for some but not all clips
Sorry for the double post as I meant to post it in this forum:
I have some 1080/60p footage that I want to edit into a 1080/30p timeline with some other 30p footage. All my 30p footage is native h.264 to save hard drive space since it plays back fine in FCP X. I’ve had FCP X create Proxy files of my 60p h.264 files since it can’t play back the 60p footage smoothly. My question is:
Can I tell FCP X to just use the Proxy files of certain clips? It seems as of now it’s an all-or-nothing approach to proxy files meaning that if I turn on use Proxy files in the preferences it makes all my 30p footage offline since I don’t have any proxy clips made for those. So the only option is to have FCP X make proxy files of all my clips which defeats the purpose of editing natively. It’d be great to have a “per clip” option of what media FCP X references in different projects.
I know the work-around is to transcode everything but was hoping to save some space using native files for smaller projects.
tony
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8 Replies
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Tony, if the majority of your clips are 30p (and they play well enough for you), why not just transcode your 60p material?
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I have been transcoding but as you know 1080/60p ProRes files are huge and for smaller projects I was looking for a way to save space. And 1080/60p is not really necessary for me right now but I like to test the “worse case scenario” when learning new stuff. It was also in testing when I started thinking how a better use of Proxy files could be very handy and save a ton of space. Seems like it could be a simple update:
– When you check “Use Proxy Media” instead of forcing every project to make Proxy media that doesn’t exist just to play back, have it as a “Per Clip/ Per Project” preference in each clip’s info window. Point is, if I can potentially have 3 versions of each clip (Original, Optimized and Proxy) I should be able to easily select between each version at the clip level and not the just the global level.
tony
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Hey Tony, I’m confused with your last post. Are you wanting to have 3 different versions of each clip that you can choose between in the timeline? How would that save you space? Wouldn’t that require you to triple your media to have this option? I would think storing your raw media on an external and copying the proxies to your local disc might be the best solution. You can always reconnect or “modify referenced events” (in the inspector tab when project in the project library are selected) to modify which version of the clips you want to view Would this work?
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Sorry as I should have been a bit more specific.
– It could save me space to not have to make Proxies of everything but only the clips that wouldn’t play back in realtime. Right now it’s all-or-nothing since when you tell FCP X to use Proxies and you haven’t made a Proxy of a clip in the timeline it will make that clip offline whether or not the clip in question was playing back just fine without a Proxy.
[Eddie McFly] “You can always reconnect or “modify referenced events” (in the inspector tab when project in the project library are selected) to modify which version of the clips you want to view”
The problem I see with this is that you’d have to organize/keyword your footage twice, once for each Event let alone trying to keep them in sync if you add more footage.
tony
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I get it now. My solution was for creating 3 versions of every clip like you mentioned doing earlier, but now I see you only want to make proxies for specific clips that don’t’ play in the timeline. I haven’t found any way to change a single clip to a proxy w/in FCPX. However, you could send that single clip to compressor and make it proxy, then re-import and replace edit. Not as elegant, but it’s a way to do it. You’re idea is good, it would be great to be able to swap out a single clip in the TL that’s not performing well, then be able to swap back for an export.
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I get it now. My solution was for creating 3 versions of every clip like you mentioned doing earlier, but now I see you only want to make proxies for specific clips that don’t’ play in the timeline. I haven’t found any way to That’s a great idea.
You could also workaround by:
1. Create a custom 30p timeline w/ matching frame size
2. Drop in problematic clips
3. export flavor of choice -
Tony trust me CURRENTLY there is absolutely no way you can trick FCP X this way.
The only option you currently have is to transcode ALL media to proxy (via FCPX)
When ready to export a master MOV file, make sure to change in
- Final Cut Pro/Preferences/Editing/Playback to use original media
As your probably aware, making any modifications to a MOV file in finder, causes FCPX to totally unlink itself.
As an experiment I tried the following:
- Transcoded a file as a proxy (outside of FCPX)
- Imported the file in an event
- Added a few favourite markings
- Closed FCPX
- Transcoded the same file as ProRes 422
- Copied and pasted the ProRes 422 over the Proxy
- Opened FCPX and found this
Even if I try re-importing that same clip, FCPX see its as new media because the metada has changed.
Who knows… maybe this will be all possible in an upcoming upgrade.
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From one Tony to another, thanks so much for testing this. I have to say that being unable to reconnect clips has reared its ugly head too many times this past month because of not being able to do anything with those files outside FCP X. From the forums the only way to mostly eliminate it is to have FCP X COPY all your media to its Events folder and never reference it. To me, this is not an option as that would mean DOUBLING my already massive storage needs (files just for FCP X and files for using in other programs). I could only copy the files I need for the other programs instead of all of it, but many times it’s most of the footage.
I know there are some workarounds, but it’s far too easy to make a file offline and nearly impossible to get it back… as of now at least.
tony
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