[Darren Roark]

The magnetic timeline takes some getting used to. I was put off by it at first, but now I can’t edit well without it. Are you running Lion? FCPX kind of needs lion to run well. It also takes over all the system resources you have so tuning up with onyx before using really helps.

Anyway, that’s my two cents worth. Once I stuck it out and learned it, the time saving has been tremendous. I no longer have to prep anything, run pluraleyes, etc. I can just plug in the raw files and get working.

As far as the export features, yes you would have to get the new compressor ($50) where you can make presets and export in any way you want as it sends to that. But you can export prores, then use the compressor version you have now.

I have to say, as far as time and money goes, $300 to not have to convert footage and much faster rendering wil pay off pretty fast. As I said, it’s a whole new deal, but once you get used to the new timeline, it’s worth it.

[Darren Roark]

Hi there, I’m new to posting so I hope this is ok to give advice of what wasn’t asked for.

FCP X will make all your memory and transcoding issues go away. It seems like what you need to do can be done in there pretty easily. Since you can throw pretty much any codec at it instantly and just get to work it may be worth a try. There is still a free month trial.

I shoot on DSLRs and no longer need to transcode. It just deals with it. Plus the updates the other day have filled in all the gaps I’ve had in switching.

Good luck!