[Dave Gage]

Tony,

I have an enclosure that looks virtually identical from about a year prior, but the plug that goes into the device is a different size and form factor. Oh well, I will mention it tomorrow though when I speak with technical support. I appreciate the idea though.

Thanks,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

Thanks for adding the video. I kinda knew what you meant, but the video made it very clear. Awfully strange app behavior, but it’s a good workaround until it gets fixed in an update.

Dave

[Dave Gage]

Oliver,

I guess I’ll wait until tomorrow and check with OWC since I haven’t had a working copy of Disk Warrior since the 90’s and it’s going for about $100 these days. Hopefully, they’ll know the right questions to ask me to determine if it’s a bad drive or RAID software issue or enclosure failure. It did sound to me like both drives are spinning up, but I suppose that doesn’t necessarily mean they are good either.

Thanks,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

Rafael,

(I appreciate you taking the time to go through this with me.)

You very well may be correct on this…

[Rafael Amador] “In “Field Dominance Override” you must set “Progressive”, then should work.”

…but based on the original article last paragraph:

“When I was trying to find the difference between the first and second import, I noticed the second had the Field Dominance Override set to “Progressive”. Aha, I thought…one could simply change this setting on the original first-import footage, and it will be interpreted as 29.97p. And at first glance, it appears to work. However, if you take this footage and put it in a 29.97p timeline, it will have to render, and this should be unnecessary. Just using a second import step eliminates this problem.”
https://www.rassoc.com/gregr/weblog/2011/12/02/editing-canon-30p-pf30-footage-in-fcpx/

I did end up buying the full version of ClipWrap yesterday and have started to re-wrap my files with the .MOV extension and it not only solves the PsF issue, but now allows me preview the files in QT 7, toss the not-needed files, and then re-name them before importing into FCP X (which ultimately works better for my brain and workflow). I have never been a big fan of the Camera Archive mess, so this also allows me to file away all my footage in a more understandable manner without having to first open FCP X.

Thanks again,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

Rafael,

I spent what may have been too much time last night researching this, but here’s what I came up with:

Writer Allan Tépper has a series of articles on just this issue and it’s essentially new info as of the last month or so.
—

In part 1 here,
https://provideocoalition.com/index.php/atepper/story/psf8217s_missing_workflow_em_part_1_benign_psf_versus_malignant_psf/

…he defines two new terms, benign PsF and malignant PsF. It appears that most of the Canon prosumer video camcorders like my Vixia HF S100 create the “malignant” type PsF file. In a nutshell, the camera creates a progressive file, but mis-tags it so that even the most recent versions of PP 5.5 and FCP X mistake it as an interlaced file. Here’s more from Allan on this:
https://provideocoalition.com/index.php/atepper/story/empsf8217s_missing_workflow_em_part_2_the_canon_xa10_camera/
https://provideocoalition.com/index.php/atepper/story/psf8217s_missing_workflow_part_7_adobe_premiere_pro_cs5.5.x/

It’s explained that this file must be modified slightly so that the editing program can correctly identify the file as progressive. Otherwise, FCP X will try to de-interlace a file that doesn’t need to be de-interlaced and will ultimately result in unwanted artifacts and lack of sharpness.

At this point, there appears to be two solutions:
https://www.rassoc.com/gregr/weblog/2011/12/02/editing-canon-30p-pf30-footage-in-fcpx/

Solution 1 for Canon PF30 – Malignant PsF- Simply import into FCPX twice:
-Use Import From Camera to import your footage into Event 1.
-Then, use Import Files, and import the files in Final Cut Events / Event1 / Original Media – and put them into a new Event 2.

Solution 2 for Canon PF30 – Malignant PsF- Use ClipWrap to pre-wrap the .MTS files and FCP X will recognize them as Progressive.
https://provideocoalition.com/index.php/atepper/story/psf8217s_missing_workflow_part_8_clipwrap_to_the_rescue/
https://www.divergentmedia.com/blog/fullpost/announcing_clipwrap_244_update
—

I will likely go with the ClipWrap solution as the free solution is just too many hoops for me to jump through to get work done. Once I’ve gotten the PF30 file correctly tagged as progressive, I will set up my new Project as 1280×720 HD, 29.97p and get to editing.

Thanks,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

Rafael,

[Rafael Amador] “1280x720p is also 29,97, although is not PSF as happens with 1080p30.”
I didn’t quite follow that. I am still shooting at 1920×1080 PF30 but using the 720p timeline for keyframed zooms and pans. I also must admit that even though I’ve read up on it a few times over the years, I’ve still not quite got my head around pulldown and the difference between 29.97 and 30. I wrongly assumed the files would come in as 30p by default based on the Canon camera settings.
—

Do you have a recommendation for this my situation? Can I just add my footage to the 720 30p timeline and have FCP deal with it on export? If I use ClipWrap to wrap first, the file does show up in the Inspector as 1920×1080 | 29.97, 1080p (vs. 1080i without first wrapping). If I go with the ClipWrap option, then I would set up a 1280×720 29.97p Project.

[I noticed that the 720p timeline still needs to render because I’m adding the 1080 footage to it, but if I set up a test 29.97 1080p timeline and add the wrapped file, there is no render bar.]

Sorry for the questions, I’m just not sure if this a big deal or not. As I’m finalizing my set up to do a ton of web tutorials, I figure I might as well try to nail down the workflow now before I get involved with the shooting and editing.

Thanks,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

Bill,

[Bill Davis] “So as with much else in X, moving it them via the finder is an excellent way to make sure that your program starts to screw up.”

Okay, I’m starting to get that now, but I was originally just following Apple’s suggestion of hiding Events and Projects via the Finder-
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT4740

I played around a bit more with it last night and whether I use an external drive or a .sparseimage, FCP X still wants the “Final Cut Events: Effect Browser Thumbnails” folder on the start-up drive Movies folder. (I wonder if this functionality is built into the program.)

On the bright side, it doesn’t look like this folder gets very big, so I guess I can somewhat permanently ignore it. And, if I’m using my external drive, without an actual Event within the Movies folder, it doesn’t show up in the Event browser. I was just worried that this might yet another thing to add to my long list of general OS maintenance chores.

Thanks,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

Andreas,

I haven’t had a need at this point for layer support, but I may for a new tutorial intro I’m making. I’ve give it shot.

Thanks,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

Thank you all for the replies. I was thinking I would end up with either PNG or TIFF so I’m glad to hear your thoughts. I like Kevin’s point that FCP X exports a frame as a PNG, so it does imply that it prefers PNG. I’ll give it a shot.

Thanks again,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

Rafael,

[Rafael Amador] “With QT/H264, “Multipass” already means three passes.
Seems that with this component is different.”

I didn’t know that. It seems that as much or more emphasis is put on the speed of the x264 conversion as on the ultimate quality. I didn’t see much quality difference between the x264 default 2-Pass and the 3-Pass, but even the 3-Pass seems fast enough for me.

Thanks,
Dave