[David Eaks]

[Dave Gage] “[Julian Bowman] “Auto cross fade, on/off.”

And then there’s this…
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/344/18364“

Yeah, and because of that bug (which I’m still seeing after recently updating to ML 10.8.4 and FCPX 10.0.8) I’d recommend against working with expanded audio for the most part. Except stuff like: expand, drag L-cut, collapse and similar operations, they seem ok. Just don’t make a cut in an expanded clip. It sucks, I know. Please send feedback to Apple.

[David Eaks]

Hi Bobby,

I don’t really see any advantage to copying only the mts files, yet there are many potential downfalls to doing so. Just copy the entire card, with all of its folder structure, every time. Making this your standard procedure will undoubtedly save you some skin sooner or later.

[David Eaks]

Have you looked into the sparse disk images workflow? I’m not using them, but I think you could achieve something at least similar to what you want.

A search for “FCPX Sparse disk image” should turn up all kinds of results.

[David Eaks]

There has been much discussion about HD to SD for DVD, without ever reaching a concrete “this is the absolute BEST way to do it” (that I’m aware of). In my experience, following a recent article from Larry Jordan describing a method for downscaling HD to SD, provides an excellent SD file to use for compressing mpeg for DVD-
https://www.larryjordan.biz/convert-high-definition-to-standard-definition-video/

Here’s a recent thread discussing details of that method and some other methods, along with some examples that I posted-
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/1176066#1176171

I’m interested to hear others opinions, with real world examples/advice. As this discussion never seems to end with a real resolution or feedback on the results from the original poster.

*I don’t work in PAL and can’t advise on any specifics to that format

[David Eaks]

Yeah, similar to FCPX. No save button in the menu and it logs every keystroke.

[David Eaks]

I second the Matrox CompressHD (or MAX enabled MXO2 device) recommendation for accelerating h.264 encoding.

[David Eaks]

Thank you for taking the time Rafael, I appreciate your detailed reply. This is the type of technical info I was hoping for when I commented on Larry’s article, but I didn’t get it.

For reference, my advice was: Larry’s method BUT with Frame Controls (FC) on for producing the “best” quality (not necessarily meaning best possible in the world). I still argue that using Compressor to downscale HD Prores to SD Prores (with Frame Controls either on or off) produces a very nice downscale.

I just did a test encode with a custom preset which I made in Compressor when Larry released the article I linked. It follows his method precisely. I applied the setting to a Job with a random short clip of 1920x1080i Prores twice. One of them I left as is, the other I turned on FC resize/deinterlace set to better, not best. Submitted the Batch resulting in two versions of the same video.

With FC off, the encode took about 4 minutes

With FC on, it took about 40 minutes

Both look nearly identical when played side by side.

I also did a test with the same 1920×1080 clip in FCPX with the sequence settings changed to NTSC SD 720×480 Anamorphic. Then exported SD Prores Master File. It exported in 1:15.

Here is a comparison video, Youtube butchers the quality so I also included a screenshot of the QT 7 Player window at actual size. It shows what Larry’s “FC OFF” method looks like to me, here on my Mac.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFx99VvhNTU&feature=youtu.be

With all technicalities, math and science aside, I must say that Larry’s method produces a very good resize to SD, when judged by looking at the results with my eyes. I think this SD Prores gives a great starting point for Compressor to compress and burn with Apple DVD Best Settings.

I DO NOT argue that this is higher quality than your suggestions. I DO argue that the statement “that’s a very poor workflow” gives the impression that the Larry’s method will produce a low quality, ugly to the eye video. It does not.

No matter what, I’m having fun with this and look forward to more.

[David Eaks]

Lol, really validates the difference between a “photographer” and a “person with a camera”.

One depicts the excitement of a crowd of fans around their glorious champions. The other shows some sad looking guy lugging a big silver thing, maybe going to get it appraised at an antique roadshow?

[David Eaks]

Hi Greg,

1- Yes and be sure that you are booted up on the ML disk before downloading and installing FCPX.

2- No and if you did it would technically be an “upgrade install” instead of a “clean install”

But before installing Mountain Lion from the App Store download, I’d recommend at least copying the installer to another drive. That way you won’t have to download it again if you need to install it on another Mac. The App store Mountain Lion installer will delete itself after installation.

Here’s an article on creating a bootable install disk from the download-
https://www.macworld.com/article/1167857/how_to_make_a_bootable_mountain_lion_install_drive.html

[David Eaks]

Thanks for the reply Rafael, have you actually tried the method outlined in Larry’s article? For reference, it is not a very old article, posted in April I think.

I’d be interested in your opinion, with real world testing, on the quality of the HD to SD downscale then burning with Apple DVD Best.