Don Greening
Forum Replies Created
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[Brad Mirman] “It constantly needs to be rendered after closing FCP. Can’t figure out why this is “
Is there a Smooth Cam filter applied to that one clip?
– Don
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Similar problems have happened to me in the past. You can start by trashing FCP’s preference files. If you’re unsure how to do this then download this free app that will do the job for you:
https://www.digitalrebellion.com/pref_man.htm
Once the program is installed, start it and click on the Advanced Tab. For now, just make sure that the only check mark is beside the Final Cut Program and then click on the “trash selected items” icon at the bottom of the window. Now when you start FCP it will have a new set of preference files. Later, you’ll be able to configure FCP to your liking, save those prefs. with Preference Manager and when FCP starts acting weird again you can trash prefs and then use your back up prefs saved in Preference Manager.
Anyway, make sure that you’ve got a good firewire connection between your computer and video deck (XL2?) If you’ve been dropping frames during capture then either the connection is sketchy, the tape transport of your camera/deck has issues, or FCP prefs are corrupted. Don’t turn off “Warn of dropped frames during capture.” You need this turned on to make sure everything’s capturing properly. Turn it off and you’re going to get clip mismatch issues like you’re experiencing now.
– Don
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[Cade Muhlig] “One disadvantage I saw is when switching to 30p from 60i I lost light.”
Yes, indeed. Progressive needs more light than interlaced. To be honest, you’re going to get as many messages of advice about what shooting format to use as there are shooting formats.
If I was shooting for “man vs. wild” I’d be phoning Discovery Channel and asking them what they want.
I shoot 1080 30p but I’m not shooting broadcast stuff. HD Pioneer Gary Adcock is quoted as saying that “Interlaced is a delivery format, not an acquisition format.” Your choice of what to shoot is directly tied to what your client wants. If you’re shooting for yourself then I would go 24p for regular stuff because it’s easier to convert to 29.97p, 25p or 59.94i than 30p is. If you’re shooting fast paced stuff like sports or racing then I’d shoot 720 60p.
– Don
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Thanks for the info, Raf. Remember when the first Century W/A adapter came out for the EX1? It was found to have issues and they took it off the market. It’s nice to know that the replacement works properly. It retails for $1235.00 which is more than twice the price of the Sony .8 adapter. I think I paid around $450.00 for mine back in 2008. The Century .6 adapter lists for $490.00 at the Schneider web site.
– Don
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Since no one else is lending a hand here I’ll have to do more research on this. I do know that you can rename or at least add metadata to a clip in Sony’s Clip Browser before it re-wraps the native MP4 to MOV for FCP. Once you’ve done that in order to save your changes you click the update button in Clip Browser’s preview window (lower right). That usually makes the changes stick.
– Don
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[Jim Watt] ” but I’d like to know why the item properties are stil lsaying it’s a 4:3 shot. “
Probably because all SD footage is 4:3 regardless if it’s full screen or widescreen. If an SD camera shoots 16:9 (such as a Canon XL2) there will be a tag in the video stream that flags it as SD Anamorphic. In a FCP SD timeline the anamorphic footage will (in some cases) still default to a 4:3 frame that’s squeezed. To change the frame size just put a check mark in the anamorphic box in the clip’s properties in the Browser.
– Don
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[Andy Morin] “is there a way to change the codec from the XDCAM Transfer?”
Nope. XDCAM Transfer will re-wrap the native MP4 to MOV but it’s still the same codec. Clip Browser can turn your HD footage into SD or iPod footage but none of these programs will change from the XDCAM EX codec to something like, say, Pro Res or DVCPro HD, for example.
Your options for changing from the EX codec to something else before you use FCP would be:
- Record to an attached external device like a Nano Flash or a Ki Pro
- Use Compressor to transcode to another codec
I hope I’m on the right track and have answered your question.
– Don
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[Andy Morin] “Should I be preparing my XDCAM footage before I import into FCP”
FCP is quite capable of editing XDCAM EX footage natively. There’s no need to transcode to anything else unless you’re editing other types of footage along with it. Just set your renders to Pro Res in the sequence settings menu.
– Don
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The overview by Max Reid is right on the money. The adapter adds a kilo of weight to the front of the camera. if you can work with that then this add-on W/A is a bargain from the money Sony is asking, which is about half of the cost of a Century piece. You get about a 20% – 25% increase in field of view over the stock EX lens. I use mine quite a bit.
– Don
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[Sally Biasiutti] “However, sometimes the program will not let me rename the source”
Are these files by any chance spanned clips between one or more cards?
– Don