[Fabrizio D’agnano]

I just downloaded the ClipWrap trial version. It does the job all right. I imported a few rewrapped 1080i clips from the Canon’s card, and then imported them into FCPX. They show the correct “upper first” instead of “none set”. Checking the proper box the clips retained the camera content creation date, and I could see no visible change in quality. No need to render. So far so good!
Thank you!

Fabrizio D’Agnano
Rome, Italy

[Fabrizio D’agnano]

I am as well, but it seems that with FCPX I’ll have to get used to buying and using a few of them, for functions that on my opinion should have been contained in the SW. The need for a third party plug in for importing projects from the previous version still looks something strange to me, as is the need for an Event library manager or a real automatic project backup allowing to go back to previous versions. I need the 50 dollars ClipWrap to have my Canon AVCHD footage interpreted with the right field dominance, and I’m not the only person who uses Canon’s. FCP7 was old, but FCPX was redrawn from scratch and the issue was well known. Maybe people at Apple was not able to do what others did? I’d rather pay more for FCPX and have everything I need than having to look somewhere else. Maybe the next version will contain these missing features (the ability to import older FCP7 projects without launching the sw will be precious if the future MP or OS won’t allow FCP7 to be installed). Sometimes it really puzzles me, but I really love the new software.

Fabrizio D’Agnano
Rome, Italy

[Fabrizio D’agnano]

Thanks Dave.
Mine seems to be exactly the opposite, so interlaced footage gets labeled as progressive, but I guess it’s the same issue.
Going back to multiple clips field dominance override, I just tried to do it on my MBP (I had tried on the MP so far), so different install etc. I selected a bunch of Sony AVCHD 1080i upper first, went to the inspector and modified them to “lower”. I went back to the event browser and checked, and only the last one retained the change. The other reverted to “noe” or maybe were not affected at all by the change. I’ve checked the link you sent. I’ll try the ClipWrap tomorrow, it looks like it should work fine.
Regards

Fabrizio D’Agnano
Rome, Italy

[Fabrizio D’agnano]

Jeff, I think its not so easy in FCPX, at least if I import the media from within FCPX. I am afraid that fiddling with names, extensions and metadata could eventually lead to problems of some sort, or so I seem to have understood from posts on this forum. Actually, the clips don’t need to be fixed because they are 1080i and not 1080P. I don’t really need to transcode them. One thing I really like in FCPX is that I can keep a lot of clips without building huge sized ProRes files. I only transcode to optimized the good ones, but I can still keep the rejected ones in case I need a few seconds from one of them, without having to get back to the card DMG (in my line of work I end up with a ton of useless clips as I need to play record and wait for something good to happen, and it’s actually a few minutes in a few hours, say 10 good clips out of 100). If the problem is structural, so if FCPX does not allow me to modify multiple clips together, my best workaround could be working with them as they are playing the timeline on the external LCD and modifying the clips on the timeline once I am ready for the final output, and then double check the SD PAL file on a CRT monitor, or just waste some time after each import to manually modify them one by one. Anyway I’ll try a reinstall tomorrow before I give up.
Thank you

Fabrizio D’Agnano
Rome, Italy

[Fabrizio D’agnano]

Thank you Jeff.
The wrong interpretation is with the Canon’s only. It happens with HF 100’s, HF S100’s, HF M46’s and HF M406. It used to happen with FCP7 on Mac Pro’s, iMac’s and MBP’s, and sincerely I hoped it was no more an issue in FCPX, but it seems it still is. I also have a AVCHD Panasonic V700 for those action shots and the field dominance appears right. I hadn’t thought of trying to override the dominance to a bunch of clips coming from a Panasonic AVCHD or Sony HDV cam in the same system to see if the multiple clip fields dominance override fail issue is Canon AVCHD related or general. I will before reinstalling.
regards

Fabrizio D’Agnano
Rome, Italy

[Fabrizio D’agnano]

I was suggested an interesting application from DigitalRebellion called Pro Versioner. I have downloaded the trial and will certainly buy it, as it seems to work fine and do the job we need for keeping tracks of older edits or recovery.
Regards

Fabrizio D’Agnano
Rome, Italy

[Fabrizio D’agnano]

I really agree with Jason. I used to work on PC machines, some put together strictly following the Videguys tips, some more randomly assembling parts, others bought from reputable vendors. I mostly work on long projects, in terms of time the project is being edited and in minutes of duration. I often experienced crashes, corrupted and unrecoverable projects (backups carrying the seed of the incoming crash), and a collection of more or less serious problems nobody seemed to be able to solve (it could be the OS, no, it’s an Adobe problem, no, it’s the motherboard that conflicts with the graphic card…..). I remember I was once saved by a Japanese editor on a forum when I could not export a project on tape and I was on a dead end. He asked me if the total number of frames ended with a “5” or a “7”, for what I recall. I said “yes”, and he answered that with that combination of motherboard and other components I had, on long projects it had happened before, so I could just add or cut one frame, and he was right so I could export after a few days of aborted trials. Five years ago I bought two MP and an iMac, together with FCP. I never experienced a single real problem since, and when there was something wrong, the “closed dumbed down” system with HW, OS and editing SW coming from the same vendor helped narrowing the odds a lot. I have a very reliable set I can work with, and for me it’s much more important than saving a few seconds on a render or a couple hundred dollars in a five years time lapse. It just runs as smooth as silk, and I’d never consider a different option unless I’m really forced to.

Fabrizio D’Agnano
Rome, Italy

[Fabrizio D’agnano]

Thank you Tom.
Your help is precious as always. I just downloaded the trial and it seems the right tool.

Fabrizio D’Agnano
Rome, Italy

[Fabrizio D’agnano]

You’re welcome. I was saved by people sharing knowledge and experience in this great forum so many times that I am glad I can be of some help for somebody once in a while myself 🙂
Happy New Year to you!

Fabrizio D’Agnano
Rome, Italy

[Fabrizio D’agnano]

I am glad it worked. Before going for a replacement card I’d try to see if it was an hardware problem with it or just some corrupted file. You already have the .dmg on a drive, so you have a copy of the card content for trying a further recovery . I think you can initialize the card inside the camcorder, shoot a few clips, and see how it works. You can do it a few times, and it everything works fine, you can blame it on a corrupted file or such, saving the card for future use. I can’t help you about the software for converting the mts files to mov at full quality. At the time I had the same problem I downloaded a couple of cheap ones named “AVCHD Converter” and “SmartConverter”, both from the Apple Store, but I remember on of the two was not offering a full quality conversion. I have them at my office, I’ll be there tomorrow and I’ll check.

Regards

Fabrizio D’Agnano
Rome, Italy