[Fabrizio D’agnano]

There’s no way you can do it without an external box that converts the analog signal in digital via the fw. Check here: https://www.adstechnologies.com If the project is paid enough, you could get one of these boxes. You can find one on e-bay for cheap. If you were in Rome I would lend you mine :-). I don’t know if FCPX can capture straight from there (but I guess it should like it would with a dv or hdv tape, I am not familiar yet with the new tool), but if you have FCP7 you can for sure. The other way is going to a photo/video lab and have them do the job for you, and deliver you a few dvds. Most likely it will cost you more than the box, and you could still need the item in the future). I used my Pyro ADS to output a PAL dv or whatever other SD video to a CRT tv before building the master tapes, to check if fields where interpreted right all the way and I didn’t have any problems with flickering titles and stills.

Fabrizio D’Agnano
Rome, Italy

[Fabrizio D’agnano]

For the dvds, you’ll need a ripping software that allows you to extract video files from the video dvd structure. I seem to remember MPEG Streamclip could do it. You can make it with the software only, since the dvd files are already digital, and once you have the files, you should be able to import them. To ingest the footage from the tapes you’ll need a player and a card with analogue in, like a firewire Pyro ADS or similar. I don’t know if FCPX can do the ingest, but usually the cards come with very easy ss that can do it, and once you have the files, you can import them. What system are you running?

Fabrizio D’Agnano
Rome, Italy

[Fabrizio D’agnano]

The same goes for me. I am delivering, in the next two days, four new documentaries I edited with the good old FCP7. After that, I have some time before I deliver the next two, so I’ll try to start and hopefully finish them with FCP X. I already prepared a Mountain Lion drive and FCPX 10.0.6, bought and went through the Ripple training tutorials, and I am mentally ready to try. The latest release made me believe Apple is not really dumping the pro niche, so I’ll keep trusting them for giving me the reliable tools I need to get my work done. And if a new MacPro doesn’t come soon, I might be tempted with a new iMac 27″….

Fabrizio D’Agnano
Rome, Italy

[Fabrizio D’agnano]

Thank you Stefan, but it does not seem to work. Maybe I’m doing something wrong, but I can’t find the real clip, that’s what I’d like to do. If I search the AVCHD structure, I don’t have a single .mov file I can drag, copy, move or whatever. I can see a preview of the file only inside a software. Now if I import one of the clips, Premiere seems to work on the original clip inside the AVCHD structure. Now if I erase the card copy or eject the card itself I don’t have the clip anymore. I was asking if there was a way to create a single clip in one step from the AVCHD structure that is independent from the structure itself, like it is when I log and transfer a clip in FCP7 creating an independent .mov. The .mts file alone does not seem to show.
Thank you

Fabrizio D’Agnano
Rome, Italy

[Fabrizio D’agnano]

My opinion is you should better keep on editing in FCP7. First, you already spent several hundred hours learning it (your words), so it would be pretty hard to finish your work any sooner in FCP X. Given it’s a completely different interface and workflow, you should spend about the same time in it to achieve the same skills. Say it’s actually faster to learn (I happen to find it much harder, but it could be just me), say 50% faster, you would still not profit on this editing two short projects already at 15%. You say you do not have money to waste, and I gather you already have a FCP7 license and some plug in’s, so I would not spend the extra money. About FCP X being future oriented, I agree with Dominic. Maybe it is for Apple, but I still have to see if it is for me as well, after buying a license right after it was on the market and after having spent some time on it (I am a professional free lance film maker delivering about 12 x 24′ underwater documentaries per year to a satellite TV channel, about 12 years on this market). I don’t like the trackless magnetic timeline, the FCP X driven media management, the limited options when working with multiple displays, the impossibility of renaming the file to match clip, or naming the clips with a meaningful name on capture, the impossibility to export a portion of the timeline without having to send it whole to compressor and setting the in and out points there, and a few other things. I really don’t get why they could not just add the new features as options to the existing and working structure, together with an upgraded support to newer formats and cameras, or having to build the new software from scratch, why they forgot or left behind so many crucial issues. I think the next FCP X upgrade and the next release of a new Mac Pro will tell us something more, so I’d wait.
Best regards

Fabrizio D’Agnano
Rome, Italy

[Fabrizio D’agnano]

Thank you David.
Your comment, together with those of other professional editors who are more open minded and ready to experiment new roads than I, are making me seriously reconsider the option. Most of the ones who adopted FCPX as an editor point out to the fact that it is faster and that immaturity problems are minimal after the latest release, so I am giving it (or should I say myself) a longer and more accurate try. Apart from the workflow and interface, that are something one can get used to, I met a few stability issues, even if the projects were just short tryouts, with both my Mac Pro and MacBook Pro, so I’ll keep one feet in two shoes for a while.
Regards

Fabrizio D’Agnano
Rome, Italy

[Fabrizio D’agnano]

I tried again and it works for me. It works if you choose a SD 720×576 (PAL in my case) setting for your project. The if you put HD clips on the timeline and choose “share”, export media” the IMX settings will appear among the video codecs. It seems to me, given I am not an expert so far and maybe I am missing something or have not completely understood the workflow, that projects and export settings are limited outside compressor.

Fabrizio D’Agnano
Rome, Italy

[Fabrizio D’agnano]

Yes, you have to make your own.
You have to build a new custom preset, then, into the inspector window, under the “encoder” tab, open the “settings” window after “video”, and choose the MPEG IMX you need.
IN FCPX, the IMX settings appears as an export option if you placed an IMX clip on the timeline as the first clip, this making the project IMX (I couldn’t do it from the presets).
Regards

Fabrizio D’Agnano
Rome, Italy

[Fabrizio D’agnano]

Thank you Jeremy, it works fine!

Fabrizio D’Agnano
Rome, Italy

[Fabrizio D’agnano]

Thank you Jeremy.
It doesn’t seem to work. I modified the export setting as you suggested and tried to first export the FCPX timeline and then a ProRes file with the four tracks, but both the compressed files show a stereo pair.

Fabrizio D’Agnano
Rome, Italy