[Gary Askham]

Final Cut Pro has never supported multiple graphics cards – it’s a well documented issue and anyone who has spent any time installing FCP systems should know this.

I’d agree that after a fresh install a computer’s drives can be a bit scattered but in no way should this cause constant crashing.

I’ve never used the Canon XF305 but the Canon recommended workflow is to use their plugin to convert the footage to ProRes. This might take a bit of extra time but it will be a lot more stable and probably nicer to work with as a whole (All long GOP video is a pain in my opinion and to be avoided at all costs)

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FCP and Avid Technical Support
Air Post Production
Shoreditch – London

[Gary Askham]

An easy way to find out if it is a corrupt clip is to load the project without any media connected (easily done if your media is on a removable drive).

All the media will be offline but it will let you know if it’s the media or the project. If it’s a corrupt clip then I’d recommend using the trusted “divide and conquer” technique.

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FCP and Avid Technical Support
Air Post Production
Shoreditch – London

[Gary Askham]

I don’t blame FCP. And I don’t particularly think it is lagging behind the other NLE’s.

Sure Premiere allows you to work natively with h.264 using it’s Mercury Engine. But you need a specific NVidia graphics card for it to work properly… and even then I’ve heard people having issues with it. And Avid has it’s AMA function… which is great… but you still need to transcode everything if you want to play out to tape or export. You know those things we might occasionally need to do.

I personally avoid all Long GOP formats – even HDV which has been supported for years. I prefer my edit systems to be fast and responsive.

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FCP and Avid Technical Support
Air Post Production
Shoreditch – London

[Gary Askham]

You’re not screwed. This is actually how you are meant to work with the camera within FCP.

If you still have the original folder structure from your camera I would recommend that you download the Canon E1 Plugin from the Canon or Apple website and use FCP Log and Transfer. It’s the most fool proof way as the video is created within FCP for FCP.

Otherwise I would use Compressor and one of the ProRes presets.

(The reason for my initial reaction is that this is a very, very common problem which surfaces many times a day on the Creative Cow – maybe you just didn’t know the relevant term you were searching for)

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FCP and Avid Technical Support
Air Post Production
Shoreditch – London

[Gary Askham]

erm, sorry.

I mean – the codec from the Canon camera can not be edited in FCP and must be transcoded first.

Use any one of the following…

FCP Log and Transfer
Compressor
Mpeg Streamclip

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FCP and Avid Technical Support
Air Post Production
Shoreditch – London

[Gary Askham]

AAAAAAGGGGGHGHHGHGHGHGHGHGHGH!!!!

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FCP and Avid Technical Support
Air Post Production
Shoreditch – London

[Gary Askham]

Oh, my??!

Frame Size: 1920 x 1080
Compressor: H.264
shot on an XDCAM
Sequence preset: DV PAL 48Khz
Capture preset: Blackmagic PAL – Apple ProRes (HQ)
Device control preset: Blackmagic PAL 25
Video Playback: Blackmagic PAL – 8 Bit (720 x 576)

There are so many contradictions in there I don’t where to begin. You do know the key to an easier FCP life is to simply match your footage to your settings. Right?

(there are a few instances when you might want to ignore this but save that for more advanced users)

Your footage is 1920×1080 – make a 1920×1080 sequence.

You know that h.264 is not an editing codec, right? Of course you do. You’re on this forum and it’s mentioned about 20 times a day. As for XDCAM? It’s your call. Some people get on with it, some people don’t. I personally see it as little better than h.264. Do some tests and see how you get on.

As for your Blackmagic card? You don’t seem to be using it to feed a monitor so you probably don’t realise that having it set to PAL rather than 1920×1080 you are slowing down your system as it tries to deal with the signal you are sending it. You are probably better off disabling for the moment (F12). But then if you don’t have a monitor how are you to know that what you play to your deck is correct?

Oh… I’m not going to add any more unless you have any direct questions.

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FCP and Avid Technical Support
Air Post Production
Shoreditch – London

[Gary Askham]

If you have a nearby Post Production facility they should have a DigiDelivery service (or something similar).

Give them a hard-drive and they should deal with the rest (at a cost).

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FCP and Avid Technical Support
Air Post Production
Shoreditch – London

[Gary Askham]

In this case I don’t think it really matters what kind of codec it is or how it was captured. It’s a graphics card issue.

I’ve had this on a few systems and I find that there isn’t a specific fix – what I have done though is a combination of first restarting the FCP application, secondly pulling and reconnecting the DVI cables and finally re-seating the graphics card in the machine.

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FCP and Avid Technical Support
Air Post Production
Shoreditch – London

[Gary Askham]

You can buy a Blackmagic Video card for less than that DVI splitter and monitor your video properly.

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FCP and Avid Technical Support
Air Post Production
Shoreditch – London