[Jeff Meyer]

Going back I see a pass-through for the audio, but not for the video.

That siad, if it’s taking three hours I’m hesitant to believe that your settings are the same unless you’re using a long GOP codec like H.264 or mp4 or the videos are three hours long. If you aren’t working in a RT codec like any member of the ProRes family or the DV family it would be wise to switch to such a codec along the way.

Alternatively, you could do a pass in Compressor with the video disabled, then reconnect to the audio re-encoded in Final Cut. This isn’t an ideal situation, but it would work quickly if transcoding is taking too long.

[Jeff Meyer]

You should be able to build a Compressor preset that will do a video pass-through and then dial in the audio settings you want.

[Jeff Meyer]

One thing you can do is convert to ProRes422 in Compressor and tell Final Cut to reference these files instead of the H.264 source files.

The procedure I would use for this would be as follows:
• Use the Save as command to copy of your project. Call it “Project name relinked” or similar.
• Open Compressor
• Go to the Destinations tab
• Create a new destination (+ button) close to where your source clips are. Perhaps make a ProRes422 folder where they’re hanging out. For 600gb of H.264 you’re looking at terabytes of space.
• Open the Compressor preferences
• Make the default setting Apple -> Formats -> Quicktime -> ProRes422 and the default destination your custom destination you created
• Drag your H.264 movies into Compressor. Hit Submit and Submit.
• Go to sleep for the night.
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• When Compressor is done make an H-264 folder where your H.264 clips are at and move them into this folder. This will make Final Cut unable to find the clips, which you want.
• Open your relink project up. Final Cut will tell you that x media files and x render files are offline. Pick reconnect. Point Final Cut to the folder with the converted ProRes media. It’ll relink to those clips and use them instead.
• Change the Compressor in your sequence settings to ProRes422.

If things go awry just put your H.264 clips back where they were and open the old project.

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As for the pitfalls, slow rendering, and general instability top the list. If you’re nesting rendered ProRes sequences you’ll probably be okay, but nesting H.264 sequences is asking for disaster. You could finish in H.264, make your sequence compressor ProRes422, export, and bring exported movies onto a final timeline instead of nested sequences.

[Jeff Meyer]

7200rpm is a worthwhile upgrade.

Also, make sure you get at least 8gb of RAM. You might do a bit of research, I’m pretty sure the Macbook Pros now accept 16gb of RAM, although Apple doens’t offer a 16gb upgrade for some reason. You can buy a 16gb kit from a 3rd party and upgrade yourself for about the same price as you can do an 8gb upgrade from Apple. Final Cut Pro 7 will do okay with 4gb, but Adobe’s Creative Suite will really come to life with extra RAM.

[Jeff Meyer]

You can set Compressor up to work very efficiently for you.

Open up Compressor.
Go to the Destinations tab.
Hit the + to create a local Destination. This is where your ProRes files will be exported to.
Open Compressor’s Preferences.
Change the default setting to Apple -> Formats -> Quicktime -> ProRes422
Change the default destination to the destination you created.

Now when you drag your files into the Compressor icon on the Dock literally all you need to do is hit submit twice. Compressor will find the appropriate video settings for you based on your mpg source clips.

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You might try using a Quick Cluster to speed up the process. Type Quick Cluster into Google to set one up. It’ll make Compressor seem extremely complex, but for what you’re doing it isn’t too complex. The only difference will be after you hit Submit you’ll need to change from “This Computer” to the name of the cluster you created before hitting submit a second time.

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Also, if you start with the mpg files one one drive and export ProRes to a different drive that can help.

[Jeff Meyer]

You can adjust a single clip, make your adjustment the copy that clip. Use butterfly-A to select all and option-V to PASTE ATTRIBUTES. Check audio levels and hit OK. All clips will now have that value. If your copied clip was at -2dB all clips will be at -2dB. They will not be at whatever value they had previously -2dB.

If you’re wanting to adjust sequences instead of clips on sequences nest all of your sequences onto a timeline, then treat them as clips would have been treated in the advice above.

Finally, the audio mixer (option-6) has a master fader. To be honest I don’t think I’ve ever used it, but it’s there.

[Jeff Meyer]

It’s anamorphic 4×3 SD.

[Jeff Meyer]

Generally speaking 50mbps is the setting you should use. If you’re covering a long event and quality isn’t paramount you can drop down, but CF media is cheap. If you’re shooting an XF against the XA-10 shooting at 35mbps would give you two cameras that match at 1440.

Also, if you want to go to an XF camera Final Cut X isn’t an option. I haven’t heard a timetable, or a good workaround from Apple or Canon.
Multicam is new to FCX as of a few hours ago, and it supports mixed media. I didn’t look too closely. Lacking the ability to open .fcp files it’s about as useful to me as Sony Vegas.

[Jeff Meyer]

I just packed an XF100 up to go out yesterday, and I’ve got a 60D on my desk at the moment. They all shoot 1920×1080 “full raster” HD. The full raster means they use square pixels.

The XF series cameras will shoot 1920 if you have them at 50mbps. If you drop down to 35mbps they’ll shoot thin raster 1440×1080. I haven’t tried the 25mbps setting, although I assume it is thin raster.

Also, check your Preferences at the Log and Transfer window when bringing XF footage in. Preferences is hiding under the gear icons. You’ll want to bring it in as ProRes422, not Native. Just like the EOS cameras the XF cameras are newer than Final Cut Pro, so you’ll need to install a plugin to use them with Log and Transfer.

[Jeff Meyer]

1) Did you shoot using an SLR such as the 5D2, or 7D?
2) Did you convert the footage to ProRes before beginning the editing process?
(There are numerous pages detailing proper workflow for SLR cameras in Final Cut Pro)
3) Are you using the internal drive on your MacBook to edit? You need an external, Firewire based drive for editing.