If your client is in the performing arts, they must have seen Youtube clips showing on-screen timecode. During post-production that is how decisions are made. It is always HH:MM:SS:FF.

https://youtu.be/lPn0U7qnXaY

If done before import, the utility QtChange can rewrite the MP4 timecode so FCP can read it. It is super-fast and does not re-encode or even rewrap: https://www.videotoolshed.com/handcrafted-timecode-tools/qtchange/

The redundant C000…mp4 filenames are another problem. It is vastly better to batch rename those with a globally unique name before…

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Just taking a wild guess since we have no info on your versions or machine, but there was a bug in FCP 10.7.0 on Intel Macs (not Apple Silicon) that could cause a crash when using color wheels. It was supposedly fixed in 10.7.1.

For markers in the Event Browser, you can hover your mouse over those and see your marker info. Simply enable View>Browser>Skimmer Info.

If you assigned custom names for those markers, you can then search them using the search bar above the Event Browser.

You can create a Smart Collection that filters on markers by doing File>New>Smart Collection,…

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Kyrina, the 3rd-party MacWhisper utility can not only transcribe with high accuracy to an SRT file, but it can also translate at the same time. You can easily produce English and Spanish SRT files, import those to FCP via File>Import>Captions, and flip between them. Each one automatically becomes a separate audio role, visible in the timeline…

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I don’t think this has anything to do with FCP or video editing, but you could possibly follow some of the advice in this series of articles. If you need further help, you could probably get better advice on a MacOS forum.

https://www.makeuseof.com/mcafee-virus-pop-up-scam/

https://www.makeuseof.com/remove-quick-search-tool-hijacker/

Thanks, Ben. We gave him the same answer over on Apple FCP forums. Tom and I could not reproduce the problem.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254791414

The issue is when the black timeline thumbnails happen, does the multicam have footage on the MONITORED ANGLE? When you select a monitoring angle in the angle viewer, you are telling FCP “show me only this angle in the viewer”. Inside the multicam there may be footage at the playhead position — but if that footage is not on the monitored angle,…

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Doug, you are correct! The thumbnails shown on the timeline will switch based on the selected monitoring angle. If monitoring an angle where the parent clip stretches across the timeline, then no timeline thumbnails will be black. If monitoring an angle (yellow box in angle viewer) where it’s a short parent clip, then only that short length of the… Read more

This is just a guess, but I think the timeline thumbnails are not deleted by deleting render files. Also I think the multicam clip has separate thumbnails vs those for the parent clips. It might be possible for the multicam thumbnails to be corrupt or missing, yet the thumbnails for the parent clips to be OK.

There is no FCP command to delete…

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It crashed in thread 59. That was in a deep call stack involving “Helium” functions. Helium is a private FCP framework that is apparently related to video processing or rendering. It was processing a queue of items managed by Grand Central Dispatch (GCD). IOW it was likely a worker thread managed by GCD on behalf of the FCP application.

The crash…

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There are two ways cameras shoot slow motion: (1) Sensor and encoding frame rates are increased, with intention of retiming in the NLE, and (2) Sensor scan rate is increased but material is encoded at a lower frame rate and bit rate. IOW the slow motion is “baked in”. That is how the FX6 handles 120 fps material.

The FX6 can only do that frame rate…

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I have observed this problem when certain Thunderbolt arrays are plugged in, I begin a normal MacOS normal shutdown, then it reboots. Upon reboot it displays a kernel panic error log which sometimes refers to a shutdown I/O stall or (more recently) “Halt/Restart Timed Out @IOPlatformExpert.cpp:883”.

Unlike user-mode code where exceptions can crash…

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I believe EditReady can transcode X-OCN files to various codecs inc’l ProRes 4444. You could possibly do that then relink the ProRes files to your current project files. It would preserve most of the original source fidelity. The filenames and extensions would have to be the same.

I haven’t tested X-OCN with EditReady but they said on their web…

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I have both 27″ LG 5k and the 27″ Apple Studio display which I use on both M1 Max MBP16 and a M1 Ultra Mac Studio. The LG is good. However this is a good comparison of them which also reflects my experience:

Paul’s recommendation is good. I spend most of my time on a desktop machine and normally don’t need a laptop, but the M1 Mac laptops transform that experience.

I definitely would not get an Intel Mac at this point. I have top-spec 2015 and 2017 iMac 27, formerly had a 2013 iMac 27 and 12-core D700 “Trash Can” Mac Pro, a 10-core iMac Pro, and now…

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The fastest and safest way to clear up space is delete all render files. That’s done via File>Delete Generated Library Files>Delete Render Files>All. That does not delete optical flow or analysis files, which sometimes can be large.

Another approach is copy the project to a new library which will bring along just the media for that project…

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Examining another Blackmagic gyro-stabilized 24 fps clip shows it has the same unavoidable issue as Sony. So that 1st demo was not representative. Starting at 1:45 in this video the frame blurring is obvious in the stabilized case. It’s nice to have that option, the integration with Resolve is handy but it’s not a magic solution which eliminates…

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That Blackmagic gyro demo is good in that it’s mild and seems to avoid frame blurring or other artifacts. Here is a brief test I did with my Sony FX6 using Catalyst stabilization at 23.98 and 59.94 fps, both with 180-deg. shutter angle. Both were hand-held at 280mm which is a pretty severe test. Lens-based optical stabilization was off. This…

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If it’s any consolation you can transcode BRAW to ProRes using EditReady, which also can transcode REDRAW, Canon Cinema RAW Lite and ARRIRAW to ProRes: https://hedge.video/editready

You apparently have both audio and video with true SMPTE file timecode. If so the easiest method is use FCP ability to create a multicam clip with Use Custom Settings and for Angle Synchronization select Timecode. You can then skim the multicam clip in the browser and pull selects for the timeline. The reason for multicam vs sync clip is the…

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Libraries can be large in terms of data size, number of clips, number of edits, or some combination. Apparently your main concern is number of clips.

There is no documented limit, but practical experience indicates as you exceed 10,000 clips per event it may have problems. The FCP library is internally composed of several SQLite databases, one for…

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Each NLE and plugin implements morph cuts differently. They also vary in the available controls to adjust the cut. It’s similar to using a built-in stabilizer and finding it creates artifacts for a certain clip. You could file a bug or open a support case but it’s unlikely to be addressed in a time frame meaningful to your task at hand. The most…

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There is no possibility it’s caused by FCP transcoding. We know that because you tried recording the A7SIII HDMI output on a Shogun as ProRes and it still happened. In that case FCP did no transcoding.

Every implementation of the flow transition is unique — just like each NLE implements stabilization differently. Simply because one NLE stabilizes…

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Re ‘ghost’ images, the flow transition uses optical flow methods to calculate “in between” frames which should normally be morphed together. However if the subject has a large position change, you can sometimes see a ghost image.

This is not unique to FCP or material from the Sony camera. I tested this using the 3rd party plugin mMorphCut from…

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If MacOS crashes, that is either an OS-level bug, a 3rd-party kernel-mode driver or a latent hardware problem which surfaced upon an OS upgrade. In general, an app cannot cause an OS crash and there is no fix possible for an app to avoid that. This case would be likely better handled by MacOS support, and if directed to Pro App support they would…

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If the ProRes export is OK, it’s probably the H264 compression plus 8-bit luma. Even though FCP 10-bit HEVC export is slow on all x86 Macs, you could export a short range to test that. The above workaround about transcoding with Handbrake is another option which is much faster for a longer timeline.

To use only luma in an HSL color mask, see this…

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It is likely reduced bit depth of the MP4 file vs ProRes, not the encoding compression. If the original file was even more compressed HEVC, but 10 bit 4:2:2, it likely would not happen. The root cause is 8-bit material, a dark scene, a tonal gradient and a color mask. With only 8 bits per color channel it’s easy to run out of tonal values, which…

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Compressor can do optical flow rate conforming but I haven’t tried that. The issue is each scene must be checked. For some scene types it works perfectly. For others (say with complicated backgrounds and a dancer moving in front) it can cause morphing artifacts.

If that happens you then try the other rate conforming options such as nearest neighbor…

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The problem with 29.97 in a 23.98 timeline is motion cadence, or jerky movement on some types of movement. You can try FCP optical flow rate conforming. It can often smooth out the required rate conform, but it requires additional computation when rendering. Optical flow conforming can sometimes introduce morphing artifacts, but it generally works…

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Normally FCP will import AVCHD files by copying and re-wrapping them inside the library. Some people copy the .mts files outside the library bundle with Finder, then import them with “leave files in place”. That should never be done due to I/O performance issues.

In either case, simply deleting the references to those files within FCP will not…

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Reformatting the external drives as HFS+ or APFS (if SSD) is a good idea, regardless of whether if fixes the current problem. ExFAT is not a transactional file system so in some shutdown situations the file system metadata may not be properly maintained.

FCP is technically supported on ExFAT but it doesn’t support hard links which FCP uses…

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Are all drives used for FCP libraries and media — inc’l the new SanDisk 1TB SSD — formatted as MacOS Extended Journaled (aka HFS+), APFS, or something else like ExFAT? In general all drives used by FCP should be formatted HFS+ or APFS.

After you re-launch FCP and see the new errors, what if you pick one such file and begin the relink dialog.…

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Exporting a timeline of a clip selection (or consolidate with trim) with extra user-specified handles is a common need, especially when working remotely. I really wish FCP had that — provided it worked comprehensively and reliably.

In FCP you can export all clips used in a timeline with the event browser “used media” filter, but (a) not with…

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The built-in FCP color match tool is fairly simple and is not designed for complex cases. It does not know there’s a color card in the frame. This often gives the impression it’s not doing much.

Without using a 3rd party tool, you can use the procedure in this video to match shots from different cameras based on a ColorChecker chart. However IMO he…

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Try to export a full library XML, then create a new library and load that XML.

Matt, you already did several good troubleshooting steps. It crashed in the method FFEffectStack due to an unrecognized selector. I think it was technically an Objective-C language exception. The question is what effect was involved. I can’t tell from the crash log. Prior to that it was in the FCP framework “flexo”, which implements several key…

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Sorry to hear this. Normally FCP data integrity is excellent, esp. on directly-attached hard drives which are formatted APFS or Mac OS Extended Journaled (HFS+).

First make sure you have at least 20% free space on all drives. Then run Disk Utility First Aid on all drives to make sure there’s no filesystem problem.

The fact that weeks-old library…

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The term for the envelope that contains clips in a secondary storyline is the “shelf”.

Individual clips above the primary storyline are simply connected clips, or anchored clips. When one or more of those connected clips are placed in a secondary storyline, a visual shelf is created to contain them. Way back in 2012, Ripple Training discusses this…

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How do those media files look at each stage of the offload, conversion and import sequence?

If you play the original camera media file in Quicktime Player or VLC, what does it look like?

What about those same files played in Quicktime or VLC after conversion by EditReady but before import to FCP?

I have two A7SIIIs, an FX6 and shot for years on a DVX-200. The A7SIII and FX6 do very well in low light if you are at the “high base” ISO, which varies with color profile. For SLog3 the switchover point is 12,800.

However most other current or recent large-sensor camera also do well in low light. The Panasonic S1H does very well, but it doesn’t…

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I’ve seen that happen several times on Resolve 17.x and I think also in 16.x. What if you delete all render files and re-launch Resolve? Does it happen then?

I have used the DVX200. It was a nice step up from smaller-sensor, fixed-lens camcorders. But despite the M4/3 sensor, it’s definitely not a low light machine.

Low light is really, really hard, and 60 fps makes that even harder because it’s only gathering half the light per frame of 30 fps. Good quality low light performance generally requires a…

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I don’t see any sync problems on Catalina or Big Sur on my iMac Pro for Premiere-encoded H264 files viewed in Quicktime. I just tested a 4k/23.98 ProRes 422 file from a Sony A7RIII and Ninja V, imported to Premiere 15.1.0, exported as 4k/23.98 H264, and it played in sync on Quicktime and VLC.

If using an external monitor with audio separate from…

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There is no harm in renaming the backup drive, but the situation can become confusing if two drives with the same name appear in Finder.

There is a trick whereby you can tag one drive in Finder with an emoji character (keeping it visually distinct from a non-tagged drive with the same name), and this does not modify the drive name from the…

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If he’s literally dragging the library *and* all assets (IOW extra media folders besides library) to another drive, of course relink is required. The drive volume name has changed.

The scenario is confusing because it was originally described as a 100% “all internal” managed library. That is apparently not the case.

As previously explained, any…

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When you get a red thumbnail indicating missing media, can you select that one thumbnail, do File>Relink Files>Original Media, then (without relinking) look at the bottom of that dialog. In grey letters it should show the expected pathname to the file. You can resize the window horizontally if needed to show the full pathname.

What is that…

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If it lists another drive, then the media is not all internal to the library. Likely part of the media is on that drive.

When you say: “I backup on HDD drives”, does that mean setting the auto-generated FCP library backups to that drive, or is media is backed up there, or did you manually copy the FCP library there for backup?

When you say “every…

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If you open a “managed” library which supposedly has all internal media, and the media requires re-linking, it’s likely not inside the library. Media inside the library never requires re-linking.

If you click on the library in the left sidebar, then enable Inspector (CMD+4), at the bottom of that pane under “Storage Used” it will show what volumes…

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In past projects I have done #1 and #3. In general text-based translation is easiest and most common, but synchronized voice translation can be a more polished presentation. It can theoretically enable first-pass dialog editing by an English-only editor, since each language is on a separate audio track. It is also more laborious to achieve. The…

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