Joe Marler
22
Apple Final Cut Pro X Coins
39
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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[Jeff Kirkland] ” imported to a FCPX camera archive, then brought into FCPX and the Thunderbolt RAID for editing.”
That is the only procedural difference between what I’ve done. Can you try importing a camera file directly into FCP X (without optimization) and see if it makes a difference? I know it’s illogical since it should not make any difference.
You could try putting a camera file on your internal SSD drive and experimentally importing from there. Of course that should not make a significant difference vs Thunderbolt RAID but it’s something to try.
As one last step, try importing a single clip into a separate test library. If you have only tried a large production library, maybe something associated with that is bogging down your playback.
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I have played back and edited 4k and 1080p .mov and .mp4 GH4 material on my 2013 iMac many times without problems in FCP X. At 4k without optimized media it can be a little sluggish if playback (upper right of window) is set to “better quality”, but at “better performance” it works smoothly.
I wonder if there’s a problem with specific material you’re using? If you download 4k GH4 .mov and .mp4 clips from Vimeo can you play those in FCP X? That might help isolate whether it’s your specific camera files or a wider problem.
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[Craig Alan] “…what drive do you recommend and still remain portable?…is the
2.8GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 4.0GHz [Add $200.00] worth it?….The 1TB HGST Touro S is the fastest USB 3.0 bus-powered portable drive I’ve tested so far. It does about 130 MB/sec.
Re $200 bump for 2.5 to 2.8Ghz i7, it’s only 12% faster but then every little bit helps.
If you will truly be editing on the road, then maybe it’s worth it. However in many cases we intend to edit on the road and just end up shooting. The only editing is producing some rough dailies, which you don’t need a top-spec MacBook Pro for. This varies based on your workflow and production style. If I was really editing I’d want a pretty high end MBP.
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IMO the easiest solution is using FCP Library Manager, which is a very cheap, simple-to-use utility: https://www.arcticwhiteness.com/finalcutlibrarymanager/
I have no relationship to the company, just a user.
There are various other utilities to track down space consumption. I personally like Araxis Folder Size Explorer: https://www.araxis.com/folder-size-explorer/
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[Ben Lithman] “I have some footage that was shot on a relatively cheap camera @ HDV 1080p 25. Any shot that was taken while on a tripod and involves slowly panning let or right has a horrible judder to it.
Does anyone know of any filters or techniques that can smooth this out a little…?”
You can try FCP X built-in optical flow smoothing. This requires slightly retiming the clip (which could be just 99% or 101%). Select clip then pick menu Modify->Retime->Custom Speed, and pick 99% or 101%. Then Modify->Retime->Video Quality->Optical Flow. See if that helps any.
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[Gerry Fraiberg] “What is your preference for backup drives? I need to start moving completed libraries off my system. “
My first suggestion is delete any non-essential optimized/render/proxy files, else you’ll be backing up extraneous content. You can do that manually, but I prefer Final Cut Library Manager. It is the fastest, easiest, safest way to reduce volume of backup data: https://www.arcticwhiteness.com/finalcutlibrarymanager/
For general files I use Araxis Folder Size Explorer to find wasted space: https://www.araxis.com/folder-size-explorer/
For duplicate files I’m still evaluating various utilities, but MacPaw’s Gemini is pretty fast: https://macpaw.com/gemini
Re external hard drives, I have about 100 terabytes of various types. USB 3 is usually OK. Externally-powered drives are generally faster, but can be a hassle if you have many to deal with.
Most bus-powered USB 3 drives are somewhat slow 5400 rpm units, but this may not matter for long-term archival backup. Most are 1TB or smaller but Seagate has a 2TB “Backup Slim Plus”: https://www.cnet.com/products/seagate-backup-plus-slim/ Despite claims it’s very fast, my own tests showed it was only about 40 megabytes/sec. The fastest bus-powered USB 3 portable drive I’ve tested is the 1TB HGST Touro S, which does about 130 megabytes/sec: https://www.touropro.com/en/product/touro-s/
Seagate has a 4TB bus-powered USB 3 drive called “Backup Plus Fast”. Internally it is two 2TB drives in RAID0. However it requires two USB ports, probably because it draws more current than a single USB 3 port can provide: https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2457694,00.asp It’s also more expensive than an externally-powered 4TB external drive.
I have several Fantom externally-powered hard drives, ranging in capacity from 2TB to 4TB. They have been very reliable. I like them because the metal case is sturdy and can be stacked up pretty high in a storage cabinet. This 4TB unit is 7,200 rpm: https://www.amazon.com/Fantom-Gforce3-External-Drive-GF3B4000U/dp/B009YRMH2Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1419004776&sr=1-1&keywords=fantom+4tb+hard+drive
The WD My Book 4TB is fairly inexpensive and some sources say it’s 7,200 rpm, but I haven’t tested it yet: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E3RH61W/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00E3RH61W&linkCode=as2&tag=itemr-20&linkId=2IDUPJIMCDEYTLRP
Usually if you format and use the HDD, reliability is pretty good. However — there’s no built-in tool in OS X to scan the surface and verify that. There are various 3rd party tools for this. Of the below I prefer ScannerZ because it’s very focused and does one thing well: scan hard drives for errors.
ScannerZ: https://scsc-online.com/Scannerz.html
Drive Genius: https://www.prosofteng.com/products/drive_genius.php
Tech Tools Pro: https://www.micromat.com/products/techtool-pro -
[Sebastian Howard] “However, I still couldn’t check the “Leave files in place” option…AVCHD is indeed an Interframe format…the codec inside is none other than H.264…these files still remain Not-Frame-Accurate. And that’s an issue for me. Plus they can get buggy for a number of other reasons when you start to apply filters and other effects like colour grading and speed changes…So bringing AVCHD into FCPX natively is no different than bringing in footage from the Canon 5D….the source footage remains 4:2:0 and thus a lower quality, especially with regards to colour space.”
You should be able to select “leave files in place” if you copy the AVCHD bundle to your local hard drive. FCP X disallows that option (for obvious reasons) on the camera card.
You’re right AVCHD is an interframe codec, but so is MPEG-2, MPEG-4, XAVC and XDCAM. We rely on the codec to reconstruct the P-frames just like we rely on the codec to reconstruct the missing macroblocks within each frame.
I personally have never found a problem with using AVCHD, MPEG-4 or any other interframe codec in FCP X. I have tested the all-intraframe codec (All-I) on my 5D Mark III. It produces 3x the file size at 3x the bit rate, but I can’t see any significant difference in image quality or editing.
However I am biased toward documentary work, where our shooting ratio is typically 50:1. If I transcoded all that before or during import it would be a huge task.
If I was shooting mainly scripted narrative, I might record straight to ProRes using an Atmos Ninja or similar. That would still effectively be 4:2:0 from the 5D3, regardless of the storage codec because that’s all the camera sends.
Vincent Laforet shot “Reverie” at 4:2:0 on a 5D2 and nobody complained. However he transcoded to ProRes for editing since that was on Final Cut Studio. But he did that because he had to — Final Cut back then wouldn’t edit H.264.
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[Sebastian Howard] “I then re-converted in CLIPWRAP leaving the frame rate un-touched. This resulted in the same file sizes (since the number of frames didn’t change, only the number of frames per second.)
Although the file size was significantly reduced (30%), I decided to stay with the FCP-optimized media as I was concerned about quality and grade-ability of the footage. I know the original quality of the source file in AVCHD can’t be great to start with and therefore not very grade-able anyway but I figured I would keep my chances on my side with a higher bit-rate.”
You can just import the AVCHD package directly into FCP X. I usually copy the camera native folder tree (presented in Finder as a single file package) to the Mac then import from there — usually without optimized media. This is from a Canon XA25 with 1080p/60 material at 28 megabits/sec.
The FCP X import dialog is aware of the AVCHD package and you don’t have to drill down to locate the video files.
Clipwrap is great if you need easier Finder-level access to the files. However converting before importing adds a (mostly) unnecessary step. In general FCP X on a modern machine can edit most camera native files with adequate performance and quality. If for some reason you later want to selectively create optimized media on specific clips, this can be done within FCP X after import. Just CNTRL-click on the clip in the media browser, select Transcode…. and pick “optimized media”.
It is often assumed editing optimized media is superior to camera native media regarding color grading, etc. As this article shows, that’s not necessarily the case: https://www.macprovideo.com/hub/final-cut/fcp-x-the-truth-behind-performance-with-optimized-media
My advice is do a few simple tests with optimized vs native media, rather than automatically transcode everything (with all the associated costs) assuming it’s automatically better.
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24 or 25 fps source is more susceptible to judder when panning or during rapid subject movement. If 25 fps source is output from a modern digital projector at 25 fps, you’ll see some judder in the above cases — especially on a large screen. Cinema directors of photography are trained to minimize this when shooting — they know how fast they can pan and how fast a subject can move at a given focal length and camera-to-subject distance before risking judder.
One modern solution is motion smoothing but there are many different types of smoothing algorithms. Some work better than others. The motion smoothing (aka frame interpolation or motion interpolation) can be done during render, by the playback device or the viewing device. For many decades there was no motion smoothing in the theater — The DoP just had to shoot it right.
Re your projector saying 50 fps, there are several possibilities: your NLE project might be 50 fps and when you imported the 25 fps material it conformed it using some algorithm, probably frame repeating. When rendered or played from the Mac it is actually outputting 1080p/50, with each frame repeated twice.
Another possibility is your NLE project and output file are 25 fps, but the projector is doing frame repeating. Check your projector documentation and see if you have adjustable settings for this. Maybe it’s using an “auto” setting and for some reason it switched to 50 fps.
Anytime the material is confirmed, filtered or converted there’s a possibility of degradation. Normally I wouldn’t expect that for frame repeating, but you never know.
So you apparently have two separate issues: the frame judder problem and the quality degradation. They may or may not be related; you’ll just have to experiment and see.
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The only thing I can think of is laterally moving objects naturally have some “frame judder”. It is easier to see on a big screen. It’s more noticeable at 24 frames/sec but at 30 (29.97) fps you can sometimes see it. On a small screen it can be there and you won’t notice it as much. It’s possible your Blu Ray player has some kind of de-judder or frame interpolation or video smoothing built in.
You can also add motion compensation when you render the project. FCP X has optical flow smoothing but I’m not sure that’s appropriate. Compressor has a motion compensation function but I haven’t experimented with it.
There are various types of frame interpolation (sometimes called motion interpolation or optical flow). Some newer TV monitors and projectors have it. Likewise Some software players like Cyberlink PowerDVD have it. VLC has it for some codecs, but how to use it and the various parameters aren’t well documented.
If you can see it on the big screen when played from your Mac, but you don’t see it when played from the Blu Ray player, this implies either the player or the Toast software added some kind of motion compensation.