[Johnny Robinson]

I have had the same question for months. It’s unbelievable how hard it has been to find the answer. This has been VERY helpful.
However before I try this, I need some clarification.
So I have a similar situation. 2 external drives. One is the active, the other the backup. Half TB of media in the bundle. I work on it every day and want to back up my edit decisions and any new imports without duplicating the whole thing.

When you say drag over…is this in Finder or in FCP?
Can I open 2 Bundles at the same time in FCP10.1 like I did projects in FCP7?
Or do I do the “Show Package Contents” thing on the bundles and drag contents?

Also what specifically am I dragging over?

Here’s the third wrinkle. I need to learn to do this without any backup software like carbon copy. Why? because I teach a video class and I have to pass this on to the kids in the lab where they have no backup application.
Thanks,
Johnny

Johnny Robinson
Johnny@johnnyrobinson.com

[Johnny Robinson]

I have some Panasonic P-2 MXF files where I dragged over the card contents (with the correct file structure and LAST CLIP file)
I need to transcode it to ProRes. I purchased the UFU Soft MXF Converter for Final Cut -X.
I can’t get it to work. I can see the video content and convert the files but it is sped up. It seem to think it was 30 fps when it was shot at 24. If it slow it down in the Final Cut Timeline you can see frames missing.

Another issue is that the Panasonic HVX shoots 4 tracks of audio and I must keep those discrete because the two onboard mic tracks are all noise. Normally I just delete them but UFU Soft MXF Converter is only giving me stereo. (Useless)

Reviews say this utility works fine but I can’t get ti to work. Anyone have success with it?

Johnny

Johnny Robinson
Johnny@johnnyrobinson.com

[Johnny Robinson]

I just put self adhesive velcro felt on the ND. We roll it up with the rest of our gels. The frame also holds silk or shiny blanket if need be. This works really well for waist up shots of people comig in a door. I put it behind them on the porch. The door opens normally.

Johnny Robinson
Johnny@johnnyrobinson.com

[Johnny Robinson]

I am often forced to gel on the outside. I am still convenced the answer is a sheer fabric.

Here’s my tip. I have a open frame with ND stretched on it. It happens to be about 16:9 so I hang it on a C-Stand and line it up so its just outside the frameline, between the talent & window. Also works for people coming in doors. Doesn’t apply every shot, but it’s great when it does.

Johnny Robinson
Johnny@johnnyrobinson.com

[Johnny Robinson]

Well Jeremy it might just be a solution.

I Created an HD sequence with the same frame size and frame rate and pasted the clips into it. A short export test worked. That didn’t thrill me, but it gave me hope.
Then I started the long render and sure enough, it’s cooking away.

If this works, the lesson to be learned will be this:
I assumed that the sequence presets should always match the media but not in this case.
I suppose Pro-Res is a publishing codec not an editing one. So FCP doesn’t have the ability to render OUT OF Pro Res, only the ability to render INTO it.

Johnny Robinson
Johnny@johnnyrobinson.com

[Johnny Robinson]

It’s 23.98 fps. A lot of people say 24 when they mean 23.98 (which is really 23.976)
No wonder we get all screwed up.

You brought up a good concept. The pre-history of this bugger was that I had a frame pull down problem with shifting cadence. (see creative Cow forum on compression) I fixed all of that by rendering out individual QTs and trimming them down to the A frame and then I brought them back in to successfully get them all into sync.

So I am now thinking that the setting are just so weird that FCP thinks there are no presets that fit.

Johnny Robinson
Johnny@johnnyrobinson.com

[Johnny Robinson]

Thanks for the suggestion> I tried it but it didn’t work.
This time I couldn’t even render in the time line much less for export.
It came up with that same alert
“Codec not found. You may be using a compression type without the corresponding hardware card.”

This is really aggravating. It looks great in the time line, HD, progressive, 24 fps. I just can’t get it out.

I’ll try making new sequences with different presets.

Johnny Robinson
Johnny@johnnyrobinson.com

[Johnny Robinson]

I solved the problem.
It is all a matter of starting the render from the first frame of the pull down cycle.
I had a 3:2 pull-down on the 30 fps footage. You could single frame through and see the 2 blend frames. The first frame was the first solid frame after the blend frames.
The problem was that this rendered footage was re-editied. At some of the cuts, the first frame was no longer the first one in the cycle.

So I went through and identified each place where that happened.
I cut the section of the movie out in QuickTIme 7 and then saved it aside. I trimmed it to make it ‘s first frame the first frame of the pulldown sequence.

Then I brought it back into Final Cut and rendered it from 30 to 24 FPS in Pro-Res and Boom! it worked. No blend frames no duplicated frames no missing frames. Just nice clean progressive movement.

I had to do that with each section that had rendered wrong. It was a feature film and had about 6 sections to deal with. It took a long day. I didn’t need any special software, Just QuickTime 7 and Final Cut Pro.

Johnny Robinson
Johnny@johnnyrobinson.com

[Johnny Robinson]

Looking at this footage, what I see is a 3-2 repeat that progresses as follows.

Frame 1 – complete progressive frame
Frame 2 – complete progressive frame
Frame 3 – complete progressive frame
Frame 4 – an interlaced blend frame made from frame 3 & the next one
ghost frame – half of this frame’s data is interlaced to back to 4 & half is interlaced to frrward to 5
Frame 5 – an interlaced blend taking half data from the ghost frame and half forward to the next.
Frame 6 & 1 – sequence repeats

The original motion blurs in the normal frames are not interlaced blur, it’s progressive.

Another observation is this:
One of the renders I did worked perfectly for some sequences creating perfect progressive frames with no drops. In other sequences in that render there were regular drop frames that look pretty bad. I believe this reflect a change of phase at the 6 or 7 basic edits we did after the reimport.

Johnny Robinson
Johnny@johnnyrobinson.com

[Johnny Robinson]

I’m sorry I not answering your question, I just want in on the stream because I have a very similar problem.
I am working with a high definition feature movie. It was originally shot in 24 (23.98) fps. However at one point in it’s convoluted life, it was converted to 30 (29.97) fps. This resulted, of course, in a pull-down with duplicate blend frames. This digital print is all we have. We can’t get back to the original 24 fps footage.

However I need to create a 24 fps version of it for distribution.
Every time I try, it creates a visible unacceptable movement stutter. I have exported from Final Cut and used Compressor and Quick Time 7 and I get several different results but they usually wind up with some blend frames or dropped frames that I see when I examine it frame per frame.
It is even possible to get back to 24 once video was changed to 30?
I am on a current FCP studio system.

Johnny Robinson
Johnny@johnnyrobinson.com