[Kevin Patrick]

Thanks Robert. After Kevin Monahan pointed that out, I gave it a try. They do in fact play back in real time on the Program Monitor. However, the reference monitor functions the same way with the scopes, no real time play of the video. But, at least I have a solution to view the scopes in real time.

Per Kevin suggestion, I submitted a feature request to Adobe.

Dang. Only a couple of weeks into being a new PP user and I’m already asking for stuff.

[Kevin Patrick]

Well that’s too bad. Kind of surprised that hasn’t come up as a required feature for those doing simple color correction with Premiere Pro.

I followed your suggestion and submitted a feature request to Adobe.

[Kevin Patrick]

Looks like you need a CUDA (Mercury Engine) graphics card, which means an NVIDIA card. CUDA is not supported on any ATI products.

I just recently moved to Premier Pro as well. I purchased a Quadro 4000 for the Mac. I’m not sure if there is a really a difference between the “for the Mac” version or not. I got mine at newegg, Apple charges more for the same card.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133367

Get the 4000, not the 4800. See some benchmark comparisons below. The 4800 is no faster (but more expensive) and you can see the “fast” ATI card is much slower running Premiere Pro. I did not use the Slave setup shown in these benchmarks, which seems to make a noticeable difference with DaVinci Resolve. With the Slave setup, you put the Quadro 4000 card in the second PCI slot. I’m guessing the card in the first slot does more “stuff” in general, freeing up the 4000 in the second slot to do more CUDA work. I’ll probably wind up making this change, since I have a second graphics card, driving a second monitor. I wound up getting one of Apple’s Cinema LED display with Display Port connector. Rather than buy a $199 adapter (see link below) to go from DVI (from my old 8800 card) to Display Port, I bought a $149 NVIDIA GT 120, also supported and sold by Apple. In fact, I think Apple is the only place to get one. I’d buy one, just for the cheap Display Port connection. Plus, I now have only NVIDIA cards in my system. I’m sure if I used ATI and NVIDIA I’d be on some other forum trying to resolve some weird compatibility issues.

https://barefeats.com/wst10g11.html

https://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/mac_accessories/displays?n=graphic_cards&mco=MTM3NDc3MTI&s=topSellers

There are people using other NVIDIA cards which may be faster and usually hotter, but they are not supported by Apple. At least in terms of drivers. Apple still sells the 4000 and I dropped mine into my Lion based system with no added drivers. I popped out my 8800 NVIDIA card, popped in the 4000 with no issues. You do have to install the latest NVIDIA CUDA SW. Without the CUDA SW, you’ll notice that Premiere Pro only has the option for SW based Mercury Engine. (Project > Project Settings > General) The 4000 will work without the CUDA SW, so it doesn’t matter when you install it. But, you have to have it for Premiere Pro to run faster.

I got the latest CUDA driver here:

https://blogs.adobe.com/premiereprotraining/2011/06/quadro-4000-driver-and-cuda-driver-update-for-mac-osx-v10-6-8.html

One thing I have not researched yet, is whether or not dual 4000’s would provide Premier Pro or DeVinci Resolve with even more power. Or if I’ll even need it.

Mac Pro 3,1
Quad Core Xeon, 3.2 GHz
Lion 10.7.1
24 GB RAM
NVIDIA 4000 Quadro
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120
OWC 480 GB 6G SSD
eSATA RAID

[Kevin Patrick]

First, I’ll tell what someone suggested to me that almost worked. Then I’ll ramble about my experience.

I was told to do the following:

In the Event Browser, select the clip that has the Modified File issue.
Choose Open In Timeline.
Then, re-import the clip into the Event Browser.
(you should now have two versions of the same clip, one that works, one that doesn’t)
Select the newly imported clip and Overwrite the bad clip that you just Opened In The Timeline.
(obviously, not the timeline where you’ve done all your work with the bad clip)
This might fix your issue. Meaning, FCPX might have “re-connected” the file.

For me, this didn’t fix the issue. All the work I did on the clip in my Timeline still had the Modified File issue. But, when I looked at the media in the Event Browser, most but not all of the clip came back. The first 4:42 of the clip had the Modified File issue, the rest was fine. But, it didn’t fix anything on the Timeline I had worked on.

Now, the rest of this post talks about what I have done/tried to fix the issue.

Here’s what I’ve found out:

You can only use File > Import > Re-import From Camera Archive … if you not only imported from a camera, but you also created an archive. I imported a file from a hard driver.

You can re-import, but that only provides you with another copy of the clip. A good copy. But it won’t replace all the work you’ve done with the bad (Modified File) clip. As in, there is no way to re-link a clip.

You can select the project in the Project Browser, click on the inspector and choose Modify Event References. I have no idea what this is supposed to do, but it won’t find and/or re-link your clip. In my case, it simply told me that the media cannot be found.

In the Event Browser, I clipped on the bad clip and choose Reveal in Finder. It takes me to the Original Media directory where I can see the Alias for the clip. (I did not copy/move the clip when I imported it). In Finder, I choose Find Original and it finds the file, right where it’s been the entire time. As far as I know, I never touched this clip outside of FPCX. I never renamed it. I never moved. I never took the RAID array off line. Nothing that I can recall.

Since the error message refers to the fact that the file was modified (and I have no idea how it was modified) I tried to reproduce the issue. I imported a new copy of the file that’s supposedly Modified. So I have a new copy that works just fine. I quit FPCX. Opened up both FPC7 and PP, imported the clip into both, color corrected the clip in both, saved and quit both. Opened up FCPX and everything was fine. So neither FCP7 nor PP caused the issue.

Apple support suggested I remove the FCP Cache and Preferences. I did. No change. The did confirm what I think we all know. That FCPX has no re-link media command. Their suggestion was to re-import the clip. I told them that in FPCX terms “re-import” should actually be called “start all over, you’ve lost all your work and there’s nothing that can be done”. Apparently, they don’t have the same humorous view on life as I do.

Then I tried Time Machine. Per the Apple support person’s suggestion, I use TM to restore the Event Folder with the issue. Not the entire FCPX Events folder, just the sub folder unique to this issue. TM took me back to several different versions, but none of the recovered versions brought me back to the point in time where the clip was fine. Also, each time I recovered a version of the Event, I not only kept both, I moved the previous one out onto the desktop. No help from Time Machine.

Then I thought that Consolidate Media might fix my issue. The media that I’m having the issue with is on an external RAID array. So maybe if I told FCPX to consolidate (or copy) the media it might somehow re-link it. First, I decided to test the feature. I created a new Event, imported a clip, but kept it on the same RAID array. I checked to make sure the clip did have an Alias for it in the Original Media folder, and it did. I then highlighted the Project and choose Consolidate Media. A dialog popped up telling me that there is nothing to consolidate, since all my media is already on one disk. It appears that this feature is broken. The user manual clearly states this feature is used when your media is on another drive than your Events folder. Which it is. But for some reason FCPX does not think so. But I did try and consolidate the media on the project with the issue and I got the same result. Nothing to consolidate, since. Even though I had re-imported the clip again, choosing not to copy it. The Original Media folder shows two clips, both Aliases. Both Alias links work just fine.

Then I came across this Macworld link.

https://www.macworld.com/article/160725/2011/06/fcpx_quirks.html

This article describes the issue I’m having. It states …

Modified: June 27, 2011
Article: TS3816

symptoms
Editing a clip after using the command “Open in the timeline” of events in the browser modifies the original media.

products Affected
Final Cut Pro X
resolution
If Final Cut Pro X has not been restarted, the Undo command to restore the original multimedia content. To undo changes, click Edit and select Undo.

If Final Cut Pro X is restarted after making the change, you must re-import the clip to restore the original. To do this, mount the camera or the camera file and import the clip again. This creates a new clip in the browser events.

So, it appears Apple is aware that FCPX can modify your media to the point you will have an issue. Undo should fix it, if you don’t quit FCPX first. If you quit, then it can’t be fixed.

What’s more interesting is the fact that the Apple Support Document (TS3816) is no longer on Apple’s English (or US) site. If you click the link, you’ll get the “We’re sorry, we can’t find the article you’re looking for” message. But, it is still on the German and Spanish sites. At least it was this morning.

I assume Apple will fix this issue. But, with no way to re-link media, you will loose lots of work if this happens. And apparently it will. By the way, this issue is listed in the FCPX user manual under Solutions To Common Media Management Issues. So, they know the issue is common. Too bad they don’t have a fix for it.

Kevin