FCP 7 L & T, pro res or XDcam?

Hi
When I use log and transfer in FCP 7 latest, do I need to bring the video in as Pro Res into the bins since I'll be making my sequences Pro Res? Or do I just bring the material in via L & T as is, which is XDcam 1920 30p, and edit easily on Pro Res timeline?
In fact is there even a way to bring it in as another codec than what it was recorded in? Not used L & T before.
Thanks
K

Hi K
The current crop of file based ingest options for XDCAM HD are all native ie without transcode. You have Sony's free XDCAM Transfer tool or (via a free Sony authored plugin) you can use FCP's own built-in Log and Transfer interface, but in both cases it is the native source footage being brought in to FCP albeit with a new "wrapper" added to the which makes them accessible to Quicktime, not a transcode to an altogether different intermediate codec. Alternatively you can adopt a commercial solution such as MXF4Mac's or Calibrated Software's MXF Import, either of which will allow you to work directly with the raw MXF files in Quicktime without the otherwise necessary rewrap, again no transcode.
As to your questions, my personal answer would be "No" you don't need to transcode to ProRes. You can easily work directly with the XDCAM HD files in a ProRes timeline, or you can edit with them directly in a native XDCAM HD timeline (but if you do that I would recommend you set the render codec to ProRes).
If you do want to capture to another codec then you can use an I/O device like those provided by Matrox, AJA, Blackmagic Design, Motu etc Or you can bring the footage in as per the above and then recompress to your target codec using FCP's Media Manager tool.
Hope it helps
Andy

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Pro-Res vs XDCAM HD

Just started ingesting media via SDI and having troubles capturing using the pro-res codec. Having all kinds of issues. I have a hunch that my internal eSata drives are just not capable of using Pro-Res. Anyway, if I use the FAM mode on my XDCAM-HD deck and ingest using the Sony transfer, all works well. When it comes to quality, am I losing any by using the latter method as opposed to Pro-Res? My media is 35 Mbps XDCAM-HD. Any insight will be appreciated. Thank you.
Best,
Tom

Capturing via SDI will only benefit you if you're capturing live. In that case you can avoid the mpeg 2 compression and gain 4:2:2 color. Once the footage has been compressed in camera SDI will give you nothing and some people have reported that it actually makes things worse. If you're just doing simple edits and color correction the native codec is fine, and considerably smaller to boot. If your going to take the footage into AE and work it definitely transcode to ProRes first.

FCP Settings HDV - Pro Res

Hello.
Im shooting some video in HDV but i want to edit in Pro Res (HQ)
Might seem like an easy question but how do i set up the project.. there are so may options. And im guessing i want it to be HQ or am I wrong. I want FCP to digitise in Pro Res as well..
Thanks in advance Rob

Sure. But that means you'd have to capture, then convert...and have the drive space to do that. With the method laid out, the capture takes about 40% more than real time (it does some odd encoding process)...and you only have the ProRes file...not HDV AND ProRes. And media managing will take a lot more time than straight capture.
Up to you though..

*** Weird flickering in Pro-res sequence

I'm working in the latest version of FCP with a Pro-res 422 30p sequence. I'm working with 1080/30p footage from the Sony EX1 and the Canon 5D. I'm also working with high-resolution photographs.
When I look at the sequence in FCP it all looks great but when I export it as a full-quality Quicktime Movie I consistently get this weird flicker or pulsate just before a cut from video footage to a still image. It's as-if the someone snaps their finger and the same pic all of a sudden get either slightly darker or lighter for 2 or 3 frames.
I'm not sure why this is happening but I really need to figure it out. Should I convert the sequence to another preset? Maybe h.264 or XDCAM EX 1080/30p?
Thanks in advance!

What's the delivery to be? DVD? or?
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What if I switch the sequence codec to Pro Res HQ & re render, will this be helpful in any way? It seems to playback ok with very little rendering on Safe RT.
BTW have installed Pro Applications Update 2010-02.

thank you for your responses-I tried transcoding everything to xdcam in a fresh project-no difference, crashing at the same rate, despite changing storage to fibre channel raid. so MM'd to Prores LT (no obvious difference to prores HQ on the cinema display) and all good.
David, the project was inherited with a whole load of identically named clips in different subfolders (!!!) although I doubt this caused the crashes. AFAIK they were editing w/o cards in the field.

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Hello,
I figured I post here rather than the DVD Studio Pro forum; I've posted on Creative Cow as well but haven't gotten any responses yet.
Before I mention my problem, I'd like to mention that I've tried several types of compression methods and bitrates and unfortunately, my disk still freezes in my player, generally around the same area.
(I have two, minute long clips with Smoothcam there).
I'll try to be as specific about my work-flow as I can and I've posted the photos of my FCP and Compressor settings below.
30 Minutes. Super 16mm.
2K DPX Scans -- > Graded In Color --> Pro Res 4444 23.976 --> Sent To Compressor --> Mpeg 2 + AC3 --> Build & Format With DVD Studio Pro
I set blue compression markers at the start of each Smoothcam clip.
I've recompressed my footage without Smoothcam as well - with the same end result.
I've sent my timeline to Compressor and used both the 5.5-7 VBR setting and the 6.5 CBR settings (with everything under Frame Controls set to the highest quality).
(I've also used the 6.2-7.7 built in settings with the ninety-minute high quality preset).
I am using Sony DVD-R disks. 16X/1X. When I play them in my PS3, the film freezes at different points in the first two-three minutes - then skips ahead exactly to the same point in my film - about halfway.
I've set Chapter markers and it skips to the halfway one; from there it plays fine.
1. I wanted to ask if I should maybe export my entire sequence first through FCP (an .mov file) and try Compressing that?
(I've done this and the result is still the same)
2. Should I set it to Pro Res 422 HQ first?
(I've done this and the result is still the same)
3. Perhaps I should just try to Compressor with the 90Min-HQ setting without changing anything?
(I've done this and the result is still the same)
4. Should I remove the Smoothcam?
I'm currently compressing the entire sequence void of all Smoothcam.
When I bring the files into DVD Studio Pro, I see under preferences that Studio Pro also has VBR settings. Do those have any effect on my DVD encode? There is no CBR there - only VBR set from 5.5-7.
5. Is there anything I'm doing wrong with regards to my workflow? There are several options that may be causing this; I'm not sure if its the progressive footage to interlaced standard definition disk, or modifying field dominance, gop structure, etc.
Any help would be greatly (that's greatly) appreciated.
Thanks!
-Boris

My first impression is you're trying to make this too hard...
You have a high quality timeline which is downconverted to 1080, no problem. Once rendered, SmoothCam
should not represent a problem. If anything, SmoothCam will reduce the sudden movement that can cause problems. Any scenes where you have a high rate of change per frame (like in an explosion or a background of leaves flapping in the wind) should be marked with compression markers.
Export as a QT movie using sequence settings (include markers for DVDSP) so you have a completed source file for compression. I'm not aware of anything that will improve the quality beyond what is in the timeline, so current sequence settings are fine. Test this for playback issues.
If you are having playback problems with the sequence after export and compression, the most probable cause is excessively high bandwidth requirements. Try using the DVD: Best Quality 90 minutes preset. It generally produces a very good quality product. Any attempt to increase the quality will likely increase the bandwidth requirements that are the probable cause of the skipping.
While Sony is a big name, their DVD substrate is only mediocre. If you think the substrate is a problem, switch to Verbatim or JVC/Taiyo-Yuden.
If you are dissatisfied with the quality of the Compressor output, look into the Cinema Craft encoding products.
Hope this helps.

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Will encoding my clips to Pro Res and then importing them into FCP X speed things up instead of importing the clips straight from my camera to FCP X?

Sorry, this is footage taken from a Canon 7D. 24fps 1920x1080. FCP gets bogged down sometimes. I have a dual quad core Mac Pro with 16 gigs of ram.
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Does anyone know a way to transfer XDCam footage directly to Apple Pro-Res using Log and Transfer?
Thanks,
M

Thanks meg. I'm trying not to have to sync all the rushes in a timeline. All rushes are in the one 58 min prores file. I wanted to, I guess, log and capture the rushes as clips that I logg in the log and transfer winnow and that it would then log and sort out the material as proxy files. I'm guessing I'm just being lazy or it can't be done. Thanks for the reply but I was looking for a differentbway round than a straight import of the whole file.
M

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Hi -
While it may seem counterintuitive, transcoding to a ultra-high quality, specialized format like ProRes 4444 actually, in most cases, counter productive.
Converting your h.264 files to ProRes 4444 is like buying size 26 shoes for size 9 feet. Apple ProRes 4444 is there for specialized use by people editing large frame size images +WITH an alpha channel for each frame+. To properly play it back will require both a high horsepower computer and high speed disk drive array to support the data rate involved in that format.
May I make a suggestion? I would be to convert your h.264 material to Pro Res 422. Even ProRes HQ is beyond what you need to handle your material correctly.
When you convert your files to ProRes 422, and allow FCP to set the sequence to the same settings, you will find that you will be able to edit without rendering. And don't worry - the quality of your image is set by the h.264 compression, the conversion to Pro Res 422 will not degrade it.
A frequent example given on these boards: if you take a can of beer, and pour it in a keg, you still have just a can of beer, but it is harder to carry around - and the keg certainly takes up more space.
There is a very useful White Paper written by Apple that describes the various flavors of ProRes and their correct application at:
http://images.apple.com/finalcutstudio/docs/AppleProRes_White_Paper_July2009.pdf
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MtD

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Do i need to convert my nikon D 800 video footage from H.264 to Pro res to work in Final cut pro X?

You can import your footage directly to FCP X.
FCP X can work with the native footage. Inside FCP X you can create "Optimized Media", which is in ProRes 422.
You may not need to, depending on the edits you make (how many effects, etc). Since you can create optimized media at any time, I suggest you try it. If FCP X is slow editing your original media, optimize.

PRO RES 422 HQ from color to fcp to HDV 1080i tape

Have just thrown myself off a bridge due to frustration. Filmed a holiday movie a few years ago on HDV Pal and taught myself color on the project after completing it on FCP. I have spent 3 months of my spare time getting it looking how I want it and have just sent it back to FCP for outputting. Everything hunky dory so far except when I came to print to video (back to HDV for archiving) I'm being told that I can't print that seq to tape. Presumably because PRO RES 422 won't go to HDV. Is that so and do I have any answers?

For having just thrown yourself off a bridge, your grammar, spelling, and punctuation are impeccable.
You are correct. A ProRes sequence will not go to HDV. You must place your ProRes sequence into a new HDV sequence, render/conform, and print that to HDV tape.
When you're going out via firewire, you pretty much have to match your sequence settings to your deck settings, DV>DV, HDV>HDV. Hardware capture cards/boxes by AJA & Blackmagic can up/down/cross convert on the fly, but not a direct firewire connection.
So, use your ProRes sequence to create the DVD, and create an HDV sequence to archive it to a tape.
And stop throwing yourself off bridges.

Pro Res and FCP 5.1

I have pro res files, working in FCP 5.1.4 - importing files work but I have to render because prores files are not available in sequence settings.
I am learning it came out with version 6 but.... question is 'can I add prores codecs to fcp 5.1.4 and use them?'
Tried to drag codecs into easy setup folder, no go... any advice?
Thanks

'can I add prores codecs to fcp 5.1.4 and use them?'
Not legally. They are only licensed with FCP 6. There is a decoder in QT 7.6, but the encoder and the ability to edit with them requires that you use FCP 6.
Tried to drag codecs into easy setup folder, no go... any advice?
Gotta upgrade to FCP 6 or 7.
Shane

Optimum FCP settings - Pro Res

Hi folks,
I had a mini catastrophe yesterday with a project and in trying to fix things I trashed the prefs and have lost all the settings I had for working with Pro Res. A project I'm working on now seems to be dropping frames and generally going rather slow, and I was wondering if anyone out there working with Pro Res files could share their settings with me which they feel runs most smoothly and most effectively on FCP.
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Thanks kindly in advance,
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Need to export MAC PRO RES HQ footage out of FCP and into premiere friendly format

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FCP 7 L & T, pro res or XDcam?

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