Saving and removing a Final Cut Express Project (Smartly)

I have finished a Final Cut Express project and would like to save and remove it from my external hard drive. What is the smartest way to do this so that in the event I ever want to go back and make changes to it I can do it easily?
Thanks for any advice you can give.

First, I'd like to say that I'm a pack rat. I have a couple video projects on my drives that I've not edited for three years. I just hate the thought of messing them up or letting go of them (there's probably medication for that) so I just let them sit there taking up precious space. I need to reform and hope you can help me.
Where does one find a list of the project files that a project requires? Also, is the media only the clips that appear in the "browser" window or are they the rendered files, as well. Maybe the rendered files are the project files?
Are all the media files located in the "capture" folder?
If I understand you correctly, if the reels were properly named, with no time code errors, I can trash the media (BUT, of course, keep the master DV tapes) and only archive the project files. If I want to re-edit the project in anyway in the future, I'll need to re-import the video from the DV tapes using this scenario.
If I don't want to have to re-import the raw footage from tape, can I back-up all the files on multiple DVDs using toast?
Lastly, what do you do when you're finished with a project?
Thanks,
Stuart

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Can I open my final cut express projects in final cut pro X?

I need to get footage out of some of my final cut express projects and put them in final cut pro X, which I am now using. How do I do that?

You can export any movie from FCE to Quicktime, and use it in FCP X. If you export using ProRes 422 codec it will already optimized for FCP X.
What you can't do is use the FCE projects themselves in FCP X.

Will 7toX translate Final Cut Express projects to FCP X

Does anyone know if the new 7toX application will translate Final Cut Express projects to Final Cut Pro X?

So can you open a Final Cut Express project with Final Cut Pro 7, save that as XML, and then use 7toX?
. . . I realize, of course, this won't help anybody who doesn't have FCP 7.

Starting a Final Cut Express project

When I try to open a Final Cut Express project by double clicking on the logo of the project the operation fails and I get a notice: "The operation could not be completed. An unexpected error occurred (error code -10660)". I can only open the project by clicking the alias of the application itself and open the project from within the application, which is much less convenient (sometimes another Final Cut Express project is first downloaded, which may take a lot of time).

It is good practice to save & close your project(s) before you exit FCE, especially if you are working on more than one project.
When you double click on your project file to open FCE, you are commanding FCE to start up & open the project you just double clicked - but since you didn't close your previous project, when FCE starts up it also attempts to open the previous project(s) at the same time ... and there is lots of potential for conflicts.

Burning Final Cut Express Project using Toast

How do I burn a Final Cut Express project using Toast? When I export a quicktime movie, even when it is "Self-Contained" and burn it in toast I only get sound with no picture. When I export it as a .mov I am assuming that will work, but it is taking 3 hours to export a 45 min video. Is there any other way or is iDVD my only option?

The OS version I am using 10.4.10 which should show on my profile. My computer is a PowerPC G5 Dual 2 GHz with 3 GB RAM. The version of FCE is HD 3.5 and the version of Quicktime I beleive is 7.2. When I export I use Quicktime movie. I tried it with the self contained box checked and without and both did the same thing. I only got sound. When I export using Quicktime Conversion that's what takes over 3 hours. What is the difference by the way? It plays fine in Quicktime player and works fine with iDVD. I have burned quicktime files and WMF before with toast and it has worked fine. It's only when I export them from Final Cut Express that it doesn't work. I have also exported from iMovie as a full quality dv and it has worked.

HT5103 How can I open Final Cut Express project in Final Cut Pro X?

How can I open Final Cut Express project in Final Cut Pro X?

If you export the project from FCE you can import the QuickTime into FCP. You can do limited work to it like adding titles.

Loaded Creative Suite and now my Final Cut Express HD won't start up

Loaded Creative Suite on my iMAC 20" and now my Final Cut Express HD won't start up. It wants to load but i only see it for a few seconds then it disappears.
Is this a scratch disk problem or did CS do this.
HELP !!!!!!!!

Welcome to the discussions,
to repair permissions close all open applications go - utilities - disk utility - select macintosh HD, then click 'repair permissions' - and wait. The shutdown and re-start.
You need to supply more details about your operating system and hardware in your profile to help us to describe your method for trashing your prefs but check this out:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3800327&#3800327
or this which primarily deals with fcp but introduces fcp/fce rescue and other useful info:
http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/trashing_fcpprefs.html
also, is your software up to date? Run software update from the apple menu, repairing permissions before and after.
To log into a different account and try launching FCE from there go to system preferences - accounts - and add a new user. Log into the new account and try to launch fce.
Ideally, it will help you to use the search function in these forums which can point you in the right direction before needing to post a question which may have come up in discussion before.
Good luck and post back to let us know if you've had any success.
Dave

Just bought MacBook and found my Final Cut Express HD (ver.3.0) won't work

I have just bought a MacBook (2.16GHz speed, SDRAM of 2GB) and found my Final Cut Express HD (ver.3.0) won't work. I tried running it after transferring it over from my old iMac G5 and keep getting the message "AGP Graphics card missing". I have checked my About this Mac file which tells me I have a GMA950 graphics chipset, that Quartz Extreme is supported but that it has no PCI card installed either. Does this mean I cannot use Final Cut Express on a MacBook?

If pressing "esc" does not work, try this:-
1. Right-click (Ctrl click) the FCE application icon - the one in the Applications folder NOT the alias in the Dock.
2. In the window that opens select Show Package Contents and then open the Contents Folder.
3. Inside you will find an Info.plist which you double-click and it should open in TextEdit etc.
4. About 17 lines down you will see AGP. Simply change it to PCI
5. Click the red window closure button and you will be asked if you want to save the changes. Simply click Save.
The whole process only takes a few seconds and should permanently cure the problem.
Ian.

Importing Final Cut Express projects

Hi,
I cannot see how to importing my older Final Cut Express projects into Premiere Pro CS5. I know this can be done with Final Cut Pro via the XML format, but it seems that FCE does not export to XML. Does anybody know of alternative ways of exchanging data? Maybe, a file converter of any kind?
Best regards,
Paolo

Yes, I have a couple of them, but they have their lives :-)
I guess I can have their help, as soon as they can. In any case, being independant with this kind of things would be great.
However, I guess that this conversion is to be done once, since I don't plan to downgrade to FCE again (unless Adobe stops developing Premiere for Mac again, or I end up with no money to buy the upgrades...)
Paolo

Final Cut Express Project space problem

I have just finished my first real project in Final Cut Express HD. It has created a Capture Scratch folder of 54 GB. Included in this 54GB is the footage that I used to complete the project which are captured as QuickTime movies. Also included are the render files.
The FCE project itself is saved in my Movie folder and that is 17GB. I created a Quicktime Movie and that is an additional 17GB (the same as the project)
In addition to the above I had to import the Quicktime Movie into IDVD and that IDVD file is 13GB.
All of this is taking up a lot of space on my Power MAC G5. I only have 11 GB available.
I have an external LaCie drive that has 91 GB available. The question is What can I transfer to the LaCie drive and still keep the project intact. I do not want to have to start this project all over again.
Please help!

Hi Kennbu,
The minimum you need to keep includes 1) your FCE Project File (which is in your Final Cut Express Documents folder, not your Movies folder), 2) the clips in Capture Scratch that you captured from your camera, and 3) any other media files (photos, sound, etc) that you imported into your FCE project. You do not need to keep any of the render files or output files unless you have other reasons to keep them.
Your FCE Project File cannot be 17GB; I suspect you are calling your exported movie your project file. The FCE Project File only contains the instructions for the things you did when you edited your project in FCE and it should be a relatively small file, usually under 1MB. It does not contain any actual video; that's what your original footage clips and/or render files in Capture Scratch contain.
When you export your project, FCE reads the instructions in the Project File, applies the instructions to your video & audio files and then creates an output file. I suspect you did this twice and that is why you have two 17GB QT files in your Movies folder.
In the future, one way to save space on your HD is export your FCE movie as a reference movie not as a self-contained movie. When you export, if you leave the "Make movie self contained" option checked, FCE copies all your video into the exported file; it takes a lot of time and uses disk space at the rate of ~13GB per hour of video. If you uncheck this option FCE makes what is called a reference movie that is very small and very fast; it usually only takes seconds to export a reference movie. You can import reverence movies into iDVD just the same as a self-contained movie as long as you are on the same machine that has your captured clips & other media files.

Restoring Final Cut Express Project from Time Machine

Hey, would like to restore a FCE project to macbook. i know you can restore individual files or folders- but i have tried to restore the main file, rendered folder and so on but i must not be selecting all files i need as there are missing clips in the project when i open it.
1) is there an easy way to restore all files required?
2) if not , what are the specific folders i need to restore so all the pathways to the capture clips still work?
any help would be fantastic, thanks for your help!
cheers.

Hello,
The only things you should restore are your *FCE project file* and any/all *source media files* (video clips, audio files, stills) that you used in the project. Don't even bother trying to recover render files, cache files or thumbnail files - they will be unusable.
The default location for your FCE files & folders is in +yourusername/Documents/Final Cut Express Documents+ folder. Note: in the event you changed your FCE scratch disk location, the Final Cut Express Documents folder will be located wherever you specified the scratch disk location to be. You may need to look through your TM backup to find these folders.
Usually your *FCE project file* is in your +Final Cut Express Documents+ folder, which also contains a folder called +Capture Scratch+ - that is where your video clips should be. Audio, stills - they will be wherever you saved them.
Note: in the event you saved your FCE project file, video clips, etc. in other locations than the default locations, you will have to search for them, as there is no way we could tell you where they might be - you could have saved them anywhere.
Also note: when you restore a project like this, it is normal to get an Offline Clips error message when you first open the project; follow the dialogs to Reconnect Media.
If FCE cannot locate certain media files when you Reconnect Media, try this: in the FCE Browser, control-click the name of the offline clip; then select Item Properties. In the window that opens, see if there is an entry in the Source row; that is probably the location where the clip was; you can use that location as a guide to hopefully find the clip in your Time Machine backup.

Is there a way to import Final Cut Express projects?

I use Final Cut Express, and currently working on a project. Can I import FCE project to Final Cut X and complete it using FCX?

Thanks Tom. Bad news

Final Cut Express Project

Hello, is it possible to open a Final Cut Express 4 project in Final Cut Pro X? I just upgraded to a new iMac with Mavericks and will get FCPX shortly. Trying to figure out my workflow going forward.
Many thanks.

Thank you. I was researching in the meantime and found the unfortunate news. That's too bad, as I have a ton of legacy projects I wanted to Finish in X. I'll have to keep the old iMac around a little longer to finish them up and export. All new projects will be in X, though.
Much appreciated!

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I've imported material from my JVC HD Camera and have edited a 52 minute sequence on Final Cut Express. I've exported it as a Quicktime Movie and it's 43GB. How do I get this on to DVD?
I've tried using iDVD to export but as you can imagine, the quality is not great. There's a judder on it. I have no idea where to start with using applications like MPEG Streamclip to convert the clip so that when it does get on to DVD, it doesn't judder. Can anyone help? This is driving me insane!!

I've exported it as a Quicktime Movie and it's 43GB. How do I get this on to DVD?
First step - just use this export as the import into iDVD. iDVD will take care of the necessary encoding to fit it on a DVD disk. The file size is of no concern; the only concern is the length (in time) of the video ... iDVD can fit about 2 hours of video on single layer DVD media; about 4 hours on dual-layer DVD media.
Regarding the judder, this is not specifically an iDVD issue. Do you see the judder when you play the video in the FCE Canvas window?

Can you export FInal Cut express project to IDVD?

I am currently using IMOVIE and IDVD. I am considering purchasing Final Cut Express. Someone told me that you cannot export a completed Final Cut Express File to IDVD. Is this correct. Would I have to invest in DVD Studio?
Thanks,
Benjamin

Completely untrue. Some people seem to have issues
with chapter markers not importing correctly on
occasions, but otherwise it works fine
Can anyone comment on this problem and the solution? I just upgraded to FCX HD and iDVD 5.0, and I can no longer put chapters in my movies. Worked just fine under FCX 2.0 and iDVD 4.
Thanks,
-dan

Saving and removing a Final Cut Express Project (Smartly)

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