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FCPX cant handle video?

just tried to use FCP for the first time, I took a .MOV file right from my camera and whenevr I play it back in FCP it first of all looks horrible slow and flitchy like (skipping frames), secondly it goes out of sync with the audio after a couple seconds. I got an error saying that it is skipping frames. Anyways 2 things... I am on a mac pro, not a laptop ( i haven't applied any processing to the video yet), and if I open the .MOV in quicktime it plays perfectly. Can anybody help me out? why cant FCP handle it?

Final Cut Pro X, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Nov 13, 2012 7:48 PM

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19 replies

Nov 13, 2012 8:22 PM in response to Devon8822

Devon,


Of course FCPX can handle video! ;). (It can handle RAW "Red" files, if need be.)


I can get you started. The experts in this discussion group will want you to publish a screen grab of the inspector window in QT so as to analyze the actual file, codec, etc.


They will also ask you pointed questions as to how you ingested the footage. (FCPX encourages you to ingest through its portals to "optimize.")


So... I don't have an answer for you, but... If you comply with the above, someone will get you on your way shortly!

Nov 13, 2012 8:31 PM in response to dastoelk

Well it should be able too at least 😝


Not sure how to access the inspector in QT.


The .mov is straight off my Canon T3i


I intentionally did not use the optimize feature, I i'm an audio engineer and have a solid computer so I figured I would be able to do the minimal chopping of this video that I needed without running into issues. I created a new event and than imported the video from there. thanks!

Nov 14, 2012 12:44 AM in response to Devon8822

Devon8822 wrote:


Well it should be able too at least 😝


Not sure how to access the inspector in QT.



Open the movie in Quicktime Player and press Cmd-I (or go to Window->Show Movie Inspector).

Take a screenshot of the window that comes up.


The .mov is straight off my Canon T3i


I intentionally did not use the optimize feature, I i'm an audio engineer and have a solid computer so I figured I would be able to do the minimal chopping of this video that I needed without running into issues. I created a new event and than imported the video from there. thanks!


You may need to optimize, or not, depending on a lot of factors, like the codec and size of movie (HD pushes a lot of pixels), speed of drive, gpu, cpu, ram...

Nov 14, 2012 10:10 AM in response to BenB

I will have to screen the inspector window when I get home.



Yes, the origionals are H.264. My Mac Pro system drive is a WD Caviar black, and I believe I have 16GB RAM or close to it. I'm Running latest update of mountain lion. So I would think i could handle H.264. The thing that I am most curious about is that, quicktime can run it but FCPX cannot, is this normal? This is before doing any editing or anything in FCP.


I have another movie from the same camera that I didn't optimize, which I imported weeks ago just to sync audio with and than export and it worked fine.


When exporting a completed video in FCPX does it use the optimized (theoretically lower quality) media or does it use the origional media?

Nov 14, 2012 10:22 AM in response to Devon8822

Optimized media is ProRes, and there is NO loss in image quality, not even theoretically. Who told you that was flat out wrong. "Proxy" media is low quality and for a reason, but Optimized is the same data, period, no quality loss.


What graphics card are you running?


Do not keep Events and Projects on the system drive, put them on a secondary internal drive. A single drive doesn't have the bandwidth available to do multiple video/audio data streams AND handle OS/App data all at the same time. Especially when you get into larger more complex projects. Also make sure all your drives are 7200rpm.


When FCP X runs a video clip, and when QT Player runs a video clip, they are doing very different things.


Again, what graphics card?


You should be able to play those H.264 originals back just fine, but if you're on a 5200rpm drive, and on the system drive on top of that, all bets are off.

Nov 14, 2012 10:33 AM in response to BenB

Thanks Ben, I didn't know that about prores


I think my graphics card is an ATI 4870 (not positive, I would have to check when home), at any rate Its an expensive/gaming card so it should not give me any problems. I am planning on using a seperate drive for my media right now everything is on the system though. All my drives are 7200. You'd think my comp could handle native media right? Infact... it has before like I said with that other video.

Nov 14, 2012 12:11 PM in response to Devon8822

You can either transcode the footage to prores or create proxy media for the moment and your export time will be long. When you get the footage on an external drive you may find that is all it takes. A sufficiently fast machine properly setup can handle some compressed forms but I can't speak to your specific camera. For now, you'll have to transcode to prores or create proxy media for editing till you test how things work with an external drive.

Nov 14, 2012 1:15 PM in response to digibudII

I used to have that card, it ran fine, but upgraded to the 5870. Still, you shouldn't be having any issues unless your Events and Projects are really huge. I've used almost the same Mac and camera quit a bit. Try Optimizing and see what happens. But that's odd. Maybe run Disk Warrior and repair the directories on all your hard drives.


I assume you're not making tons of Compound Clips, or doing heavy Mutliclip edits, or tons and tons of filters or anything.

Nov 14, 2012 6:57 PM in response to BenB

Ok, new info and test results.


here is the screen of my quicktime inspector window.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t260/Devon8822/ScreenShot2012-11-14at92533PM. png


I tried moving the event page to another hard drive and the problem remained. However, when I optimized the video it seemed to work well! So what I am still tryign to figure out is why I can't play the native H.264 in FCP like I can in quicktime. I read some other tutorials and they say H.264 should play just fine, and that where trouble tends to happen is when people apply filters, and things. I have not even made a "project" yet.

FCPX cant handle video?

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