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Level 1

8 points

Final Cut Pro X won't recognize 120 FPS

I recorded 120 FPS video on my iPhone 5S. I have 3 files. All of them are beautifully played Slo-Mo in Quicktime. The files are ok I assume. Somehow FCPX just doesn't get all of the files right. 2 are recognized 120 FPS, I can slow them down to 25 % speed smoothly (30 FPS-project). One file is recognized wrongly, FCPX says it's a 30-FPS-File. I can slow it down to 25 %, but as soon as FCPX starts rendering, the video is unacceptedly worsened. This is annoying. Does anybody know a way to tell FCPX how many FPS a file actually has?

Final Cut Pro X, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Dec 9, 2013 1:51 AM

18 replies

Manuel Koeng Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 10, 2013 5:31 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

I just all breaks down to FCP not getting the most important information: the framerate. It thinks it's 30 FPS. So optimizing in this case means getting rid of all the information in beetween those 30 Frames. Not optimizing means keeping the information (for the moment). Thats why I can slow down the original clip and it's shown slo mo and super smooth...until FCP starts to render. Which it again does with the wrong asumption of optimizing a slowed down 30 FPS-clip. So it breaks the clip in the process.

Fact is: iMovie doesn't need to render in order to play the clip slo mo. It probably just forces it to run at 30 FPS. And I frankly don't care if its 25 or 26 or 27 percent of realtime speed...

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,064 points

Dec 10, 2013 6:12 AM in response to Manuel Koeng

Fact is, unless your system is incredibly slow, FCPX does not need to render for slomo either. The orange render indicator means the media needs to be rendered to match the project, but it does not mean the media must be rendered. iMovie simply does not have these indicators. I've processed your media both ways and the output is identical.

Manuel Koeng Author

Level 1

8 points

Dec 10, 2013 6:29 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Ok. I have a quad core macbook pro. In my case after matching (or rendering) to my projects settings in FCP there are some frames suddenly quadrupled. See here:

http://vimeo.com/81347087

Same frame (or same picture) four times in a row. It's not a exporting problem. I can see that on the timeline going through frame by frame. And you don't get that? That is even more myterious?!

Edit: Note that this problem only occurs in one of the clips in the video above. The one I sent you. The others show a framerate slightly above 120 which seems to avoid problems with FCP...

Final Cut Pro X won't recognize 120 FPS