FCPX black picture

Question

Level 1

9 points

FCPX black picture

Hi,

I just started using FCPX for small home projects. I have imported in a library several video clips and pictures (JPEG) that I am putting together in a timeline. No issues so far, except for one picture that shows up black in the import viewer, library viewer and timeline viewer, although the thumbnail in the browser and picture sequence (ribbon) in the timeline are showing correctly. I tried restarting FCPX, deleting the picture and re-importing it, even change the picture for a slightly different shot of the same subject, without any success. At first I thought maybe the size of the file could be an issue (around 5MB), but then I tried a much larger file (11MB) and it works fine. Anybody has any idea what might be the problem?

_____________________________

Final Cut Pro 10.2

Mac OS 10.10.3

MacBook 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 8GB RAM

MacBook, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on May 6, 2015 4:07 PM

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Answer 1

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

May 6, 2015 4:42 PM in response to Bin99

Can you run the jpeg through a photo editor and export another format – say a PNG _ and see whether it displays properly?

Russ

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Answer 2

Bin99 Author

Level 1

9 points

May 6, 2015 5:03 PM in response to Russ H

OK, good point. I tried to convert the picture to TIFF and PNG, same problem. This is really bugging me, so I did more testing. It seems like the problem is with any pictures I made with my Nikon D80. Anything else I tried that I made with my iPhone 5, my Nikon D40 or Nikon D7200 seem to import fine. What could create that problem with the D80 pictures I try to import in FCPX ?

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Answer 3

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,950 points

May 6, 2015 5:08 PM in response to Bin99

CCould you upload one of the images somewhere, like to WeTransfer or Dropbox.

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Answer 4

Bin99 Author

Level 1

9 points

May 6, 2015 5:47 PM in response to Bin99

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u82ybk2hg9g4axt/DSC_3601.JPG?dl=0

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Answer 5

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

May 6, 2015 5:59 PM in response to Bin99

Just to say that the image displayed correctly for me in FCP – as the original JPEG, a saved JPEG, and as a PNG.

Russ

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Answer 6

Bin99 Author

Level 1

9 points

May 6, 2015 6:05 PM in response to Russ H

Interesting. What is your system (OS, FCP version, computer, etc)? I wonder why it wouldn't work on mine?

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Answer 7

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,950 points

May 6, 2015 6:13 PM in response to Bin99

What's your graphics card and VRAM?

The image shows as having a very high DPI, which you don't usually see in camera images. I wonder if the images from the other cameras show the same way.

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Answer 8

Bin99 Author

Level 1

9 points

May 6, 2015 6:21 PM in response to Bin99

NVIDIA GeForce 9400M 256 MB and link below for an image from my D7200 that works fine in FCPX.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/86s8r4gla4rydbw/DSC_0009.JPG?dl=0

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Answer 9

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,950 points

May 6, 2015 6:34 PM in response to Bin99

Not seeing what's different in this image. It's showing the high dpi as well.

Your graphics card is very borderline. 256MB is minimum requirement, but 1GB is recommended.

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Answer 10

Bin99 Author

Level 1

9 points

May 7, 2015 2:06 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

I know, but it makes no sense that I can open a much larger picture file taken with my more recent camera. I can't see what would be different with the JPEG from my D80 than the JPEG from my D7200?

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Answer 11

brytCAST

Level 1

5 points

Jul 16, 2015 7:30 PM in response to Bin99

I've confirmed this bug. I'm seeing the exact same symptoms (black image) on an iMac/ATI Radeon HD 4670 256MB w/ latest Yosemite and fcpx (please don't tell me this setup is deficient, this is clearly a bug). I'm importing jpeg images from a Nikon D80 camera at 3873 x2592. Finder and Preview show these files fine. My guess is jpeg decoder in fcpx. Please fix.

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Answer 12

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,950 points

Jul 16, 2015 7:37 PM in response to brytCAST

YYour system has the minimum VRAM requirement. 1GB is the minimum recommended for 4K media.

I'm assuming you're using the current version of the software.

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Answer 13

brytCAST

Level 1

5 points

Jul 16, 2015 8:20 PM in response to Bin99

Answer: Resize/Resample the Image in Preview.

I simply used PREVIEW --> TOOLS --> ADJUST SIZE to resize/resampled to a 1080 frame and SAVE. It imported fine and file size is much smaller.

Rather than intelligently resampling/rescaling the frame to the target project size (e.g. 1920x1080) perhaps fcpx is probably trying to load the whole thing in VRAM and you get a graphic/black box? Notable that other images this size are OK so it's a compatibility bug with the jpeg output from the Nikon D80 and maybe lot's of color information? Who knows... I call a black screen and no dialog a bug (maybe GPU code related?).

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