Final Cut Express HD with HVX

C

circlesplit

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I have Final Cut Studio 2 at work and final cut express HD at home on my Macbook.
Am I able to use final cut express HD to edit 720p HVX footage? Are there any advantages upgrading to final cut express HD 4?
 
While I believe FCE can edit DVCProHD if the QuickTime component for it is installed, there is no P2 support in FCE. Upgrade to FCP 5.1.4 or later if you want to use material from the HVX.
 
I believe that's correct, last year before I got FCP I got some DVCProHD footage and was able to edit in FCE; however there is no support to import from an HVX so you still need to buy FCP anyway.
 
I will not be using P2 cards with xpress I will be using a firestore. At this point I was under the impression that the firestore aloud you to save to the file type and compression of your choice. Would this work with final cut express?
 
The FS-100 can create a P2 MXF directory structure, or it can create a QuickTime file.

However, the QuickTime file will always be encoded using the codec output by the camera (DV, DVCPro50, or DVCProHD), so without having the corresponding codec on your Mac, you won't be able to use the file.
 
Is final cut express equipped with the DVCPRO HD codec? If not...can I install the codec so I will have the ability to edit footage from the HVX?
 
FCE doesn't have any DVCProHD codecs. Those are installed by FCP only. However, you can copy them from the QT folder in the Library folder.

I would be interested to see if FCE 4 supports DVCProHD this way and the workflow for ingesting p2 cards
 
Can I store P2 footage on my drive even if I don't have FCP yet?

Can I store P2 footage on my drive even if I don't have FCP yet?

I have a shoot tomorrow and want to use P2 rather than DV tape but i only have FCE HD. How do I offload my cards so that my editor can cut them in FCP next week? I've tried inserting the card into my powerbook and dragging/copying the contents of the card to an external drive but it only takes a few seconds that way which makes me think I'm not getting it all but can't check since I don't have FCP. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

High Fives,
KP
 
It should take about 1 minute per gigabyte on a Powerbook G4, so an 8GB card should take about 8 minutes to copy. Are you copying the entire CONTENTS folder over?

If you're going to an external drive and someone else is going to be cutting on FCP, then you really don't need anything installed on your Powerbook other than the Panasonic P2 CardBus driver software.

You could install the P2CMS software, and you could then at least see if the clips got copied over, but without FCP (or, specifically, the DVCPRO-HD components from FCP) you wouldn't be able to play any HD clips. If you're just shooting in DV format on the P2 cards, P2CMS could play those DV clips on your Powerbook without having the DVCPRO-HD components installed.
 
kidpreshus said:
I've tried inserting the card into my powerbook and dragging/copying the contents of the card to an external drive but it only takes a few seconds that way which makes me think I'm not getting it all but can't check since I don't have FCP.
Click to expand...

That's not how you copy the p2 NO NAME volume.

All you are doing is creating an alias, and you would have copied nothing.

Click on the NO NAME Volume and as you drag it hold down the OPTION/ALT key. The cursor will turn to a green + sign.

Drag the icon with that green + sign to the HDD to copy it and let go.

A "copying" progress bar will appear.
 
Getting there ...

Getting there ...

Thanks guys, I've gotten my files off the card (about a gb/min like you said) but they're .MXF files which I can't seem to open(and the first time i tried the CONTENTS folder was locked and I couldn't unlock it). Sorry if this is basic stuff but I'm stumped. Do I need a separate program (ultra?) to play these .MXF's? Thanks again.
kp
 
The recording format (DV) is irrelevant, if you record on P2 media, it will always be wrapped in MXF files, and AFAIK FCE doesn't support that.

You really ought to upgrade to FCP/FCS. Raylight will let you work with the files in their native format, but I don't think it works with FCE either, just FCP/FCS.
 
Raylight would overcome the MXF issue, but it wouldn't overcome the lack-of-HD issue.

Try P2CMS, it might let you put MXF files on the timeline. But you'll probably have to manually add your audio tracks too. But, hey, it's free and you could download it and try it within a matter of minutes, so why not?
 
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