question about "native" P2 in FCS2

E

editatjoes

Active member
If Apple has created a way to use MXF files without converting them to Quicktime, as some posts suggest, any ideas on how you would archive a project like that? Can individual MXF files exist outside of their original set of folders with the LastClip.txt file?

When I finish a project, I use Media Manager to conslidate the project and delete excess media. With a self-contained file like Quicktime this works, but are P2 MXFs capable of being self-contained?

Joe Murray
 
Don't know what exactly is happening with FCP 6, but . . .

The MXFs can exist by themselves outside of the file structure and away from the "LastClip" file. Several editors work with them exactly that way -- you can dump all of the audio and video MXFs into a single folder.

The issue there, though, is that the video files and the audio files are separate. It's not hard to mate them up and the editors which import the files outside the file structure can do that automatically.

Of course, you lose your metadata that way, but only one editor (Edius) is integrated with the metadata anyway.
 
David Jimerson said:
The issue there, though, is that the video files and the audio files are separate.
Click to expand...

So, it could work OK, but still not truly self contained if the audio and video are separate. In the olden days of Final Cut version 2 I used to capture audio and video to separate files to maximize bandwidth on the media drives. It did get to be a bit of a hassle keeping track of everything for archives and updates.

Joe Murray
 
I spoke with various people inside of Apple and they are claiming NO native MXF support.. When Final Cut 6 says it edits Native p2 and Native DVCProHD, it still needs to be converted to a quicktime wrapper to be edited, but codec of DVCProHD is natively edited.
 
That's what I would expect. Apple's just now getting around to multiple realtime codecs in one timeline. True native support for MXF without involving Quicktime seems like a stretch at this time. But I'll take it gladly if I'm wrong.
 
Again, why is this such an issue?

Unwrap and rewrap into QT. No loss in quality.

Not certain why this is important. With the price and size of hard drives these days, that can't be the issue.
 
I think it's a bit of an issue for me cuz the whole point is to be able to dump the digital files and edit. The way it is now I have to go through that extra step, which is taking up almost as much time as log/capturing from tape.

This feature isn't something that Apple could just make an Update for...could they? Or maybe FCP 6.5 like they did with 4.5?
 
P2 is a lot quicker than capturing from tape for me. Especially with no timecode breaks. But it still takes quite a while to "unwrap" a load of files.
 
You also have to copy them from the P2 card to a drive for storage, unless you plan on working exclusively from your P2 card. That takes time, not too much faster than the whole "import P2" functionality to begin with.
 
This is not meant to be a mine is better than yours statement, but the whole p2 transfer thing is a non-issue for me in EDIUS.

I stick the card in, select my clips and choose copy and import. I then start editing immediately. Editing begins off the cards while the p2 transfer is done in the background to my HDD. When the transfer is complete, EDIUS relinks to the HDD location. No time lost at all. It's things like that (when NLE's allow you to take proper advantage of p2 workflow) that just can't be done when you have to rewrap, etc. I can see how it isn't a big deal to you if you have always rewrapped, etc. But, for me, it would be a pretty decent nuisance...

Jason
 
It's also a non-issue in Avid, and it's a non-issue in Liquid, and it's a non-issue in Premiere with Axio, and it's a non-issue in Premiere with Raylight, and it's a non-issue in Vegas with Raylight. Drag the files to the timeline and edit; no importing, no logging, no in & out points, no anything.

And it'll become a non-issue for FCP when Marcus van Bavel releases Raylight for the Mac.
 
For me the issue is not being able to actually import into FCP 5.14. Every time I get the red exclamation points for the spanned clips (Error:Unknown). If I could work with the mxf files I would already be editing. Instead, I'm flipping out trying to get FCP to import and not having any success, making me very very worried.
 
David S. said:
How much time are we talking about?

You still have to log your footage.

What am I missing?
Click to expand...
One of the purposes of P2 in the first place is that the entire logging step is eliminated.
 
Well, you would be able to do that anyway. But for those who would like to skip that step, a better integration would be an improvement.
 
David S. said:
How much time are we talking about?
Click to expand...

If you have 8 x 8gb cards from a days shoot you are talking over an hour to copy these to a drive, then you are talking that long again to convert to QT files on import into FCP.

David S. said:
What am I missing?
Click to expand...

The 8gb card from the rebate:beer:
Oh wait, that's another post!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top