Final Cut Studio Category: Digital Rebellion Blog

Final Cut Pro X hangs when loading a project

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:17:54 MST

Some of you may have experienced the beachball of death when FCPX tries to load a project and eventually resorted to force-quitting the app.

In most cases, the app hasn't hung at all but is just taking a really long time to open the project. If you leave it long enough (8-12 hours) it should eventually open. We recommend running our Project Repair tool to optimize the project file before doing this, as the optimization process lowers the file size and can shave off some loading time.

The reason it is taking so long is that the project has become too complex. A common cause of this is over-use of compound clips, especially compound clips inside multiclips. I have seen this lead to multi-gigabyte project files, even though the timeline was only a few minutes long.

Once the project opens successfully, begin the process of removing the compound clips. FCPX will hang for a short while whenever you try to do anything, but as you reduce the number of compound clips it will become more and more responsive.

How to import projects and events into Final Cut Pro X

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 11:32:01 MDT

Need to restore a backup or import a project from another system into FCPX? It's not as simple as it seems at first glance. You would think that you could just double-click the project file but that produces the following error:

Final Cut Pro X is expecting projects to be contained in a folder inside your Final Cut Projects directory (or Final Cut Events if you are importing an event). The default locations of these folders are in ~/Movies.

To successfully import these files, you must create a new directory inside your Final Cut Projects or Final Cut Events folder and then copy the project to this new directory. FCPX will determine the project name from the name of the directory but the project file does not need to have the same name.

It's also worth noting that there is a difference between double-clicking an XML file and importing it via File > Import > XML.

Double-clicking seems to import the file without modifying it, so you will get errors if a project already exists with this ID or the event is not in the exact location as specified in the XML file. However, if you import it via File > Import > XML, it is more intelligent and will assign a new ID if necessary and find the new location of the event if it has changed.

How to create timecode tracks for H.264 movies in Compressor

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 12:43:02 MDT

I had this question asked to me the other day so I thought I'd write a quick article on it. You may have noticed that Compressor does not create H.264 files with timecode tracks when using the Apple Devices presets.

The reason for this is that MP4 and M4V files do not support timecode. However, the MP4 specification is based on the QuickTime file format so it's easy to create a QuickTime movie (.mov) instead of an MP4 and the file will still be recognized by iOS devices and the Apple TV.

To do this, simply add an Apple Devices preset to a file and then change the file extension to mov in the Encoder tab of the Settings window. Compressor will then create an iOS and Apple TV-compatible H.264 with a timecode track.

How to get render notifications on your iPhone

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:46:58 MST

Editors spend a lot of time rendering and exporting, and it's very useful to know when a render is complete if you are not currently at your computer.

Render Watcher in Pro Media Tools can watch for renders and then perform various tasks when a render is complete. It supports Final Cut Pro 7, Compressor 3 and 4, Avid Media Composer, Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Media Encoder.

Render notifications are not supported for Final Cut Pro X because it has background rendering and the alerts would be going off constantly, however you can get export notifications via Compressor or by adding your export folder to the Watch Folder pane. This also works for other apps not natively supported by Render Watcher.

There are three ways to get render notifications from Render Watcher on your iOS device - text message, email and push alert. (Compressor has email support already, however it is impractical for most users because it requires you to run an SMTP server on your computer.)

Push alerts are the most flexible option because you can customize them independently to make sure render notifications don't get lost in your regular email and SMS alerts.

Here's how to setup render and export notifications on your iPhone / iPad:

1. Download and install Pro Media Tools.

2. Launch the Render Watcher application and tick the boxes for all of the render notifications you wish to watch. If desired, add watch folders for applications not natively supported.

3. Go to the Actions tab and select all of the actions you wish to perform when a render is detected. There are lots of options here including playing a sound effect and showing the exported file in the Finder.

4. If you want to send an email or text message, tick the relevant checkbox and enter the destination email address or phone number (selected carriers only).

If you want to only setup push alerts, skip to step 5.

4a. Go to Preferences and enter the details for the account you wish to send email from. Presets have been included for common email providers but you will be able to get the relevant SMTP server information from your email provider's website. In most cases you should leave the Port field blank.

Note: Your email address and password are not sent to our servers and are stored on your computer in encrypted form.

4b. Click Send Test Email and if your settings are correct you should receive an email from Render Watcher in your inbox.

If you don't wish to setup push alerts, skip to Step 13.

5. To setup push alerts, make sure Display Growl notification is ticked in preferences and then download Growl from the Mac App Store for $1.99. If you don't want to pay for it or are running OS X 10.6 or lower, older versions are available here free of charge.

6. Download Boxcar for iOS. We favor Boxcar because it is free (with ads) but this feature should work with any push notification service that supports Growl, such as Prowl.

7. Sign up for a Boxcar account here.

8. In the Boxcar iOS app, sign in and tap the icon in the top left corner that looks like a grid of nine squares. Then tap Add Service.

9. Scroll down the list (it's not alphabetically-ordered) and tap the entry marked Growl. Setup the notification settings as desired and then click Save.

10. Download the Boxcar plugin for Growl. Unzip the .growlView file and double-click it to install. When prompted, select Yes to open the Growl preference pane or alternatively launch System Preferences and open it manually. If you are running the Mac App Store version of Growl on Lion, the preferences dialog is accessed via the menu bar icon.

11. Go the the Display Options tab in the Growl preference pane (called Displays in the Mac App Store version) and set Default Style to Boxcar. This will send all Growl alerts to your iOS device.

Alternatively, if you only want Render Watcher notifications sent to your device, go to the Applications tab, select RenderWatcherHelper, click the Configure button and then set Application's Display Style to Boxcar. RenderWatcherHelper will only appear in the list when it has displayed a Growl alert at least once.

12. In the Display Options tab, select Boxcar in the Display Styles list on the left and select the option to display notifications using Smoke (or whichever theme you prefer).

13. Enter your Boxcar login information below this and click Verify Login. If your login is accepted, click Preview and you should see a Growl alert on your desktop and iOS device.

14. Start a short render and wait for it to finish. If everything is setup correctly, you should see a Render Watcher alert on your computer and then your iOS device. If you don't see this, double-check that you followed the above steps correctly and that the name of the application is ticked in the Applications tab in Render Watcher or that you are exporting to a directory listed in the Watch Folders tab.

Render Watcher is just one of ten useful tools for editors, assistant editors and post production professionals in the Pro Media Tools suite. To find out more, see the features page, watch the overview video or download the free trial.

How to export chapter markers from Final Cut Pro X

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:26:19 MST

Much has been written about the missing features in Final Cut Pro X when compared with FCP 7. One particular missing feature that has been causing workflow problems for some people is the inability to add chapter markers to an exported QuickTime movie for displaying on an iOS device or Apple TV.

There are several workarounds, such as adding chapter markers in Compressor, but these can be quite tedious as you need to create them manually. Luckily QT Edit in Pro Media Tools can automatically create chapter markers directly from the markers in your Final Cut Pro X timeline.

Here's how to do it:

1. Add markers to your FCPX timeline where you would like the chapters to occur.

2. Share your timeline to Compressor and use one of the Apple Device presets to create an m4v file.

3. Click on the filmstrip icon in FCPX to go back to the Project Browser and then highlight the project name in the list.

4. Go to File > Export XML to create an XML copy of your timeline.

5. Open up the exported movie with QT Edit.

6. Go to File > Import > Chapters.

7. Select "Final Cut Pro X XML (.fcpxml)" in the file type dropdown and browse for the XML file you created earlier. Click Open.

8. The markers will be imported and automatically added as chapters which can be viewed in the Chapters tab. You can edit the chapter positions and modify their names in this tab. Click on a chapter in the list to jump to that point in the movie.

Important: You must have a chapter on frame 1 in order for iOS to detect the chapter list. If your imported markers do not already have a chapter marker on this frame, set the playhead to the start in QT Edit and click the + button in the Chapters tab.

9. Save the movie in QT Edit and sync it to your device.

You can now play the movie on an iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch or Apple TV and the markers will be recognized. QT Edit can also import Final Cut Pro 7 marker lists, Avid locator lists, DVD Studio Pro chapter lists, CSV files, text files and chapters from other QuickTime movies.

Update: Chapter markers will now also be recognized by iDVD, Compressor and DVD Studio Pro in QT Edit 1.1.6 and higher.

Thoughts on Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:32:53 MST

Today Apple released Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3 which offers several new features such as multicam and broadcast monitoring (beta) that were previously missing.

Looking through the details, it's hard to find anything that would appeal to consumers and it is clear that this is an attempt by Apple to appease at least some of the pros. My first reaction (and the reaction of a lot of people on Twitter) was that this was the version Apple should have released back in June.

Here are some of the features I found interesting:

Multicam - 64 angles are supported and lots of options for syncing, including PluralEyes-style analysis of the audio waveforms. In comparison, Adobe Premiere Pro supports 4 angles and Final Cut Pro 7 supports 128.
Media Relink - You can now reconnect to files, which is useful if you need to swap out VFX shots or FCPX for some reason loses the link. This really should have been a 1.0 feature.
XML 1.1 - As mentioned earlier on this blog, the previous version of FCPXML didn't support audio levels so you'd lose your levels if you transferred the project elsewhere. This is now supported in FCPXML 1.1, although it's worth noting that Apple's developer documentation still says XML is not a perfect copy and does not contain everything that a project file does.
Broadcast monitoring - Apple's description is vague about which devices are supported but today AJA released new drivers that support FCPX output from SDI. There is no word yet from Black Magic Design or Matrox but I would assume new drivers are coming soon. It's worth noting that broadcast monitoring is only supported on Lion.

That doesn't make it a perfect tool for the professional broadcast / film industries of course. I really can't see EDL support ever being added, nor support for broadcast tape capture. But over time I think this will matter less and less. Case in point: I'm working on a feature right now and was very surprised when the post house asked me to deliver the Final Cut Pro 7 project for grading / mixing instead of EDLs and OMF.

I think Apple is very much gambling on the future here and I am definitely considering looking into it for short form work.

Update: Larry Jordan offers more info on the differences between FCP7 and FCPX's multicam implementation. Thanks Larry!

FCP 7 would LINK up to 128 cameras in a multicam clip, however you could only view 16 of them. FCP X links and allows you to view up to 64 clips at once, by switching between up to four banks of 16 cameras each. Also, edits can be made in real-time or by positioning the playhead.

A quick note on the Final Cut Pro X XML format

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 14:35:59 MDT

Apple released a Final Cut Pro X update today which added several much-needed features, one of which was XML import and export. I've seen a lot of confusion on Twitter so I'm going to clarify some terminology.

XML is a format for ordering data within a file. XMEML is a subset that Final Cut Pro 7 and below uses for creating a plain-text version of a Final Cut Pro project or sequence that other applications can read. The data is ordered in much the same way as it is within the project file, with the browser contents at the top, followed by the sequences, tracks and the media within.

FCPXML is the new subset for Final Cut Pro X. It is organized in the way FCPX organizes its data internally, which is completely different from the Final Cut Pro 7 way. You have resources at the top (all files and generators within the project) followed by a single sequence with the storylines and clips inside. There are no tracks and each clip is organized into a parent-child relationship rather than chronological order. Timing information such as in and out points are expressed in time units rather than frame units.

So the two formats are completely different and there is no way to directly import FCP 7 XMEML into Final Cut Pro X or vice versa. Apple seems to be leaving this up to third-parties. DaVinci Resolve supports FCPXML and XMEML so it may be possible to convert one to the other (I haven't tested this). Some features will not translate back and forth because they don't exist in the other application.

Currently XML in and out exists only as a menu command. There is no way for applications to automatically communicate with FCPX at this time. Update: Apple just confirmed you can programatically send an XML file to FCPX but there is no way of receiving XML data yet. It is also not possible to update an existing project - importing or sending an XML file will create new projects and events.

Also note that for some reason, you can't export project-based XML when the project is loaded. You have to go back to the Project Library, select the project name and then export the XML.

As you may know, lack of XML in and out prevented us from granting feature parity with Final Cut Pro 7 users in Pro Media Tools and our other products. We're going to begin integrating support in stages, so expect updates very soon.

Update: It would appear that the XML export function in its current implementation doesn't preserve important information, which is a problem when roundtripping. We still aim to support it in our applications and hopefully these issues will be addressed by Apple very soon.

18 features Adobe should borrow from Final Cut Pro 7

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 16:24:30 MDT

Apple's recent obsolescence of Final Cut Studio has forced a lot of us to reexamine which editing platform we want to use for future work. Ironically, Adobe Premiere Pro is a much easier transition for FCP 7 users than Final Cut Pro X due to its similar interface, support for old FCP projects and ability to use FCP's keyboard shortcuts.

The transition to Premiere is easier than any other NLE but there are lots of little things that I miss from Final Cut Pro. Here's a list of some of them, in no particular order.

1. Cutting on the fly

The Ctrl+V keyboard shortcut in Final Cut Pro can be used to make a cut on the timeline at the current playhead position. While Premiere also has a keyboard shortcut for cutting (Cmd+K), it pauses playback when it does so. There is no way to cut and continue playing.

2. Sixteen angles in a multiclip

Premiere Pro is limited only to four multicam angles.

3. Audio mixer affecting clip levels

Unlike Final Cut Pro, the audio mixer in Premiere doesn't work on a clip-by-clip basis. Every adjustment affects the entire track.

4. Multi-colored markers and marker lists

It took such a long time for colored markers to be introduced in Final Cut Pro 7 that I was sad to see them disappear in FCPX. Premiere needs this too.

Final Cut Pro can also export text-based marker lists, which is a great way of sending markers to another application. If Adobe were to implement this, I would also recommend they include a way of importing markers from a list, which Final Cut Pro unfortunately lacks.

5. Choosing attributes to paste

Like Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere has a useful Paste Attributes command. However, unlike FCP, this function does not allow you to specify which attributes you would like to paste - it just pastes everything. This is often not what you want.

6. Close Gap command

Ctrl-G in FCP can be used to easily close a gap in your timeline. There is no equivalent keyboard shortcut in Premiere to do this in one step.

Update: This one seems to have been misunderstood by a lot of people so I'll repeat it with additional emphasis: there is no way to do this in one step. There are many ways to do this in more than one step.

7. Multiple open projects

Only one project can be open at a time in Premiere. There is no way to refer back to another project without closing the first one.

8. Partial renders

When you cancel a render halfway through, Premiere discards the entire render file, unlike Final Cut Pro where the portion you rendered remains valid.

9. Pitch correction when using JKL keys

Using the JKL keys to navigate through media in Premiere can sometimes be tricky because the audio becomes high-pitched and difficult to understand.

10. No way to scroll tracks vertically with the scroll wheel

Scrolling your mouse vertically scrolls the Premiere Pro timeline horizontally. This is useful if your mouse is only capable of vertical scrolling, but if you have a trackpad or a mouse with a scroll ball, there is no way to scroll vertically to see extra tracks. There should at least be a preference for this behavior.

(FCP tip: if you have a mouse with a vertical scroll wheel only, hold down Cmd when scrolling and it will scroll horizontally.)

11. No through edits

There is no indicator icon to show a through edit. A through edit is a cut within a clip where the frames on either side of the cut are adjacent to each other. It appears to the viewer as if there is no cut at all, and in most cases it is unnecessary and should be removed.

12. No ability to search for clips to reconnect

When media goes offline, you can browse to the location of the file if you know where it is but there is no way to search your entire hard drive.

13. Tracks have to be selected when cutting clips onto the timeline

When inserting or overwriting a clip to the timeline in Final Cut Pro, the tracks that the video and audio will end up on are controlled by the buttons in the patch panel that are normally marked v1, a1 and a2. If you don't want to insert a track, click the button in the patch panel to disconnect it.

In Premiere things work differently. The patch panels AND the tracks need to be selected in order for this to work. If you want to insert video on video track 2 without any audio and have disconnected the A1 patch button, having an audio track selected will insert a blank space into that track. It seems redundant for patch buttons and audio tracks to need to be selected in order for this to work as expected when only patch buttons are needed in other NLEs.

Walter Biscardi gives a video overview of this problem here.

14. No timecode overlay

Final Cut Pro 7 finally brought us a long-requested timecode overlay window. While Premiere does show timecode in the Info window, this is not a direct equivalent.

15. No temporary snapping toggle

In Final Cut Pro 6.0.2 and higher, if you drag a clip and press the N key to toggle snapping, snapping will be switched on or off only for the duration of the drag. Once you let go of the clip, snapping reverts to its previous value. I found this feature very useful.

16. No function to mark audio peaks

Final Cut Pro can place markers on a clip whenever an audio peak occurs. There is no such function in Premiere.

17. No dupe detection

While you can view how many times an entire clip has been used, there is no way to see if a particular frame has been used more than once. This is crucial for film projects that will be having a negative cut.

18. Fewer options for clip markers than sequence markers

Sequence markers in Premiere Pro allow you to set a name, description, duration and various other options. Clip markers cannot be customized at all.

This is a list of things I think FCP does better than Premiere. In some cases, Premiere has no equivalent feature. In others, the feature exists but I feel it is lacking. None of these problems have prevented me from editing successfully with Premiere, but things would be smoother and certain workflows much easier if these features were present. I'm sure Adobe has been getting a lot of feedback from former FCP users and I have high hopes for CS6.

Sound off in the comments if you can think of any more things Adobe should borrow from Final Cut Pro.

What features will you miss from Final Cut Studio?

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:03:03 MDT

What made Final Cut Studio great was the sheer number of tools you got for the price. The demise of Final Cut Studio has left a void in the market which the closest competitor, Adobe Creative Suite, does not yet fill completely.

We've had several people come to us in recent weeks with requests to replicate certain Final Cut Studio functions that they depended on because they wanted the piece of mind that these functions would still be available after they switched to another NLE.

We implemented two of these in the latest version of QT Edit in Pro Media Tools - Cinema Tools-style frame rate conforming and a replication of QuickTime Pro's export dialog. The latter is useful for people who don't want to purchase a separate QuickTime Pro license, which they used to get free of charge with their Final Cut Studio installation.

The frame rate conform function is an improvement upon the Cinema Tools equivalent because it allows you to specify a custom frame rate. The advantage of implementing these features into applications that have not been long-abandoned by their manufacturer is that these features will continue to be improved over time.

We're interested to hear of any other Final Cut Studio features you use that could feasibly be added to our software. We're not planning to create our own versions of Cinema Tools or Color, but are keen to hear of any small features from the suite that would fit well into our existing applications. Let us know in the comments below or via our contact form.

iMovie DV files contain no audio when imported into FCPX

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 14:07:06 MDT

A common problem on the Apple forums from Final Cut Pro X users has been the inability to hear audio from DV files imported from iMovie.

iMovie creates raw DV files (.dv) which contain video and audio data but no metadata or other information. It's essentially a DV QuickTime without the surrounding QuickTime structure.

This means that Final Cut Pro X can't find the audio because it's mixed in with the video data and there's no index or track structure to point it in the right direction.

To get around this, you must convert .dv files to QuickTime movies. Here's how to do it:

1. Open up the .dv file in QuickTime Player 7, which should be in your Applications/Utilities folder. If you don't have it on your system, you will need to install it from the Snow Leopard DVD.

2. Go to File > Save As and make sure the option to make a self-contained movie is checked.

3. Click Save. It shouldn't take very long because it is restructuring the data rather than recompressing it.

Thinking of switching to another NLE?

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:25:11 MDT

I have heard several people on Twitter say that they are thinking of switching to Adobe Premiere or Avid Media Composer after the release of Final Cut Pro X.

As we announced earlier this year, we will be releasing a new version of FCS Maintenance Pack soon called Pro Maintenance Tools. This will support Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Pro X, Avid Media Composer and Adobe Premiere Pro for Mac, so whatever decision you make we've got you covered.

And if you're an existing FCS Maintenance Pack customer who purchased the software on or after 1st February 2011, you will be eligible for a free upgrade to Pro Maintenance Tools upon release.

Are there features you like in Final Cut Pro X but wish they were in Final Cut Pro 7 or Adobe Premiere Pro? We've got you covered there too with Pro Media Tools.

Pro Media Tools adds support for Quick Bins (Apple calls these Clip Collections in FCPX) and you can see a complete overview of the media, effects and markers in Project Overview (Timeline Index in FCPX). Project Overview is more advanced than FCPX's Timeline Index because it allows batch modification of the data, printing, import and export to marker and Avid locator lists and more. A 15-day trial is available here.

We're interested to hear from anyone with requests for other Final Cut Pro X features they'd like to see ported to earlier versions or other NLEs.

Final Cut Pro X from a Developer Perspective

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:07:04 MDT

I've already mentioned The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Final Cut Pro X but when it comes to developer features, there's a lot more to like.

Chris Kenny has been doing some delving and discovered that there are references to Python and AppleScript in the Final Cut Pro X app. This would be a big step up from the current method of sending commands via Apple Events.

There are also references to XML import and Final Cut Pro XML import, which implies that they will be two different formats. This makes sense, as the structure of FCPX projects has changed significantly (no more bins and no concept of tracks for instance) and there is a greater focus on metadata.

Neither of these are publicly accessible right now but they show that Apple has at least experimented with these functions and it is likely that they will be enabled in a future release. There has been speculation that import of FCP7 projects or XML may never come as the project formats are too different, but I think it's likely that we will at least see an FCPX-specific exchange format at some point in the future.

Final Cut Pro X now uses the Motion engine to render effects, which means that plugin output is now consistent between Final Cut Pro and Motion - something that was not the case in previous versions. Developers need to wrap their Motion plugins as Final Cut Effects in order for them to show up in Final Cut Pro X.

Other notable changes include more control over plugin user interfaces, support for multi-threading, keyframing, undo and bezier paths. These have been requested for a long time so it's great that they're now here. Thanks to Darrin Cardani and Paul Schneider at Apple for listening to the needs of developers.

Final Cut Pro X and Motion 5 require plugins to be compiled as 64-bit so most users' plugins won't be compatible. This is only a temporary problem until plugin developers catch up and the benefits of a 64-bit environment and FxPlug 2.0 will make it worthwhile. (There are, of course, some bugs in the implementation as would be expected in a 1.0 release.)

Just before Final Cut Pro X was unveiled at NAB earlier this year, I wrote a post about my Top 5 Developer Requests for the Next Final Cut Pro.

Storing settings in preference lists was number one and, as expected, this was implemented. While the reasons for wanting it so badly (mainly for programmatically changing scratch disk locations) are less important in Final Cut Pro X, we can still do a lot of things with it.

Making the Final Cut Pro project format more open was second on the list. This one is a little more complex because on the one hand, it's in SQLite format which makes it readable by the sqlite3 Terminal command but on the other, Core Data assumes that no-one other than the owning application will ever touch those files and so it's very easy to corrupt it if you're not careful. Also, while the SQLite format offers some predictability, Apple are free to structure the database any way they see fit and change it without notice in future versions. I've written a basic filename parser but I'm going to wait for official documentation or an API before doing anything more substantial.

Third, fourth and fifth on the list were requests for more API control. This is not in the initial release of Final Cut Pro X and remains to be seen if it will be in future versions.

Of course, I wrote this on the assumption that FCPX wouldn't remove any developer features that were in the previous version. While the developer features are sparse in the current version, the future looks bright, especially as it appears that Apple is expecting third-party developers to fill in many of the gaps in FCPX's feature set.

Final Cut Pro X Bug List

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 14:57:54 MDT

This list will document the bugs in Final Cut Pro X as they become apparent.

1. Projects not saving

This one is scary. There are several reports of people losing work due to FCPX's autosave function (which is the only way to save) not working.

https://discussions.apple.com/message/15469208
https://discussions.apple.com/message/15460282

2. Clips going offline

When you add media from another drive and choose not to copy the files to your Final Cut Events folder, FCPX adds symbolic links to the Final Cut Events folder that point back to these files.

Some people have been reporting that they relaunched FCPX to find all of their media offline. When they looked in the Final Cut Events folder, FCPX had either deleted the symbolic links or failed to save them in the first place.

You can reconnect them by going to File > Import > Files but this causes another bug to surface: the files will always be copied to your Final Cut Events folder even if you deselect the option to do so.

3. Undo disabled

Some people are reporting that Undo is disabled for them. What makes this an especially big problem is that FCPX saves automatically and so any mistakes they make are immortalized forever if they can't undo them.

https://discussions.apple.com/message/15467240
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3136611

4. Projects disappearing

There are reports of projects disappearing from the project library.

https://discussions.apple.com/message/15497434

If you experience problems with media, I would recommend updating to OS X 10.6.8 which "Fixes an issue when importing certain media files into Final Cut Pro." I don't yet know if it solves these particular issues though.

8. Systems with two graphics card exporting QT movies with green artifacts

Apple recommends only running FCPX on machines with one graphics card.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3842

9. Templates, generators and titles appearing blue

This can be caused by templates from previous versions of Motion residing in the ~/Library/Application Support/Motion folder. To get around this, move the templates from this folder. More info here.

10. Video in the preview monitor is missing the green channel

https://discussions.apple.com/message/15582977#15582977

11. Drives don't appear in the list

This can happen if certain folders exist on the drive. The poster in this forum thread says folders called "private" and possibly "backup" can cause this issue:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/15794411#15794411

I'd be interested to hear if anyone finds any other folders that can cause the drive to disappear in FCPX.

More bugs will be listed as they surface.

Update: There are more bugs listed in the comments of this post, on LAFCPUG and at FCPX Quirks.

Final Cut Pro X - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 13:04:12 MDT

Final Cut Pro X is finally here and I've been playing around with it this morning. I haven't used it for any projects yet, so don't consider this a formal review, but here are my first impressions.

As a software developer, I understand that a 1.0 release is difficult and not every feature can be added. However, I feel that Apple made some glaring omissions with FCPX that I will cover in the "ugly" section.

Good

FCPX is FAST. I tried to break it with lots of stacked clips and effects but it played them all seamlessly.
FCPX uses AVFoundation instead of QuickTime. The QuickTime API is clunky, antiquated and the modern features Apple tacked on don't work as well as the older stuff. Breaking free of the shackles of 1990s-era technology is the best thing that ever happened to Final Cut Pro.
Everyone's been complaining about FCP's media management since version 1.0 and the new database file format and keyword-based metadata tagging are huge improvements.
FCPX will import a memory card in the background, allowing you to edit the footage directly from the card and then replace it seamlessly with the media on the hard disk once the transfer is complete. I think this is a great idea.
Effects and titles were never FCP's strong point and these have been greatly improved.
I'm also enjoying the little touches I've spotted here and there, like the way an edit point turns red when you select it if the in and out points are at the outer limits of the clip. These features are tiny but they make a big difference.

Bad

It took a long time for multiple marker colors to be added to Final Cut Pro. Now we're back to one marker color again. There are no chapter markers either.
You need an OpenCL-compatible graphics card. This has left some Mac Pro owners out in the cold.
The QuickTime movie output options in FCPX are poor, which means you're obligated to pay an extra $49 for Compressor 4 because you can't send to Compressor 3.

Ugly

Compressor 4 is still 32-bit and doesn't look like it's received an overhaul, meaning that the problems many of us have suffered are likely to continue. I have already had several issues with Qmaster.
No multicam. This is a massive oversight in my opinion.
No XML import / output. Another huge oversight.
A lot of plugin developers have been left out in the cold with no answers from Apple.
No support for old FCP 7 projects.
No credible broadcast monitor output. The current solution is to mirror your desktop through a capture card, which does not result in a broadcast-quality output.
Final Cut Pro, Motion and Compressor are $400 combined. This is a great price, however if you need features that are not in FCPX, you're going to end up paying more. If you need OMF output, you need to pay $500 for Automatic Duck. You will also most likely need to pay to upgrade any plugins once support for FCPX has been added. Rumors have suggested that Apple may be offering these missing features as additional applications for a fee, which also contributes to the overall cost. When you consider all of these potential costs, FCPX doesn't seem as cheap as it does on the surface.

As you can see, there are some serious issues with FCPX. However, the biggest problem is that Final Cut Pro 7 support ends today. All of the above issues could be forgiven if Apple had allowed the two to co-exist until FCPX had matured enough to be a viable replacement. This is especially important considering the lack of support for importing Final Cut Pro 7 projects.

Unless you're using DSLRs to create content solely for the web, I would recommend having a more fully-featured NLE on your system in addition to Final Cut Pro X. Apple has made this difficult by discontinuing Final Cut Studio 3, so I would recommend Avid Media Composer or Adobe Premiere Pro. (Premiere Pro is probably easier for Final Cut Pro users to pick up.)

Final Cut Pro X Frequently Asked Questions

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 10:37:26 MDT

Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions about Final Cut Pro X.

Q: Does it overwrite Final Cut Pro 7?

A: No. All of the Final Cut Studio applications are moved to a Final Cut Studio folder in your Applications directory.

Q: Can I still purchase Final Cut Studio if I need it?

A: Not directly from Apple. I'm sure third-party resellers still have it in stock, but probably not for very long.

Q: Is there Motion and audio content like in previous versions?

A: Yes, but it is not installed by default. You need to launch Final Cut Pro X and go to Final Cut Pro > Download Additional Content.

IMPORTANT: Even if you don't need the content, I recommend doing this so that you have access to Final Cut Pro X's codecs.

Q: Should I also buy Compressor 4?

A: I would recommend it because Export to QuickTime Movie only offers a handful of codecs and options. To have control over the files you are exporting from FCPX, you definitely need Compressor 4.

Q: What about the other apps like Color, Cinema Tools and DVD Studio Pro?

A: They may come later but don't hold your breath. DVD Studio Pro is almost certainly dead.

Q: Will it work on my Mac?

A: Final Cut Pro X and Motion 5 require OpenCL-compatible graphics cards (not to be confused with OpenGL) and the Mac App Store will prevent you from purchasing it if you don't have the correct card. Apple has provided a list of cards that are not compatible.

However, HardMac is reporting that it does work on supposedly unsupported systems if you purchase it on a supported system and transfer it across. I would not recommend doing this in mission-critical or production environments though.

Q: Can I install it on more than one computer?

A: You can install it on up to five systems. All systems must be 64-bit Intel and running OS X 10.6.7 or higher. To install it on the target system, launch the Mac App Store, go to the Purchased tab and click the Install button next to each item.

(Note: some people are reporting that the Mac App Store is "forgetting" their purchase of FCPX)

Q: Can I open old Final Cut Pro projects in FCPX?

A: Not directly. You can import FCP 7 XML files via 7toX but be aware that not everything can be transferred across.

Q: Can I import or export XML?

A: Yes, in FCPX 10.0.1 or higher. Note that XML does not contain all of the contents of a project or event so it is not considered a suitable backup or replacement.

Q: Can I export EDLs or marker lists?

A: No.

Q: Can I import layered Photoshop files?

A: Yes, in FCPX 10.0.3 or higher.

Q: Can I capture from tape?

A: Yes, but only through Firewire, which limits it to DV, HDV and DVCPROHD capture. It's very basic and there's no way to customize it so I would recommend using another application to capture from tape.

Q: Can I output to tape?

A: No.

Q: Can I use my old Final Cut Pro 7 plugins in Final Cut Pro X?

A: No.

Q. Can I export a QuickTime movie with chapter markers?

A: No, but we have a workaround here.

Q: Does Final Cut Pro X have native R3D or XDCAM support?

A: No.

Q: Can FCPX work natively with H.264 and DVCPROHD from P2 cards?

A: Yes.

Q: How do I change where my render files are stored?

A: Render files are stored in the project directory so you need to move the project to a different drive. To do this, click the film strip icon in the bottom left corner to open up the Project Library, then drag the project to another drive. Only HFS+ drives will be displayed in this list - you cannot copy to Xsan, AFP, NFS or SMB volumes. (Thanks to Shamol Majumder for the tip)

Q: How do I reconnect media?

A: Go to File > Import > Files and browse for the original media files. If the files are already in the project, they will be reconnected.

There are two caveats: firstly, there is no way to reconnect to a different file (such as if you were replacing a temp VFX shot with the finished one) and secondly, it will always copy the file to your Final Cut Events folder even if you tell it not to. The latter would appear to be a bug.

Update: FCPX 10.0.3 now has a Reconnect function.

Q: Can I export a reference (non-self-contained) QuickTime movie?

A: No.

Q: Can I output to a broadcast monitor?

A: FCPX 10.0.3 has a broadcast output feature however this is currently considered beta quality.

Q: How do I output OMFs / AAFs to Pro Tools?

A: Purchase Automatic Duck Pro Export FCP.

Update: Automatic Duck has now closed its doors and users are reporting that Pro Export FCP does not work with FCPX 10.0.3. One alternative is X2Pro which offers AAF output from FCPX.

Q: Can you split the interface across multiple monitors?

A: To a limited extent. In the Window menu there are two options: Show Events on Second Display and Show Viewer on Second Display.

Q: Is there an Autosave Vault?

A: FCPX saves all changes as you make them and autosave now replaces the regular save function. However, there is no autosave vault where you can go back to a previous version, only a single project backup that occurs every 15 minutes (with FCPX 10.0.3 and higher).

To regain autosave vault functionality and the ability to revert to a previous version in case of project corruption or undesired changes, use Pro Versioner.

Q: Is there an audio mixer?

A: No. There is no mixer and no way to keyframe audio in realtime.

Update: There's been a little bit of confusion over this statement. I'm not saying you can't keyframe audio at all, just not in realtime while your timeline is playing.

Q: Does FCPX support Euphonix control surfaces?

No. This thread quotes an Avid representative:

"As of this moment, no - Apple has not integrated EuCon support into FCPX. They have the option to do so, but would need to do the work on their end to support EuCon. Whether or not that will happen is unknown - given the nature of FCPX, my guess is that it's intentionally been left out. "

Q: Can I run Final Cut Pro X and Final Cut Pro 7 at the same time?

A: No, FCP X detects that FCP 7 is running and asks you to quit.

Q: Can I park the playhead on an individual field?

A: Yes! This is a feature long overdue for FCP.

Q: Why do DV files imported from iMovie play without audio?

A: iMovie creates raw DV files without track information or other metadata. FCPX is expecting the files to contain information on the structure of tracks. To fix this, you must rewrap the .dv files as QuickTime movies. To do this, open them in QuickTime Player 7, go to File > Save As and choose the option to save as a self-contained movie.

Q: Why do I get an error message when I launch Final Cut Pro 7 saying it is incompatible with Motion 5?

A: After installing Motion 5, you need to launch Motion 4 and then close it again to make this error disappear.

Q: Can I open my old Motion projects in Motion 5?

A: Yes. You will be prompted to upgrade the project (not recommended) or open it as an untitled project (recommended) in order to save it under a different name.

Q: Are Motion and Compressor compatible with Final Cut Pro 7?

A: Neither Send to Motion nor Send to Compressor work with the newer versions, however they both function as independent applications so you can still use them separately.

You cannot embed Motion 5 projects on a Final Cut Pro 7 timeline (it displays a message about missing media, even if you only add generators to the project) but you can export a QuickTime movie and bring it into FCP7. Also note that Motion 5 projects are not compatible with Motion 4 and there is no way to downgrade them.

Q: Do I need to buy Motion 5 in order to use third-party plugins?

A: Although FxPlug 2.0 plugins use Motion's rendering engine, you do not need Motion 5 installed on the system in order to use them.

Q: Compressor looks almost the same. Has it changed?

A: The biggest change is that Qmaster is now integrated directly into Compressor.

Q: Is Compressor now 64-bit?

A: The background task that handles encoding is 64-bit but only for 64-bit codecs. The Compressor user interface is still 32-bit.

Q: Can I use the Send to Compressor command in FCPX to send to Compressor 3?

A: No, you need to purchase Compressor 4 to use this feature.

Q: How do I get Compressor 4 to use all of my processing cores?

A: Go to Apple Qmaster > Share This Computer. Tick the option for Share This Computer and select Services Only.

Then, when submitting a batch, tick the option for This Computer Plus.

Q: Are there are incompatibilities with Compressor 3.5 and Compressor 4?

A: Yes, you must disable Compressor 3.5 Quick Clusters before using Compressor 4 Quick Clusters otherwise batches will fail.

Q: What about Final Cut Server and Final Cut Express?

A: The Final Cut Server and Final Cut Express pages now point to Final Cut Pro X, which would indicate that they have been discontinued.

Q: Does Final Cut Pro X recognize Xsan, NFS, AFP and SMB volumes?

A: These volumes do not appear in the Event Library, however you can still import files from them by going to File > Import > Files.

IMPORTANT: Be sure to deselect the option to copy files to Final Cut Events folder otherwise all of the media will be copied to your local disk.

FCP X will then add a symbolic link to the remote media on your local hard drive. Be aware that render files will be stored in the same location as the project file. To move the project, drag it to another drive in the Project Library. This can only be an HFS+ drive so you cannot store it on an Xsan volume.

(thanks to Brian Summa for the clarification)

Update: FCPX still doesn't see SAN locations automatically but you can now use File > Add San Location to add one manually.

Q: Does Final Cut Pro X work with ExFAT volumes?

A: Apparently not, but the workaround for Xsan volumes listed above may solve the issue for people experiencing this problem.

(ExFAT is a new cross-platform file system that is much better than FAT32 for transferring files between Mac and PC.)

Q: Can I store projects or events on different drives?

A: Projects will be stored on the local disk by default. To change this, click the film canister icon in the bottom left corner to open up the Project Library. You can then drag the project to any supported drive in the list. (Thanks to Shamol Majumder for the tip.)

Events can be stored on external disks by going to File > Import > Files, selecting Create New Event and choosing the name of the disk under Save To. You can change the location of an existing event by going to File > Move Event.

Q: How do I get a refund on FCPX?

A: Use this form and select "The app didn't function as expected". Even though Apple's terms and conditions prohibit refunds, several people have managed to get them by using this form.

I will update this FAQ as more questions and answers become available.

Update: Apple has posted an official FAQ here. It has fewer answers than ours but gives a good indication of Apple's future roadmap.

My thoughts on Final Cut Pro X

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 22:53:02 MDT

Apple just gave a sneak preview of Final Cut Pro X at the NAB Supermeet. I wasn't there so thanks to everyone who tweeted and posted photos of the event.

There's a lot to like - 64-bit Cocoa rewrite, OpenCL and Grand Central Dispatch support, color management to prevent gamma shifts, no rendering or transcoding, native support for DSLRs and many more features. You can read the full list here.

Apple only talked about new features so there was no mention of existing features that had made it into the new version. Consequently the presentation left more questions than it answered - what about XML, EDLs, tape workflows, scopes, DVD output? We won't find that out until the release.

There is an emphasis on automation in the new version - it can automatically detect audio hum and remove it, and the magnetic timeline can simplify L- and J-cuts by automatically moving clips to a new layer to prevent clip collisions. I think this is great, as anything that makes me a faster editor makes me a better editor, however I can see a lot of cases where this would be unwanted and I hope it can be disabled when necessary.

My favorite features are the 64-bit rewrite, the lack of rendering, the new keyframe editor and Plural Eyes-style audio syncing.

The feature I'm most unsure about is dynamic tracks. Tracks will appear and disappear as you move clips around and new tracks will be added when you use the magnetic timeline. This could cause organizational problems if you always put music on tracks 8-9 for instance, and it would be a nightmare if you need to output a multi-channel show. Apple sought professional feedback so I assume this issue was brought up and that they have a solution for it.

There was no mention of other apps in the suite. Final Cut Pro X will be sold in June via the App Store so this means it will be a self-contained app. There is no way to sell a group of apps via the store, however it would still be possible to sell them separately like iWork. It also means there is no way of upgrading if you own an old version of Final Cut Pro, however the $299 price point is the same as the FCP 6 to FCP 7 upgrade cost.

What about my top 5 developer requests? Number 1 looks to be done; I'm not sure about any of the others.

Although I haven't tried the new version, I'm cautiously optimistic. There are a lot of features designed for speeding things up and that's always a good thing. It's also clear that Apple isn't trying to do everything, so it leaves a lot of gaps for third-party developers like myself to fill. As it is an App Store app, it won't overwrite the old version of Final Cut Studio so you can still go back if anything is missing.

The new version would be great for a lot of my smaller projects for the web but I don't yet know how well it would translate to larger projects where I need Cinema Tools, tape ingest / output and DVD creation. That's something I'll only find out when it's released.

P.S. Anyone else prefer the old icon to the new one?

Update: "Today was just a sneak peak of Final Cut Pro, stay tuned," an Apple representative told The Loop. This implies that there may be additional apps available separately.

Top 5 developer requests for the next Final Cut Pro

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 11:41:10 MDT

Lots of people have been posting wish lists for the next version of Final Cut Pro with such features as 64-bit support, OpenCL, etc. One thing I haven't seen is a wishlist from a developer's perspective, so here's mine.

I've included a description of the feature, how likely I reckon it is to be implemented and what we could do with it if it was.

1. Store settings in preference lists (plists)

Apple introduced a standardized format for preference files in Mac OS X that allows applications to easily read and write from them. Final Cut Pro, which dates back to the days of OS 9, uses a proprietary binary format that only Apple knows how to read from and write to. It is also the reason why Final Cut Pro preferences get corrupted so easily.

What we could do with it: You could choose to backup only certain settings in Preference Manager instead of the entire file. Path Manager could modify and sync Final Cut Pro scratch disks.

Likelihood: Certain. If they've rewritten FCP, there is no reason why they would not use the standardized OS X preference system.

2. Make the FCP project file format more open

There is currently no method of reading from or writing to Final Cut Pro project files. The workaround is to export an XML copy from Final Cut Pro. The downsides to this are that Final Cut Pro has to be running, exporting to XML is slow and it locks up FCP so the user can't continue working.

There are several solutions to this problem - Apple could keep the format the same and release detailed specifications, they could create an API for reading and writing or they could convert the Final Cut Pro project format to XML (perhaps with binary and plain-text options like Maya). I don't really mind which method they choose as long as a solution arrives.

What we could do with it: FCP Versioner would be faster and would no longer lock up Final Cut Pro when exporting to XML. Pro Media Tools would be much faster and would not require FCP to be installed in order to read an FCP project file.

Likelihood: 50/50. I'm sure Apple will make big changes to the file format but we'll have to see if these are developer-friendly.

3. Add a playback and timecode API

The only way to get timecode from a Final Cut Pro project is to setup a fake MIDI device to receive the information. The downside to this method is that it is not very user-friendly - the user must specifically setup the device as a control surface in FCP and must have the audio mixing window open at all times.

A playback and timecode API would allow developers to control the Final Cut Pro timeline and receive timecode without any intervention on the user's part.

What we could do with it: Final Cut Pro syncing for Cut Notes with no complex setup for the user.

Likelihood: Ordinarily I would think this was unlikely but there are rumors that there will be an official iPad control app for Final Cut Pro. If this rumor is true, I highly doubt that Apple is using the user-unfriendly method of setting it up as a MIDI control surface.

4. Programmatically initiating exports

With Apple Events, developers can send commands directly to Final Cut Pro for such tasks as saving a project or highlighting a clip in a bin. There is no way to automatically export a sequence to a QuickTime movie without user intervention.

What I'd like is a command that exports all or part of a sequence to a file the developer specifies along with the ability to specify export settings such as the codec, if it is self-contained, whether or not it should contain markers, etc.

What we could do with it: This would be incredibly useful for a super-secret future product...

Likelihood: Unlikely.

5. Adding interface items

All third-party applications have to be launched separately and there is currently no way to integrate a third-party application with Final Cut Pro. What I would like is the ability to add interface buttons or menu items to send data to third-party applications in the background. The applications could then send data back without the user leaving Final Cut Pro.

What we could do with it: Lots of things, including adding buttons to manually initiate FCP Versioner backups from within FCP, a "Send to Edit Detector" command that cuts up a clip on your timeline at each edit point, an "Add Quick Bin" menu item, and more.

Likelihood: It's a long shot.

I hope at the very least that 1 and 2 are implemented in the new FCP. I guess we'll find out tomorrow. Do any other developers have requests?

Restoring the default Compressor settings

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:01:31 MST

Does your Compressor settings window have missing items or is completely blank? Here's how to restore the default Apple-supplied settings.

1. Close Compressor if it is open.
2. Navigate to your Applications folder.
3. Ctrl-click on the Compressor application and select Show Package Contents.
4. Navigate to Contents/Resources/English.lproj (or whatever your language is).
5. Cmd-click the following folders to select them: Apple Devices, DVD, Formats, Other Workflows.
6. With all of them selected, ctrl-click on one of them and select Make Alias. Four aliases will be created with filenames like "Apple Devices alias" and "DVD alias".
7. Move the four aliases to ~/Library/Application Support/Compressor.
8. Launch Compressor.

Bootcamp volumes can cause Final Cut Pro hangs

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 01:59:35 MST

You can add one more item to the ever-expanding list of things that break Final Cut Studio: Bootcamp. Yes, if you have a Bootcamp partition, Final Cut Pro can in some instances hang at startup and refuse to launch.

Luckily the fix is very simple. It seems to be caused by Spotlight indexing and users have confirmed that adding their Bootcamp volume to Spotlight's Privacy list in System Preferences solves the issue for them. Apparently you need several restarts to get the setting to stick but once it does, Final Cut Pro should be able to launch again.

If you did experience this issue, please let Apple know.

Mac OS X 10.6.6 breaking Final Cut Studio

Sun, 16 Jan 2011 12:03:45 MST

Last month I reported that ProKit 6.0.1 was breaking Final Cut Studio (primarily DVD Studio Pro) for some users. Well, it would appear that OS X 10.6.6 automatically installs ProKit 6.0.2* which is causing the issues all over again.

Here are some forum threads on the topic:
LAFCPUG: WARNING: Mac OS 10.6.6 UPDATE (ProKit 6.0.2)
LAFCPUG: I think I installed ProKit 601 by mistake - crashing
Apple Discussions: Prokit 5 v 6 Cant use DVDSP and iLife at the same time

Not everyone will suffer problems with ProKit 6.x but if you're one of the unlucky few, follow these steps to downgrade to ProKit 5.1. Note that this will probably break iLife '11.

It is clear that Apple's engineering team is having difficulty working out what the problem is, so if you are experiencing this issue you should file a bug report (requires free developer registration) and give them as much information as possible.

* For some reason I still have ProKit 5.1 after installing OS X 10.6.6. I don't know why this is but I'm not complaining.

Restoring an older version of ProKit

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:15:57 MDT

ProKit 6.0.1 has been breaking Final Cut Studio for some people and so far there has been no fix from Apple.

Here is how to restore an older version:

1. You will need to obtain a copy of the old ProKit.framework file either from a friend, another computer on the network or a Time Machine backup.

Update: I have discovered that the version of ProKit 5.1 on Apple's site that is supposedly Leopard-only is also Snow Leopard-compatible. You may need to install ProKit 5.0 first. Before installing, open up the Terminal in /Applications/Utilities and type sudo pkgutil --forget com.apple.pkg.ProAppRuntime, then enter your admin password.

2. In the Finder, navigate to /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks and copy the ProKit.framework file to your desktop.

3. Ctrl-click on the file on the desktop and select Compress "ProKit.Framework".

4. Delete the original file from your desktop and empty the trash. Leave the compressed file there for now.

5. Copy the older ProKit.framework file to /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks, overwriting the newer one. You will most likely need to enter an administrator password to do this.

6. Final Cut Studio applications should now work and it should be safe to delete the compressed file. If they do not, try restarting your computer.

7. If something goes wrong, decompress the compressed file and copy it back to the PrivateFrameworks directory.

(The reason for compressing the file is to ensure that OS X doesn't continue to recognize it as a framework and potentially try to link to it.)

If the installer refuses to install, try using Pacifist to extract the files or try this manual method (be careful).

ProKit 6.0.1 breaking Final Cut Studio

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 19:03:54 MDT

ProKit 6.0.1 came out last week with bug fixes for Logic and Aperture. No Final Cut Studio changes were mentioned, and in fact it would seem that a number of people have experienced problems after updating:

Apple Discussions - Installed Pro Kit 6.0.1... all Pro Apps down!

Apple Discussions - DVD Studio Pro 4.1.2/ProKit Update 6.0.1

LAFCPUG - WARNING - Just did Prokit update

Ken Stone - Last week's Pro Kit update 6.0.1-DVD studio Pro crashing

For the record, I know several people who have installed this update successfully with no problems whatsoever, but as this update doesn't specifically address anything in Final Cut Studio it's better to give it a miss.

Anyone experiencing issues should report the bug to Apple or leave feedback. There isn't a fix for this as of yet but some people have managed to repair it by restoring the old ProKit.framework file from their Time Machine backups or from another machine on their network.

(Note: FCS Remover won't help in this instance because ProKit is now integrated into OS X and FCS Remover never removes files that reside in the System directory for safety reasons.)

Update: Here's how to fix it.

FCP error: Project is unreadable or too new for this version

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 14:15:46 MDT

If you're getting the error message "Project is unreadable or may be too new for this version of Final Cut Pro" when you try to open a particular project, it may be due to one of three reasons:

1. The project was created with a newer version of Final Cut Pro. Make sure you have the latest version, or alternatively ask the person who gave you the project to export an XML file that you can import into an earlier version.

2. The project's metadata may be invalid. Use Project Repair to fix this.

3. The project is corrupt. There is unfortunately no fix for this. You will need to restore the project from a backup or autosave. Our FCP Versioner software automatically backs up your project every time you save it, and Autosave Cleaner can archive autosaves so that they are never automatically deleted by Final Cut Pro.

Removing the codec name from a Compressor destination

Sat, 23 Oct 2010 12:57:15 MDT

Whenever you export a Compressor batch, Compressor normally appends the name of the codec to the file, such as "-DV NTSC" for instance. This isn't always desirable.

Here's how to remove it:

1. Go to the Destinations tab.

2. Click the plus button (+) and select Local.

3. Browse to a location.

Important: Do not browse to the same directory as the source files otherwise the new files will overwrite the source media.

4. Under Output Filename Template, set it to Source Media Name. You can use the drop-down button to select template options.

5. Drag the new destination onto the clips in your batch.

6. If you want to use the new destination by default in all new batches, go to Preferences and set Default Destination to the destination you just created.

Final Cut Pro bug - Long delays with extended markers

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 14:58:31 MDT

There's a bug in Final Cut Pro 7 that causes the application to beachball when you load transitions into the Viewer. This seems to occur if you have long clips with long extended markers in them (i.e. markers with a duration longer than one frame).

Here's how to replicate:
1. Go to the Effects tab and drag a Bars & Tone generator into the Viewer.
2. Change the duration to 30 minutes (00:30:00;00) and bring it into the timeline. Repeat this step to add a second clip next to the first.
4. Select the first clip, press M to add a marker and then press M again to open up the marker settings dialog.
5. Set the marker duration to 15 minutes (00:15:00;00).
5. Add a cross-dissolve transition between the two clips.
6. Double-click the transition to open it in the Viewer. It will take several seconds to open and will probably beachball.

Observations:
* The extended marker does not need to pass through the transition in order for this to occur.
* Shortening the marker to 20 seconds only causes a brief delay.
* The effect still occurs with short master clips but it was lessened and did not beachball on my system.
* The effect is exacerbated if both clips on either side of a transition use long extended markers.
* This only seems to occur when you use the default transition length or values close to it (00:00:08;28 for NTSC). If you lengthen the transition significantly, it loads much faster. I'm not sure why this is - perhaps it was an anomaly on my system.
* The quantity of markers makes a difference. Loading the transition for a clip with ten 30-second markers takes significantly longer than loading one for a clip with just a single 30-second marker.
* The length of the clip on the timeline is irrelevant. It is the length of the master clip that makes the difference. This explains why even relatively short markers can experience this effect, as there may be a large number of them within a single master clip.

Workarounds:
* Give your markers a color that is not used for any other purpose, then go to Edit > Project Properties and hide markers for that particular color. This resolves the issue, and if you need to see them again, just go back to Project Properties and enable them. This is my recommended solution (thanks Nick).
* Use shorter or fewer markers.
* Split up master clips or export your timeline as a reference movie and put the markers on the exported clip. This workaround works better if your project is short.
* If you are using cross dissolves, consider emulating the effect with opacity keyframes instead.
* Instead of using extended markers, use single-frame markers with a color coding scheme - e.g. red for the beginning marker and green for the end marker.

Test Notes:
* I tested this on Final Cut Pro 7.0.2, OS X 10.6.4, QuickTime 7.6.6.
* Thanks to Thomas Berglund for his assistance in helping me replicate this.

Compressor error: "Unable to submit to queue"

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 08:57:14 MDT

If you're getting this error message when trying to submit a batch to Compressor, follow the steps listed here:

Compressor error: "Unable to connect to background process"

Aperture changes in Compressor 3.5

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 12:22:38 MDT

Have you noticed that movies compressed with Compressor 3.5 have a slightly different frame size when viewed in QuickTime Player?

Compressor 3.5 gives all QuickTime movies a Clean aperture by default (previous versions of Compressor set the aperture to None). This means that, although the actual frame size of the movie hasn't changed, when playing back, QuickTime scales and crops the movie to account for the non-square pixel aspect ratio of various video formats such as DV.

This has confused a lot of people because videos encoded with Compressor 3.5 are displayed differently to those encoded with Compressor 3.0. Although it is easy enough to change this within QuickTime Player, it needs to be done on a per-movie basis.

Luckily, Apple included an option in Compressor 3.5.2 (in the Pro Applications 2010-01 update) to switch this off. Just upgrade to Compressor 3.5.2 and deselect Add clean aperture information in the Encoder tab.

Pro Applications Update 2010-01

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 02:15:40 MDT

Apple released the second Pro Apps update for Final Cut Studio 3 yesterday. It includes Final Cut Pro 7.0.2, Motion 4.0.2, Color 1.5.2, Cinema Tools 4.5.1, Compressor 3.5.2 and Qmaster 3.5.2. There are a lot of fixes there, some for critical issues, and also some performance updates too.

Here's the complete list of changes:

Final Cut Pro 7.0.2
* Drag and drop of files from iTunes works as expected with supported file types.
* Fixes the "Preview Unsupported For This Format" message that would occur occasionally with P2 media recorded to a Firestore FS100 recording device from Panasonic cameras.
* Fixes an issue ingesting from P2 cards with spanned clips which contain more than 80 individual elements.
* Fixes a performance issue with transcoding AVCHD to ProRes on Mac systems using the GeForce 9400M graphics card.
* Fixes an issue with some third-party filters that would cause Final Cut Pro to quit unexpectedly on Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard.
* Markers on multi-cam clips are now preserved when edited into a sequence.
* Log and Transfer function is no longer disabled while using the Share function to export media.
* Media Manager will now copy ProRes media created by AJA Ki Pro.
* Multiple fixes to Change Speed functionality including:
* The term "Duration" in the Change Speed interface is replaced with "Smoothness" which describes the function better.
* Speed keyframes no longer snap to other speed key frames. This improves ease of use when dragging to change speed in the timeline.
* Fixes an issue in which removing a reverse speed change with Ripple Sequence enabled would cause a clip to become half its length.

Motion 4.0.2
* Fixes rendering and performance issues that could occur when using Motion projects in a Final Cut Pro timeline.
* Motion is now more stable when operating in low system memory or low graphic card memory situations.
* The default project setting is now set to PAL or NTSC depending on the operating system localization.
* Addresses an issue that impacted the reliability of the Undo command.
* Corrects the rendering of the Checkerboard Generator to the proper orientation when rendering from a 3D camera.
* Fixes an image usability issue that could be encountered on complex projects when rendered in 32-bit float with Motion Blur turned on.
* Exclusively exporting the alpha channel of a Motion project using the Share feature now returns the proper alpha channel.
* An issue with importing files named with dual-byte characters has been addressed.
* An issue with the importing of Japanese language text has been fixed.
* Fixes aspect ratio issues encountered with imported shapes and circle masks.
* A correction to the selection tool now makes it easier to select text.
* Fixes an issue related to the the rendering of soft shadows.
* Addresses issues that could produce significant artifacts when objects would intersect in 3D space in certain ways.
* Addresses issues that could be encountered with images of large resolution.
* A performance related fix was applied to the caustics generator.
* Adjusting paint stroke control points in 3D space is now more responsive.
* Corrects the rendering of anamorphic projects to the digital cinema desktop output.
* Changes were made to certain filters to match the output they produced in Motion 3.
* To address a user interaction issue, the selected animation curve in the keyframe editor now displays on top of other curves.
* Fixes were made that benefit some filters applied to images that are cropped.
* A performance issue with text flattened to a single plane was addressed.
* Fixes an issue that could have affected some third-party FxPlug plug-ins that perform temporal manipulations like retiming.
* Addresses issues which could appear to soften images, or flattened groups of images, of odd-sized resolutions.
* Manipulation issues that could occur with multiple duplicated and cloned objects or groups within a project have been addressed.

Color 1.5.2
* 3D Color Space Scope now allows zooming.
* Resolves an issue in which media would sometimes become disconnected after a save and restart.
* Fixes an issue with CFX nodes not being imported when choosing File > Import > Color Corrections.
* Addresses several issues with the loading and processing of motion trackers.
* Fixes an issue with the green channel on video scopes displaying an incorrect value.
* RED 2K renders from 4K media are no longer softened.

Cinema Tools 4.5.1
* Trying to save a Cinema Tools database to a read-only volume no longer closes the database.

Compressor 3.5.2
* Corrects disk size limitation messages when burning a project to an AVCHD dual-layer disc.
* Fixes issues with long chapter names not appearing correctly in disc templates.
* Fixes issues when inserting a DVD-R or BD-RE disc with data already present.
* Provides warnings before a DVD or Blu-ray Disc is burned when the source will not fit on the media.
* Provides an option to cancel a disc burn when quitting Compressor.
* Fixes issues with burning a DVD using DTS audio.
* Fixes an issue with automatic bit rate so that the appropriate bit rate for a single or dual layer DVD-R is applied.
* Corrects an issue with the encoding of HD video when burning a Blu-ray disc with surround sound.
* Addresses issues with saving and changing audio channels and video using surround sound.
* Corrects a problem that caused Share to not work when switching to another user on the same machine.
* Fixes a MobileMe sharing issue when entering a single character in the "Viewable by Name" field.
* Fixes MobileMe upload for file names that contain the "+", "?", or "%" characters.
* Corrects an issue with uploading an IFF image sequence with an uppercase extension.
* Corrects the default bit rate for the iPod encoding setting from the Share menu.
* Corrects color shift when transcoding image sequences.
* Correct timecode is now displayed in the Preview window when sending a Final Cut Pro sequence to Compressor and applying a timecode generator.
* Job Action "Open Application" now works with multiple targets.
* Fixes an issue with creating a new job with Target Output from an image sequence to a cluster.
* Fixes an issue with source field order for Compressor plugins.
* Fixes a pixel aspect ratio issue with transcoding a duplicated image sequence to a custom TIFF setting.
* Corrects an issue that stopped a WAV file being associated with with an image sequence for output.
* Compressor preferences are now honored when submitting jobs from Final Cut Server.
* Corrects a field order issue with certain sources.
* Fixes an issue with the audio tab becoming inactive when moving between the video and audio tab on MPEG-2 targets.
* Addresses an issue with upload to MobileMe with files containing reserved characters.
* Improves file size estimation for H264 files produced for Blu-ray.
* Corrects an issue when burning a Blu-ray or DVD disc from a Final Cut Pro sequence with 5.1 Surround Sound.
* Fixes an issue with display of password-protected MobileMe movies on iPhone.
* Addresses a pixel aspect ratio compatibility issue.
* Improves stability when processing large batches.

Qmaster 3.5.2
* Fixes a memory leak associated with transcoding to a YouTube destination.
* Fixes unexpected quitting when copying large numbers of image sequences to a destination.
* Corrects issues when copying AVI and reference movie media to a Wide Area Network cluster.
* Corrects an issue with Apple Qmaster command line preferences utility when a user is only logged in remotely.

Be aware, however, that people are already reporting issues with the new update.

Apple also posted the following known issues:
* Final Cut Studio (2009), Final Cut Pro 7.0.1, & 7.0.2 with Mac OS X v10.6: Final Cut may stop responding when capturing DVCPRO HD via FireWire
* Final Cut Studio (2009), Color 1.5: Upgrading a Color 1.0.x project to 1.5.x changes any existing Trackers
* Final Cut Studio (2009), Color 1.5.2: Video Output of REDCODE material clips at 97 IRE
* Final Cut Studio (2009), Color 1.5.2: Unrendered freeze frames in Color displays an unexpected frame

Speeding up Compressor

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 03:47:26 MDT

Is Compressor taking too long to encode? Here are some tips to speed it up.

Don't export directly to Compressor from Final Cut Pro

Although sending your timeline directly to Compressor may seem faster because it cuts out the step of exporting as a QuickTime movie, it is much slower overall because Compressor needs to request each frame one-by-one from Final Cut Pro instead of just reading the data out of the movie clip. It gets even slower if you're using Frame Controls or doing multi-pass encoding.

Just go to File > Export > QuickTime Movie (not QuickTime Conversion) and make sure Setting is set to Current Settings and Recompress All Frames is switched off. This ensures that the movie will not be recompressed unnecessarily.

Here's a tip - if most of your timeline is already rendered, deselect Make Movie Self-Contained. This creates a small reference movie that links to the render files on disk instead of writing the data into the file. This will be much quicker to export. If your timeline is not rendered, however, this setting is unlikely to offer any speed advantages over a self-contained movie.

Once the file is exported, drag it into Compressor and set up your batch as normal.

Only use Frame Controls where necessary

Frame Controls allow you to improve the quality of resizing, retiming and deinterlacing operations, however they should only be switched on when you are actually performing one of these operations.

In addition, you should use Better quality instead of Best, as Best is usually reserved for extreme circumstances and in most situations gives you a massive performance hit with no benefit.

Perform heaving-lifting in a separate pass to the encoding

Using Frame Controls with a multi-pass or long-GOP encoder can really slow things down because the Frame Controls processing will need to be reapplied to every frame each time it is read. Even if you're not using Frame Controls, compressing from a processor-intensive codec such as HDV or H.264 can seriously slow things down.

It makes sense, therefore, to perform all these processor-intensive operations on an intermediate movie clip (ProRes would be a suitable codec for this) and then drag in the intermediate clip and encode it to the desired format.

But there is an easier way. Job chaining is a little-used yet very powerful feature of Compressor that allows you to plug the output of one job into the input of another for additional processing.

Here's how to do it:
1. Drag your movie clip into Compressor.
2. Drag either the ProRes 422 for Interlaced Material or ProRes 422 for Progressive Material (depending on your source media) setting onto the job in the batch window.
3. Go to Job > New Job with Target Output. This will add a new job to the batch with a chain symbol to show it is linked to the job above it.
4. Drag your desired output setting onto the chained job and set up the destination as normal.
5. Submit the batch

Use a cluster

A cluster is a group of computers where each machine processes a portion of the movie simultaneously, potentially providing a massive speed boost. This service is provided by Qmaster and can be set up in the Qmaster section of System Preferences or the Apple Qadministrator utility.

You will need Qmaster set up on each computer in the cluster, and all computers should have the required codecs installed and have full access to the source media and cluster storage area.

If you have a multi-core computer, Qmaster can emulate the effects of a cluster by launching multiple copies of Compressor side-by-side to process the movie in a "virtual cluster". This can make a dramatic difference to encoding times. I wrote a tutorial on this a while back.

Conclusion

Compressor is not the fastest encoder in the world but with these tricks you can make it a lot more bearable. One important trend to note is that the simplest method isn't always the fastest - with a little extra setup beforehand you can save a significant amount of time overall.

Why don't my old Preference Manager backups work on FCP 7?

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:40:42 MDT

One question we've been seeing a lot lately is from people who are wondering why the Preference Manager backups they previously created under Final Cut Pro 6 no longer work on Final Cut Pro 7.

There is a very simple reason for this - Final Cut Pro's main preference file is called Final Cut Pro x.0 Prefs.fcset, where x is the major version of the software. So when you updated to version 7, it created a new file called Final Cut Pro 7.0 Prefs.fcset and ignored all previous files.

So when you try to restore a backup created under Final Cut Pro 6, it will transfer the Final Cut Pro 6.0 Prefs.fcset file which will be ignored by the newer version, thereby having no apparent effect. You could just rename the file but there may well be side-effects to doing this. The solution, therefore, is to recreate your Preference Manager backups under Final Cut Pro 7.

(Incidentally, I've heard a lot of people complain about scratch disk locations resetting and favorites being lost upon upgrading. FCP 7 does not read the old preferences when creating the new file so your preferences are completely reset.)

Final Cut Studio Category: Digital Rebellion Blog

Final Cut Pro X hangs when loading a project

How to import projects and events into Final Cut Pro X

How to create timecode tracks for H.264 movies in Compressor

How to get render notifications on your iPhone

How to export chapter markers from Final Cut Pro X

Thoughts on Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3

A quick note on the Final Cut Pro X XML format

18 features Adobe should borrow from Final Cut Pro 7

1. Cutting on the fly

2. Sixteen angles in a multiclip

3. Audio mixer affecting clip levels

4. Multi-colored markers and marker lists

5. Choosing attributes to paste

6. Close Gap command

7. Multiple open projects

8. Partial renders

9. Pitch correction when using JKL keys

10. No way to scroll tracks vertically with the scroll wheel

11. No through edits

12. No ability to search for clips to reconnect

13. Tracks have to be selected when cutting clips onto the timeline

14. No timecode overlay

15. No temporary snapping toggle

16. No function to mark audio peaks

17. No dupe detection

18. Fewer options for clip markers than sequence markers

What features will you miss from Final Cut Studio?

iMovie DV files contain no audio when imported into FCPX

Thinking of switching to another NLE?

Final Cut Pro X from a Developer Perspective

Final Cut Pro X Bug List

1. Projects not saving

2. Clips going offline

3. Undo disabled

4. Projects disappearing

5. Crashing when importing from iMovie

6. Crashing when typing accented characters

7. Various issues with DV-based media

8. Systems with two graphics card exporting QT movies with green artifacts

9. Templates, generators and titles appearing blue

10. Video in the preview monitor is missing the green channel

11. Drives don't appear in the list

Final Cut Pro X - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Good

Bad

Ugly

Final Cut Pro X Frequently Asked Questions

My thoughts on Final Cut Pro X

Top 5 developer requests for the next Final Cut Pro

1. Store settings in preference lists (plists)

2. Make the FCP project file format more open

3. Add a playback and timecode API

4. Programmatically initiating exports

5. Adding interface items

Restoring the default Compressor settings

Bootcamp volumes can cause Final Cut Pro hangs

Mac OS X 10.6.6 breaking Final Cut Studio

Restoring an older version of ProKit

ProKit 6.0.1 breaking Final Cut Studio

FCP error: Project is unreadable or too new for this version

Removing the codec name from a Compressor destination

Final Cut Pro bug - Long delays with extended markers

Compressor error: "Unable to submit to queue"

Aperture changes in Compressor 3.5

Pro Applications Update 2010-01

Speeding up Compressor

Don't export directly to Compressor from Final Cut Pro

Only use Frame Controls where necessary

Perform heaving-lifting in a separate pass to the encoding

Use a cluster

Conclusion

Why don't my old Preference Manager backups work on FCP 7?