FCP Multiclip problem.

[Gon1234abcd]

Hello,
Im working now on a project in FCP, when I encoutered a problem.
I wanted to use multiclip, so I now got the 4screens splitscreen in front of me.
When i press play, the clip starts to playing, but the 4screens of the multiclip will be frozen. And when i press Stop, the multiclip will go to the right frame.
Offcourse I can't multiclip this way if i cant even select on of the clips while playing.

I hope some one here can help me.

~Gon

 

[Erendiox]

Your multiclip is probably not playing back because either:

1) Your computer is not powerful enough to process all four video feeds at once.

2) The drive on which your media resides is not fast enough to deliver four streams of video.

Or a combination of the two.

Let us know the specs of the machine you're running and the kind of drive/interface you're using for your media.

 

[Gon1234abcd]

Thank you very much!
I allready had a feeling that it had something to do with the computer, but didnt thought about the extern HDD.

Im using a Macbook OSX,
2,4Ghz inter core 2 Duo,
2GB DDR2 RAM.

I've got an iOmega Firewire400 harddisk.
If i want to play it by using my macbook only, do i have to copy the FCP file, or also the video sources?

 

[Erendiox]

Ah, I forgot to also ask you what format your footage is in.

Your Macbook isn't exactly the fastest machine for video. You may not be able to get it to play back all four streams at once. It depends on the kind of footage you're working with.

The external FW drive is the right way to go. Just make sure that your video files are all on the drive and not on your computer's internal drive.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Thank you very much!
I allready had a feeling that it had something to do with the computer, but didnt thought about the extern HDD.

Im using a Macbook OSX,
2,4Ghz inter core 2 Duo,
2GB DDR2 RAM.

I've got an iOmega Firewire400 harddisk.
If i want to play it by using my macbook only, do i have to copy the FCP file, or also the video sources?

FW400 can sustain around 35MB/s read or write speeds, therefore your footage should be using the DV codec for SD video (approx. 3.5MB/s) if you want to play four streams simultaneously.
But if you have HD footage, the data rate will be higher, therefore it is important for you to know, what codec the footage is using and if the clip settings match the sequence settings in FCP.
And can you tell us if all clips have the same clip settings and what size (MB or GB) and length (minutes) they are?

Btw, the CPU speed of the Mac is not that important, as I can play back six streams of video using the DV codec with a G5 Mac and two streams of video on a G4 Mac. The codec is important, if you use a highly compressive one (MPEG-4, e.g. H264) the CPU will be taxed, but if the footage is using a proper editing codec like DV, AIC or ProRes, the CPU is not that important, but the bus speed and the speed of the HDD(s).

 

[Gon1234abcd]

Ah, I forgot to also ask you what format your footage is in.

Your Macbook isn't exactly the fastest machine for video. You may not be able to get it to play back all four streams at once. It depends on the kind of footage you're working with.

The external FW drive is the right way to go. Just make sure that your video files are all on the drive and not on your computer's internal drive.

its H.264, .mov files.

Yes thats right, it's a white macbook of 2007/2008 i guess, so its not really new anymore.

So i just have to keep all the files on the external firewire drive?
I got all the files on the external drive, so thats no problem

 

[simsaladimbamba]

its H.264, .mov files.

Yes thats right, it's a white macbook of 2007/2008 i guess, so its not really new anymore.

So i just have to keep all the files on the external firewire drive?
I got all the files on the external drive, so thats no problem

H264, as noted in my reply above yours, is not an editing codec. Use AIC or ProRes instead, as the CPU will be less used during playback.

There should be a section in the FCP manual about this, maybe it came with your FCP version and can be accessed via the Help menu.

 

[Gon1234abcd]

H264, as noted in my reply above yours, is not an editing codec. Use AIC or ProRes instead, as the CPU will be less used during playback.

There should be a section in the FCP manual about this, maybe it came with your FCP version and can be accessed via the Help menu.

i've read it.
So I have to change the codec from H264 to ProRes to let it work, but how to do that? Do i have to compres all the original files i want to use?
Because im working on a documentary which maybe will get like 15 or 20min long, and i've got a lot of video i want to use.
It are full HD files, made with my canon 550D SLR.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

i've read it.
So I have to change the codec from H264 to ProRes to let it work, but how to do that? Do i have to compres all the original files i want to use?
Because im working on a documentary which maybe will get like 15 or 20min long, and i've got a lot of video i want to use.
It are full HD files, made with my canon 550D SLR.

I think Canon released a plugin for FCP to use the Log & Transfer window in FCP to transcode the footage to ProRes 422 or AIC during import (the camera has to be connected to the Mac and the footage will be imported from the camera's SD card). Maybe use MRoogle to find some threads about that.

Or if you already have deleted the footage from the SD cards, use MPEG Streamclip to Export to QuickTime (CMD+E) and use ProRes 422.
If you have many clips, you can also use the Batch List (CMD+B) inside MPEG Streamclip.

Btw, ProRes 422 will have a higher data rate, therefore FW 400 might not suffice playing four streams back.
Maybe try the ProRes Proxy codec and then "online" the finished sequence.
The manual of FCP will have some information about this.

Apple ProRes White Paper: http://images.apple.com/finalcutstudio/resources/white_papers/L342568A_ProRes_WP.pdf
Apple - About AIC: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2704?viewlocale=en_US

 

[Gon1234abcd]

Thanks!
I want to use it for sure.
But at the moment im allready halfway the documentary,
and its all in H264. So what to do about that?
How can i easilly change it all to ProRes?

 

[LethalWolfe]

Thanks!
I want to use it for sure.
But at the moment im allready halfway the documentary,
and its all in H264. So what to do about that?
How can i easilly change it all to ProRes?

Here is what I would do. Transcode everything to ProRes but keep the file names, frame rate and frame size the same. Use the Media Manager to create an offline version of your FCP project w/settings to match your ProRes files. Once the new project is made reconnect the offline files in the Browser to the ProRes files.

As long as your ProRes clips keep the same name, frame size and frame rate as the H.264 originals you should be okay.

Lethal

 

[Gon1234abcd]

Here is what I would do. Transcode everything to ProRes but keep the file names, frame rate and frame size the same. Use the Media Manager to create an offline version of your FCP project w/settings to match your ProRes files. Once the new project is made reconnect the offline files in the Browser to the ProRes files.

As long as your ProRes clips keep the same name, frame size and frame rate as the H.264 originals you should be okay.

Lethal

Oke, thank you.
and sorry for asking but which program you suggest me to use for it?

 

[LethalWolfe]

Oke, thank you.
and sorry for asking but which program you suggest me to use for it?

Both Compressor or MPEG Streamclip (free) could do the job nicely.


Lethal

 

[moreover]

multiclip & h264

two things:

if you have Toast you can use it to convert your h264 clips to Prores. The resulting files will be huge, so buy more storage.
Unless you expect to do extensive coloring consider going for ProRes LT which produces indistinguishable results at a third smaller files. Google the comparisons, I found the arguments there convincing.

Second: Multiclips on FCP are a bitch. You can run into the problem you described with perfectly playable files because everything has to be right.
I don't have it in front of me but I remember first you double click the multiclip to load it, then both canvas and viewer have to be in OPEN mode (or GANG may work). That's enabled with the center top icon next to the one that activates a wire frame.

Bitch, because under certain circumstances the OPEN mode switches back to off. Never really understood it.

 

[jdesign]

yes it might be as simple as the poster above , enable a feature called Playhead Sync.

 

[leesokleng007]

Reset Final Cut Pro

Click this link to see the oreginal post: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2462131?start=0&tstart=0
Open a Finder window. Set the view mode to columns:


Click the house icon that has your name next to it.
Click the folder "Library" in the next column.
Find and click the folder "Preferences" in the next column.
Find and click the folder "Final Cut Pro User Data" in the next column.

Move the files "Final Cut Pro 6.0 Prefs", "Final Cut Pro Obj Cache" and "Final Cut Pro Prof Cache" to the Trash and empty it.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Click this link to see the oreginal post: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2462131?start=0&tstart=0
Open a Finder window. Set the view mode to columns:


Click the house icon that has your name next to it.
Click the folder "Library" in the next column.
Find and click the folder "Preferences" in the next column.
Find and click the folder "Final Cut Pro User Data" in the next column.

Move the files "Final Cut Pro 6.0 Prefs", "Final Cut Pro Obj Cache" and "Final Cut Pro Prof Cache" to the Trash and empty it.

And what has resetting FCP to do with the OP's subject of using four streams of H.264 encoded HD footage? And did you, by any chance, notice the date of this thread? Or do you just go around posting that post of yours in every FCP thread you can find?