FCPX Storage

[adn rcd dly]

Hello all.

Let me start by apologizing for a new thread. Upon searching, it looks like there have been some answers to what I'm looking for, but all for different Macs. The closest I came was the "FCPX bottleneck question" thread, but that dealt more with speed. I'm not worried about speed right now, just storage.

My iMac full specs are in my sig, but as far as space goes, I have a 500GB internal SSD. I recently did a friends wedding and importing files from 2 Canon HF21's they are all AVCHD (the files from the T2i are not as huge). I used the "optimized media" option and the project is now almost 200GB and my drive is full.

What is my best option for external storage? With the iMac I am limited to USB 2.0 and FW 800. I have seen posts about getting a 2.5" or 3.5" internal HDD in an external enclosure for FW 800. With this comes options RPM for the drive, Bus powered vs. DC power, and whether to look to RAID or not.

Can an external drive handle FCPX media storage, rendering, etc. with good results? Is it better to move all my local media (iPhoto, iTunes, etc.) to the external and just use my SSD for the boot and FCPX?

So many questions and again I apologize if this has been addressed ad nauseam , but I am just getting started again in this field. I remember thinking I could never fill a 500GB HDD on a G4 or G5 yet here I am thinking, I need a few TB.

Much appreciation to all.

 

[Small White Car]

You've basically got it. Get a firewire 800 drive and move your Final Cut Library to it. (And the iTunes Library if you need to.)

Get something that has its own power supply and a 7200 rpm drive. The little bus-powered drives often aren't as fast.

While you're at it, get a nice USB drive as well and use it for Time Machine to back up this new drive AND your internal SSD. (So it should be larger than the firewire drive.) Backing up is always smart and it's extra necessary once you start moving stuff outside of the iMac onto external drives.

 

[adn rcd dly]

Alright, sounds like I am not as lost as I thought. Thanks for your help.

I think I have found a good one with a good deal.

OWC Mercury Elite Pro

Anyone with a bad experience with Seagate or are they typically good? Maybe just go with the OWC enclosure and get a different drive if the price and specs are better? My only experience with a Seagate was on my moms Macbook a few years back. It died and I replaced it with a WD.

 

[Small White Car]

I've found people with bad stories of every hard drive brand. Personally, I've had great and poor experiences with nearly all of them.

I gave up trying to figure out what's safest or best a long time ago.

These days I buy whatever I can find and make sure my backup solutions are rock solid and automatic.

If you're always prepared for drive failures then they become annoyances rather than disasters.

(I do suggest reading customer reviews for enclosures, however. Even thought they're all similar you may find that someone doesn't like where the power button is on one or someone else complains about a flashing light being annoying on another. All minor stuff, but you might as well make sure you're getting something that won't bug you.)

 

[coldsweat]

Do you really need to use optimised media? I had the same-ish machine & 1080p/50 AVCHD edited fine without optimised files (although Multicam got a little choppy so I used proxy files for those). Bin the optimised files & the project will take up much much less space - unless of course you really need to work in ProRes!

And back to topic - yes that drive looks good & you can always use it with it's USB3 goodness with any future Mac upgrade!!

 

[adn rcd dly]

Do you really need to use optimised media? I had the same-ish machine & 1080p/50 AVCHD edited fine without optimised files (although Multicam got a little choppy so I used proxy files for those). Bin the optimised files & the project will take up much much less space - unless of course you really need to work in ProRes!

And back to topic - yes that drive looks good & you can always use it with it's USB3 goodness with any future Mac upgrade!!

I don't need to at all. I'm actually new to FCPX and have never used digital files or proxy media before. I'm used to capturing from miniDV rather than dragging and dropping from an SD card. I am loving the new flow, but I am still new.

When using proxy, will it still export at full quality?

I just ordered the drive a few minutes ago. I was worried when I saw there was a reply. I was expecting "That's a terrible drive! It caught fire and insulted my mother!"

 

[ChrisA]

Hello all.

Let me start by apologizing for a new thread. Upon searching, it looks like there have been some answers to what I'm looking for, but all for different Macs. The closest I came was the "FCPX bottleneck question" thread, but that dealt more with speed. I'm not worried about speed right now, just storage.

My iMac full specs are in my sig, but as far as space goes, I have a 500GB internal SSD. I recently did a friends wedding and importing files from 2 Canon HF21's they are all AVCHD (the files from the T2i are not as huge). I used the "optimized media" option and the project is now almost 200GB and my drive is full.

What is my best option for external storage? With the iMac I am limited to USB 2.0 and FW 800. I have seen posts about getting a 2.5" or 3.5" internal HDD in an external enclosure for FW 800. With this comes options RPM for the drive, Bus powered vs. DC power, and whether to look to RAID or not.

Can an external drive handle FCPX media storage, rendering, etc. with good results? Is it better to move all my local media (iPhoto, iTunes, etc.) to the external and just use my SSD for the boot and FCPX?

So many questions and again I apologize if this has been addressed ad nauseam , but I am just getting started again in this field. I remember thinking I could never fill a 500GB HDD on a G4 or G5 yet here I am thinking, I need a few TB.

Much appreciation to all.

First off, your internal SSD is MUCH faster than any external disk drive. The old advice to never edit from the system drive does not apply to SSD. Your best bet by far is to place the media you are currently working with on the system's internal SSD. Of course this will fill up and you will have to move older work to the external hard drive(s)

You will need external storage to hold whatever does not fit on the SSD. You will also need external storage for your local backups and your off-site backups.

With your system FW800 is the fastest option you have. I'd look for drives that have multiple interferes on them. But FW800 is not slow and Apple's Thunderbolt to FW800 dongle is only $30 so you can use FW800 drives on any system you buy in the future. I'd use FW800 disk to hold what will not fit on the SSD.

The other way to connect a disk di over the network. NAS is very good for backups. I would buy a multi-drive NAS bak for the first level of backup (TimeMachine).

 

[coldsweat]

I don't need to at all. I'm actually new to FCPX and have never used digital files or proxy media before. I'm used to capturing from miniDV rather than dragging and dropping from an SD card. I am loving the new flow, but I am still new.

When using proxy, will it still export at full quality?

Yes your projects will still export at full quality when you use proxy files for editing, providing you turn the proxy's off! Basically when you convert to proxy media, FCPX creates a copy of your clip in ProRes format but at a very very low bitrate - when you turn on proxy editing FCPX simply uses the low bitrate versions of your clips to edit with, and when you turn proxy editing off it will revert back to your original media.

Personally in your situation I would try editing purely in the native AVCHD format on your internal SSD - you 'should' have no issues whatsoever. If you find that due to effects, colour correction, multicam etc. your playback gets choppy, then transcode your clips into proxy. Once your project's complete - delete the proxys & render files and shunt the finished project over to your new external drive for archiving (if you need to do minor edits to archived projects etc., you should be fine running them straight from the external drive).

 

[adn rcd dly]

EDITING STUFF.

I can try that. Shouldn't be an issue mixing AVCHD and .MOV on the timeline then?

Can I safely delete the Render and Optimized files without disturbing the project & timeline? This would be to save the space and finish the edit and then move it all to the external once complete.

 

[ChrisA]

I can try that. Shouldn't be an issue mixing AVCHD and .MOV on the timeline then?

Can I safely delete the Render and Optimized files without disturbing the project & timeline? This would be to save the space and finish the edit and then move it all to the external once complete.

You can always delete what are called "generated files". If needed they are re-created.

I think the latest revision of FCPX makes this really easy with no need to go into the finder. But I've not yet used this new feature.

And yes you can mix any kind or format video on the timeline. Even still JPGs taken with my SLR. FCPX will translate them all to the project's format. It will upscale or downscale as required.

EDIT: I just looked in the new 10.1.2 and see File->Delete Generated Files... This brings up a dialog box. So there is no need to go into Finder. I was used to using Finder so I never bothered to look for this 'till just now.

 

[coldsweat]

Can I safely delete the Render and Optimized files without disturbing the project & timeline? This would be to save the space and finish the edit and then move it all to the external once complete.

Yes - in the finder, right click your project file & select 'show package contents', you will then see a folder named 'Transcoded Media'. Deleting the contents of this folder will delete HQ files & proxy files.