Hello,

I'm just starting to learn to use FCPX after years with FCP 5,6,7.

I want to edit a some 7D H264 footage. I can see that FCPX will edit H264 natively. So is there any point in optimising media? From what I can see optimising media creates a copy of the original footage (why?) and a Pro Res version. I did optimising media and then tried to delete my original footage but this crashed FCPX.

I don't mind optimising media and then usign the PRo Res footage to edit with. But I should be able to delete the original H264 footage no? I don't want to keep it otherwise I'm going to run out of disk space really quickly.

Thanks.

for smaller projects I don't see a huge point. For larger projects ProRes will just edit smoother, faster, quicker so it will save time. ProRes is just a native codec for FCP, H.264 isn't. I don't bother optimizing unless the project is over the 10 minute mark.

I almost always optimize media. My ancient mac pro really cannot cope with h.264 for very long. I usually do it on import and never think about it anymore. Hard drives are cheap!

Prores is an edit codec, h.264 is a delivery codec and compressed (where edit speed issues, dropped frames etc come from). To save on disk space you could always optimise to proxy media, edit your project and switch it back when you come to export, technically you are exporting the same codec and just used the edit friendly one to help with performance while editing. This workflow was used on the girl with dragon tattoo (finches version) they relinked the 5 and 4k footage once the edit was locked.

FCPX creates the original footage as backup when you import from your card. When importing video as files such as from a hard drive you are given the option of copying the files to the event folder or referencing them in there original location. I would personally leave it be as you can always buy extra hard drives but you can't replace lost media but if you really want to remove it try this.

Create your event, connect your camera and Import your footage. Optimise the media. Dont create a project from rhe event just yet. Once done exit FCPX and move the original footage from the event folder to your desktop (move first don't delete). Reopen FCPX, go to your event, go to import files (not from the camera this time) and navigate to the prores/optimised media within the events folder and import these files to your project but this time uncheck copy media so the files are referenced from there original location which will still be inside the events folder. Delete any missing original files (in red) with command back space. You should now have an event that is purely Prores.

Personally I wouldn't do this at all!

As mentioned in other post, ill only transcode for big projects, small edits I don't bother mainly because my system is sufficient to edit native files. What i do, "if I transcode" is once the project is finished and ready for archive, i delete the optimised media and keep the smaller original files, you can always transcode again in the future but if all you have is the larger Prores files your kind of stuck with having to store a much larger event and project.

Hope this rambling helps!

P.S deleting the optimised media will not affect your project timeline, FCPX will just switch to using the original files (or you may have to tell it to in the menu) you could also dump your render files once the project is done and archived.

Also always double backup your projects and events!!!!!!!

Is their really a speed improvement in larger projects? When I tried Optimized media in a small (2 minutes project) I hoped that with "nearly" no compression color correction and such stuff should have been rendered faster but I didn't felt smoother. Isn't this something more necessary for slower systems?

And the most important question: Is it safe to remove optimized media or rendered files? Especially render files are filling up my hard drive very fast.

Should be no issue removing optimised and render files, there is definitely an improvement when using optimised footage over compressed but it will only be noticeable on a fast system if you have layers of corrections, effects or multiple angles in multicam. It's not needed for every job but it does make the project easier to edit even on larger systems, it really comes down to what your doing to the footage.

I shout on DSLRs and the AF102, I will always have a slight lift in shadows and some post sharpening going on before any other corrections and grading due to using the flat picture profiles, add in lens flares, composites and other effects over a complicated timeline and optimised media suddenly helps out quite a lot.

I think it also depends what background you came from. Vegas or CS5 users are going to be happy jumping straight in with original media where as FCP7 users will be accustomed to optimisation, the great thing with X is being able to quickly swap out proxy, original and optimised and not to have the media bin (event) stuck on what has been imported.

I only archive events with original media even if I transcoded to edit the project.

Hey guys!
Do you think it would be best to optimise media when bringing in footage from the C300? and would it be Apple Pro Res 422 (HQ)?

Yes, and yes.

even if FCP X edits it natively? I'm just not sure what will produce the better image quality and easiest workflow. Do you always optimize?

I would with the C300 footage, as above it depends on how long and complex your project is. It's not that you couldn't just edit the compressed files but personally I'd want the smoothest workflow I can get, hard drive space is no problem as you can dump the optimised footage after. In fact if it was a client piece I'd transcode to both proxy and 422HQ, rough cut the project with the proxy, switch out to HQ for grading and effects and master render. It makes preview renders quicker in my expirence besides It's just a click in the preferences. It's down to how you want to edit, your system and the projects complexity.

this make complete sense! Thanks for your input. On another note...do you use a LUT for your C300 footage? I haven't been able to find one that is easy to use in FCP X. I'm new to the LUT world. Do you have any advice? Thank you in advance!

Sorry no, I'm an AF102 shooter, C300 is a little out if my price range, I'm pretty new to LUTs too, was looking into its incorporation within Davinci Resolve, seems like a good way to with colour correction.

Do you use the broadcast monitoring function? I would guess it would be linked to that?

no i don't use a broadcast monitor

I'm not 100% sure that's needed in order to use a LUT, from my understanding it's used during capture to give an idea of the end result and to help maintain colour timing through production. If your not using a LUT at time of capture I'm not sure its really needed at post time. If this is the case, you could build a very basic colour correction to correct the flat footage and save it as a look in FCPX

the C300 LUT is applied in post. I have LUT's for every other camera except the C300 LOL... I'm been color grading in Divinci Resolve Lite... works really well! I also do simple grades right in FCP X using magic bullet and the color tools that come with FCP X. I'm just hoping to find a LUT for the C300 that I can use with my editing.

Try directing this to Phil, or create a new topic for Davinci resolve LUTs

I'm looking at going the Davinci way too, full software is only $995!.

I edit on a new 2.7 iMac with 16GB Ram, how do you find resolve?

There was some interesting thunderbolt items presented at Nab that will help boost performance potential for iMacs and Davinci.

Sorry for clogging up the thread with this off subject discussion.

Optimising media looks to be very subjective. I've been transcoding h.264 to ProRes for several years as with XDCAM and have found ProRes to a good way to edit without quality compromise. However I've just completed 2 projects editing h.264 (from a DSLR) on a slower MacBook pro and found editing natively to be slightly faster than if I'd transcoded it! I'm quite sure this had nothing to do with codec, but had a lot to do with the far smaller file sizes as compared with the huge file sizes produced by using ProRes!

I see many users rant on about how h.264 can be tough to edit.. I guess this maybe because of third party plugins and workflows they use... But for me (on these 2 projects - shorts), it's been great and has worked flawlessly.

Delivery format or not.. If it works for you, USE IT!

Your right, use what works for you, with many levels of colour adjustment and effects/composite layers I find prores to be a little more forgiving, (I'm one of those annoying people who put optical flares everywhere and use optical flow a lot) but if you only have a handfull of clips like this native editing Will be fine. I'll be shooting the majority of my big projects to an Atomos Samurai external recorder soon (captured as prores) but still probably edit the native AVCHD files on smaller projects just as I have always done with FCPX, I found AVCHD to be a little easier to edit than 5D H.264 so your file size theory is probably right