View Full Version : Export FCP project for NanoFlash playback


Mike Angeloff
January 27th, 2010, 12:47 PM
What's the correct procedure to take footage edited in Final Cut and export it so that it can be loaded to a CF card and played back on the NanoFlash? So far just creating a self-contained .mov file with the XDCAM HD422 1080i60 codec has not worked for me.

Running firmware version 1.1.154

Aaron Newsome
January 27th, 2010, 02:52 PM
I'm sure that someone who knows how will comment, but I'll also add that CD should consider creating FCP "easy setups" that allow us to quickly export with confidence, using a nano easy setup that you know will work.

These easy setups, are actually easy to create from what I know.

Ronan Fournier
January 28th, 2010, 03:04 AM
You have to be careful to the filename also.
You should find some answers in this thread.
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/convergent-design-nanoflash/471606-cd-file-converter.html

Mike Angeloff
January 28th, 2010, 09:32 AM
Success! Thanks Ronan. That thread answered my questions.

Rafael Amador
January 28th, 2010, 09:04 PM
Mike,
You know that the footage when rendered in FC gets crunched to 50Mbps, don't you?

I'm sure that someone who knows how will comment, but I'll also add that CD should consider creating FCP "easy setups" that allow us to quickly export with confidence, using a nano easy setup that you know will work.

These easy setups, are actually easy to create from what I know.
Aaron, with the "Conform Sequence to clips" function in FC, I don't see the need of any Easy Setups.
BTW I'm not very fond of Easy Setups: they only make the people lazy. they don't even try to understand what they are working with. Video editors should be able to build a sequence from scratches, and this doesn't happens.
Cheers,
rafael

John Richard
January 29th, 2010, 10:10 AM
It's my understanding that so long as you do a "cuts only" edit that you can output a FCP timeline that is not downgraded (if you can call XDCAMHD 4:2:2 50mbps a downgrade).

But I am confused and disappointed that once you do any transitions, color correction, etc. that regardless of what higher format you shot in, FCP timeline will drop down to the 50mbps noted by Rafael.

Is that correct? and does anyone know how to preserve the higher data rates above 50mbps when editing with color corrections,etc.?

Rafael Amador
January 29th, 2010, 11:48 AM
Hi Joe,
Right.
If you export without any rendering, only the GPs of the cuts needs to be rebuilt, so only this is crunched. The file info says 50Mbps, but isn't.
I use the NANO MPEG-2 as acquisition format; as soon as I need to render: Prores.
That's the only way to preserve quality: Avoid re-compression.
This is like that even if would be possible re-exporting keeping the original data.
Export to MPEG-2 only if that is your delivery format. You will also save lot of time rendering.
rafael

Andrew Stone
January 29th, 2010, 06:44 PM
I am not sure if this is true, that it gets crunched down to 50 Mbits. In the timeline of FCP, one usually sets the "render in the timeline" to conform to Apple ProRes (under Command -zero, and then under the "Render" folder tab). When it renders out to ProRes the Mbit range is much higher than 50Mbit. I don't have FCP on this machine so I can't get the exact information on this point right now.

A couple of other options which make a lot more sense when you are dealing with high resolution video footage. First, convert your clips to Apple ProRes using Compressor. Second, way would be to set your timeline as I mentioned in the above paragraph and then when you export to Color your conform (in Color) is going to ProRes by default which is 10bit 4:2:2 yadda, yadda.

I am going to be doing some experiments this weekend dealing with this matter as I want to find out the best workflow for high bitrate files in FCP.

I will post up my findings at that point.

Rafael Amador
January 29th, 2010, 08:44 PM
Andrew,
We are talking when editing in a native sequence and exporting to the native codec.
If you export to 10b Uncompress, the data rate it doesn't get crunched at all, but the opposite.
But the point is not keeping data-rate, but quality, and the way is avoiding further
re-compressions.
I don't see the point of converting the NANO files before processing.
Time consuming, and a generation lost. No advantages at all.
Only when working with few layers, where the GOPs would be a burden for processing, transcoding could be convenient.
rafael