FCP7 to FCPX project migration now possible

[Tim Dashwood]

History

Product Page

Direct link to Apple App Store

Thanks to Phil Hodgetts and Greg Clarke for all their efforts.

[William Hohauser]

Bought it, will report soon.

[David Knaggs]

I'll buy it later this morning and test it with FCP 6. It's only A$10.50. Premiere Pro's much-vaunted "ability" to import FCP projects is not robust, or well-supported, at all - in my experience. It's failed now with four out of four professional projects (I tried the fourth yesterday morning!). Yet Premiere perfectly imported a little 20-minute piece I did in FCP over the Christmas break. Just to annoy me even more! (Because it's been unable to import any of the paying work.)

I'll try this new App on these five FCP 6 projects when I get to the office later this morning. Just for giggles.

[William Hohauser]

Test number 1:

A finished simple multi-cam project from FCP7. Result: Main camera track where the audio came from is fine. The other two camera are out of sync although the edit points are correct. All the files are the same format (otherwise FCP7 multi cam wouldn't work anyway) so that's not the problem.

Edit: With a little research into how multi-cam works in FCPX, I was able to re-sync the audio using the automatic audio sync for one camera angle that had a direct feed. The third angle just had a camera mike which got me into the ballpark so I'll have to manually adjust it. So in other words, 7toX got me 80% there. Not bad.

Next test will be with a standard editing project.

[William Hohauser]

Test number 2:

A simple graphic and FCP7 generated text project that I happened to need to update for a client. Result: The graphic imported flawlessly including motion keyframes. The text from FCP7's titler came in half and half. The timings and layering was perfect. The text itself however did not follow the placements I had set and all three titles were centered on the screen. The font type and sizes were ignored and defaulted to Helvetica. Not bad, easy to fix.

One note, FCP7 sequences import as compound clips not as projects so one has to cut and paste the material into a project.

[Craig Seeman]

William, why not drop the Compound Clip into a Project and then use Break Apart Clip Items instead of Cut and Paste?

[William Hohauser]

Just following the 7toX instructions. If I read them correctly. That will be my next test. The program has specific directions for still frames and surround sound projects in 7.

[David Knaggs]

7toX seems to have done its job, but when FCP X loaded up, it started trying to copy all of the media from the RAID onto the laptop hard drive until the laptop ran out of memory. The full project folder on the RAID takes up 760 GB and I'm trying to figure out how to:
a) get the project itself over to the RAID (I made one attempt, but FCP X won't recognize it), and
b) how to NOT get it to copy the entire 760 GB project into the Original Media folder for the FCP X project. It's senseless to duplicate all of the files again onto the same RAID. (Plus I don't even have a spare 760 GB left on the RAID.) Other editing apps simply link to the existing media files. Can FCP X be made to link to existing media rather than duplicate it?

I'll admit that, shortly after purchasing FCP X and realizing its limitations, I handed it over to my wife to edit family videos with (Christmas, vacations, etc.) and haven't bothered with it at all. But I'm certainly willing to pick it up and learn it if I can verify that it will import my old FCP 6 projects. So if William, or any others who have been persevering with FCP X, can indicate if there's a way around this apparent media management nightmare, I'd be most grateful.

[Ronald Jackson]

What about the other way? Can one move an X project to 7?


Ron

[Kevin Spahr]

I tried a simple migration last night:
The FCP7 project was a simple project that was just the talking heads for a broadcast doc. I had all the commercial breaks timed out for the entire show. After the import two of the segments were long. No big deal with the magnetic timeline - everything slid into place with just two moves!

I'm happy with the job it did.

I'm just starting with FCPX and I see I have a lot to "unlearn"!

[Tim Dashwood]

Originally Posted by Ronald Jackson

What about the other way? Can one move an X project to 7?

Yes. Their first app from a few months ago does that.
Mac App Store - Xto7 for Final Cut Pro

[Kevin Spahr]

When I start FCPX I get the attached dialog, and when FCPX is running my (migrated) project is not visible. If I quit and then start it again I do not get the dialog and my project is now visible. This is the only project I have going and there is only one "FM Full 2" in my Events folder.

Any suggestions on what is going on here?

[Andreas Schmidt]

I tried it on a simple project w/ transitions and some titles and it worked very well. The project came from a FCP 6 timeline. I never upgraded to FCP 7.

[William Hohauser]

Originally Posted by David Knaggs

7toX seems to have done its job, but when FCP X loaded up, it started trying to copy all of the media from the RAID onto the laptop hard drive until the laptop ran out of memory. The full project folder on the RAID takes up 760 GB and I'm trying to figure out how to:
a) get the project itself over to the RAID (I made one attempt, but FCP X won't recognize it), and
b) how to NOT get it to copy the entire 760 GB project into the Original Media folder for the FCP X project. It's senseless to duplicate all of the files again onto the same RAID. (Plus I don't even have a spare 760 GB left on the RAID.) Other editing apps simply link to the existing media files. Can FCP X be made to link to existing media rather than duplicate it?

I'll admit that, shortly after purchasing FCP X and realizing its limitations, I handed it over to my wife to edit family videos with (Christmas, vacations, etc.) and haven't bothered with it at all. But I'm certainly willing to pick it up and learn it if I can verify that it will import my old FCP 6 projects. So if William, or any others who have been persevering with FCP X, can indicate if there's a way around this apparent media management nightmare, I'd be most grateful.

It did not do that to me. I actually was worried the first time 7toX opened FCPX that everything would default to the system drive but it loaded the event files to my RAID without any input from me.

This version is supposed to have an improved media reconnect capability that FCPX lacked before. Read the help files, that's how I figured out how to fix the multicam project.

[David Knaggs]

Thanks, William. That's good news.