Problems migrating from FCP5.1 to 6.0 Media Start & End mismatch

[David Garvin]

Hopefully somebody knows how I can solve this.

I have a large DV project I've been editing in FCP 5.1 I just attempted to migrate it to FCP 6.0 and got a couple errors while reconnecting the media. The first window that popped up says:

Some attributes of one or more of the files you have chosen do not match the attributes of the original. This may cause problems within the sequences that are dependent on them. The attributes that differed are as follows:

- Media Start and End
- Reel

Upon completing the media reconnection, I got this:

One or more files did not have enough media to reconnect some clips. Some edited clip items have had their out point adjusted.

Obviously this is an issue for me. I've spent a ton of time on this project and do not want to have to manually go back and try to fix every clip. I can do some experimenting by taking only certain sequences from 5.1 and moving them to 6.0 one at a time so I can figure out what clips are problematic, but this could be really time consuming.

Does anybody know exactly what might be happening and how to fix it?
Thanks

[David W. Jones]

1st rule of thumb when upgrading.... Never upgrade mid-project!

[David Garvin]

Originally Posted by David W. Jones

1st rule of thumb when upgrading.... Never upgrade mid-project!

The upgrade was a decision made at my place of work. I didn't personally spend $40,000+ on new macs and I didn't spend thousands and thousands of dollars to put FCStudio2 on each one.

The upgrade of our facilities is a good decision, but with multiple projects being worked on at all times by many many people, there doesn't exist a time when there is no editing going on at all. It is inevitable that there will be projects in in progress when any upgrade happens.

We still have systems running 5.1 and I can always finish the project on one of those, but there are aspects of 6.0 that I'd like to take advantage of in addition to learning all I can about the new software in the process.

There should be a way to make this work. I'm just wondering if anybody on these forums knows how.

Thanks

[Tim Dashwood]

IF you are on the exact same system, then there should be no issues upgrading the project file to FCP6. There should also be no need to relink any files.
I have done this with about 10 projects so far and I haven't had to relink a single file.

It sounds like you've moved the project to another machine, and the relinking issues would have been encountered whether you opened the project in FCP5 or FCP6.

Most of these attribute mismatch issues are caused by duplicate file names, usually "untitled." This happens when you use capture now and don't specify a name. FCP uses file names and not reel/TC to search for media.
Likely the Reel mismatch warning is a result of this. Try to automatically re-link what you can and then identify the problem files that are still offline and re-link them manually.

The other issue with media length mismatch occurs when media files are split for whatever reason. Maybe you digitized audio and video to separate scratch disks, or were using FAT-32 hard drive with a 2GB limit like a Firestore? This can be a big problem.
My only suggestion is to consolidate the project from the FCP5.1 system that it works on using the media manager. If you have a big enough hard drive don't trim anything, just make a duplicate project with copies of the media.

[David Garvin]

Originally Posted by Tim Dashwood

It sounds like you've moved the project to another machine

That is correct, I am moving the files to a different computer. I wasn't willing to take the risk of upgrading my current machine where everything is working only to find out that FCP6 would give me problems.

the relinking issues would have been encountered whether you opened the project in FCP5 or FCP6.

That's not really true. Not only have I moved this project a few times over the last month, and I also recently, successfully, migrated from 4.5 to 5.1 though the same process (moving the files from a 4.5 machine to a 5.1 machine). The issues I'm encountering on this 5.1 to 6 migration are things I've never seen before.

Most of these attribute mismatch issues are caused by duplicate file names, usually "untitled." This happens when you use capture now and don't specify a name.

There are no untitled media files in this project at all. All the files are very specifically organized in camera roll folders and named by date, scene, shot#and take. The audio files are also identified with additional description. My two assistant editors took care of that and I triple checked everything and fixed any inconsistencies before I started cutting.

Try to automatically re-link what you can and then identify the problem files that are still offline and re-link them manually.

Yeah, I think that's what I'm going to have to do. It successfully relinks about 150 of the media files and gives me errors for about 60. A cursory look at the project doesn't immediately show any problems with playback, but I'm not going to assume anything here.

The other issue with media length mismatch occurs when media files are split for whatever reason. Maybe you digitized audio and video to separate scratch disks, or were using FAT-32 hard drive with a 2GB limit like a Firestore?

Hmmm... No FAT-32 issues, but this is a double-system project and the audio and video media were definitely captured to different places at different times. But like I said, I've moved this entire project before without incident and, since that point, all the media has been residing in folders right next to each other.


Oh well, it looks like I'm going to have to manually check this out sequence by sequence and probably even clip by clip. I was hoping this was some known issue with moving from v5.1 to v6.

My first thought was that it might have to do with footage I've sped up and slowed down because the transfer from 4.5 to 5.1 ended up having playback problems with those clips and I had to rework those specific edits after moving into 5.1, but with FCP6 reporting errors on over 60 clips, it sounds like this is a bigger problem than the 2 or 3 speed changes I have.

Thanks, and wish me luck.