getting to ProRes 422 from mixed formats

[Casey Danielson]

I admit that I'm OCD about having all the footage I'm going to use in FCP X converted into ProRes 422 format. I have been bringing twenty clips of mixed formats into AfterEffects at once, and rendering them all to ProRes. Is this the wrong way to do it? I have been told many times that importing H.264/MPEG-4 AVC from DSLR and letting FCP X transcode it is not recommended. Thoughts?

[Bill Davis]

Curious as to who told you that.

I've been importing and working with H-264 DSLR footage for 18 momths and all I've ever done is simply import my Canon DSLR CF cards into FCP-X and get right to work.

With X's proxy/thumbnail workflow, you don't even have to wait for anything to transcode. Just start editing and if you set up your system to transcode when the processors are idle, let the automated processes handle the calculations in the background.

Depending on how fast your computers processors are, you might never even notice that the stuff under the hood is happening.

And even if you don't transcode in advance, X is smart enough to keep working with the proxy or thumbnail video files - and when you go to Share the work, it will dedicate all your computers processing power to the transcode at the Share stage.

So it seems to me that you're jumping through tremendous hoops that aren't at all necessary.

With X - it's good advice to try to do things simply at first. Only if simple doesn't work, THEN try workarounds. But you'll be very surprised at how much X will do to make your editing easier, if you simply let it and don't fight it.

Good luck.

[Casey Danielson]

So it really is just a matter of importing ANY format of video, and FCP X will transcode it to ProRes 422? Forgive my ignorance.