What is Reddit's opinion of
Final Cut Pro X?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
89 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
I would recommend iMovie since it is free and easy to learn. It is limited but for just starting out it is highly recommended. Next best thing to use is Final Cut Pro and you can use a 90 day free trial version. Go to https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/trial/. Final Cut Pro has a lot more options while editing and is a step up from iMovie.
I’ll be curious what flavor of ProRes is supported. HQ is 80GB/hr at 1080@24p and 400GB/hr at . Also curious if 4K is locked at 30fps or if it will also do 24p.
> You’re wrong.
Am I?
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/specs/
> REDCODE RAW (.r3d) files up to 8K with additional software from RED. Optional background transcode to Apple ProRes 4444. GPU-accelerated playback, transcode, and render with support for dual GPUs and RED ROCKET card.
That’s directly from Apple.
It was frustrating! I just started learning how to use Motion and I was trying to figure out how to make the logo move as Holt’s face moves around the screen. It’s a hard process, but I’m learning bit by bit.
I worked with a filmmaker exclusively for a few years. She swore by her Mac products. And truth to be told, it was justified. Apple makes the most user-friendly movie editing software out there, iMovie. Any novice user should be able to throw in some clips and make a complete movie with some cheesy animations if needed.
Professional filmmakers, like my co-worker, usually need something more robust to edit clips. Final Cut Pro is the go-to software to do that. Unfortunately, it is only available on OS X.
Now, let's discuss about the hardware. Here's the current FCP requirements. If you want to go with FCP, your old Macbook Pro option would really be pushing it. I own a Macbook Pro (more on that later), and it gets really hot when I'm rendering a movie on iMovie although I have 8GB of RAM. I don't even dare to run FCP on my machine. Granted my MBP is a little bit old. That's why serious filmmakers use the good ol' Mac Pros. They will cost you arms and legs though. Sure you can edit with iMovie, but your options to make a great movie will be somewhat limited.
I own a late-2008 Macbook Pro, which cost me $2K. I think the Macbook Pro is superior to any Windows laptop out there. I love the multi-touch gestures which free me from having to use a mouse. And most importantly, it has lasted me like forever. Give me a 2008-build Windows laptop, and see if it can run the latest Windows without any hiccup. My almost-seven-years-old Macbook Pro runs the latest version of OS X Yosemite for free (yes, free OS X major upgrades). I can't recommend Apple laptops enough simply because of its longevity. I would take $2K laptops that last 5+ years than $1K Windows laptops that only last less than 3 years. With that being said, Windows is still my first choice for desktop computers.
>Conveniently the ProRes whitepaper doesn't have the word gamma in it. Absolutely no mention of how the codec handles gamma. Apple should be embarrassed.
One of the big reasons I dislike ProRes.
Conveniently the ProRes whitepaper doesn't have the word gamma in it. Absolutely no mention of how the codec handles gamma. Apple should be embarrassed.
Best I can tell you'll need to request a re-export of the project at gamma 2.2. If the export had color bars you could change your interpretation to make it correct. (With some quality loss.) Without a reference you'll never know when it's correct.
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
The data rates are massive, so it better be.
Just a shame that the lightning port only supports USB 2.0 speeds, so Wi-Fi / Airdrop is the only good way to get it off your phone and onto a computer. Hopefully you’ve got the best damn Wi-Fi AX router on the market.
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
Scroll to page 23 to see the data rates, it all scales to the resolution and framerate… so is that h.264 100mbps a 1080p 60fps or a 4K 24fps are pretty different.
FOUR editors ... all pulling Alexa 4k Pro Res HQ or 4444 or RAW(?) or RED 8k???? Not gonna happen without big cash.
Shit tonne of TB at this fast speed? ooofff
One solution would be:
Dedicate one iMac Pro as an 'online' bay and link it to fast RAID with 8+ drives connected with 10gbE and put it in a nice environment for charging clients loads for the online (ha)
All the other machines - proxy offlines connected to a SAN as detailed by /u/Kichigai
Seems you need to re-think your workflow a bit.
Can't work all in online Pro Res 4444 4k all the time and have realtime playback. Its not 2022 yet. :)
In your original post you are asking why you are not able to pull 4k Alexa footage
Pro Res 4444 (assuming its that) is 1131 MB/s at 4k and 24p (I think)
Your drive is only 300Mb/s
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
I think your laptop is woefully under-powered for what you want to do. You meet the absolute minimum requirements for FCPX, but that doesn't mean it'll run well. That's a low-end laptop from six years ago. 8GB of RAM is recommended for editing, 16GB if you're getting heavy into it.
Maybe you could make FCPX work for you, but you'd have to rely heavily on its Proxy functionality.
No, you can't export raw from an NLE.
Raw is unprocessed sensor data (more or less) and NLEs have to process that and turn it into rasterized frames so you can actually see it and export it. There's no way to reverse that process.
To maintain as much quality as possible, you need to use an intermediate format like ProRes.
422HQ will probably be enough for what you need, but if you want to maintain as close to the full quality as possible you'd need to use 4444.
Double check with your manufacturer's website because there is a possibility they have a tool for dealing with and trimming raw files pre-edit.
The phone memory has to be able to write at the bitrates ProRes uses. ProRes 3840x2160 at 30p is just shy of 600Mbps or just shy of 1200Mbps if it works at 60p. We'll see which rates are available for ProRes, but it's safe to say the storage can handle over 480Mbps.
Read that. You can largely ignore the final cut pro stuff and it's pretty much all the same benefits are there for premiere pro as well.
You can set up an ingest profile to transcode all your clips into a flavor of prores if you want to. Or DNx, as it's a verrrryy similar family of editing codecs. Now yes, when you do an ingest it gives you the option to transcode or proxy or both. Proxy is a KIND of transcoding but not all transcoding is for proxy. Proxies are typically lower resolution, and when attached correctly premiere will always use the original source files for export.
My personal philosophy is proxies are for high end camera files that need to be lower resolution for editing, transcoding is for consumer files that need full resolution because I don't want to use the unoptimized consumer files at all. I don't ever want to go back to the original files, so I wouldn't make proxies of them. But some people don't or won't adjust to the file size difference of transcoding from basic consumer files to full resolution prores 422 or higher files. It's a shock to the newbie to the video production world but to a video pro, ProRes 422 bitrates are not that big really. It's all a matter of perspective
Please provide a reference for that. I don't see anything in the ProRes RAW whitepaper that indicates it encodes anything higher than 12 bits per component.
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_RAW.pdf
A RAW image is an image that has not been debayered. Most digital sensors have their photosites in a bayer pattern and a debayering algorithm is used to distribute the RGB values properly so that each pixel gets a value for all 3 channels.
When you shoot in typical video formats, the debayering is done by the camera at the time of recording, along with other processing like compression, yielding the video file.
When you shoot raw, the camera doesn't do any debayering, you get a raw file, and instead the debayering is done during playback on your computer.
Generally speaking, most video formats have some form of compression because an uncompressed signal yields huge file sizes. Shooting RAW avoids these higher levels of compression.
For more info, and a much clearer explanation, the white paper on ProRes RAW on Apple's website is pretty good. Read pages 3 through 5:
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_RAW.pdf
FCPX has a 30 day trial.
I have quite a bit to say on "fastest." You shouldn't believe me - but I do know the major tools well.
There's a very cogent argument that whatever you think fastest in, that's your fastest editor. That most of it is "does the tool get out of my way."
FCPX is something like my 17th or 18th editorial tool. For most of them, it's more about does it drag me down.
What you might also want to address is "Where are you slowest using your tool of choice?" Determine this and see if/how it can work faster. (Feel free to reply - I might very well know how to get you faster.)
>I am thinking of purchasing an editing dock, so I can slap my SSD's in that I use for image capture and just edit the footage right off there (for smaller/shorter videos).
Honestly, that's not a good idea. NAND Wear is real, and you don't want to be stressing your camera's media.
>Does this sound about right for an editing workflow?
Well nowhere do you mention backup, and backup is important. Say something goes haywire and your footage is corrupted. What then?
> I'm going to be working with 4K Pro Res 422 60 fps footage.
No, you're going to be working with proxies, because that's the only way this setup sounds reasonable, to be blunt. According to Apple the data rate for that is 1257MbPS, or 566GB per hour. That's just 422, not 422 HQ, which is 1886MbPS or 848GB/hr.
Do you really need to be working at that resolution and frame rate? I mean, for a martial arts demonstration I could see how being able to slow down the action and blow up certain spots to call attention to it would be beneficial, but a seminar sounds like it's a talking head. Would the viewer benefit that much from being able to see more detail in the speaker's wrinkles or stubble? Do their gesticulations need to have super-smooth motion? Unless you're doing more cutting and are using blow-ups and repos to fake a second camera set-up (or your lens just can't zoom in far enough) I don't see the benefit for 2160p59.94 here. Seems way overkill for details and fidelity no one is ever going to see.
Final Cut X (starting with 10.1) stores everything in Libraries. There are no scratch disks in FCPX - everyone replying about these can be ignored.
File > New > Library. Make sure you create your library on your external drive.
Now, select all your footage. File > Move Clips to Library > and choose your new library. Repeat for your Media.
You might be right but I've always been told 422 LT had lesser colour info. I definitely find keying better in HQ but that's more image quality than colour maybe.
From the White Paper below.
All Apple ProRes 422 codecs support up to 10-bit image sources, though the best 10-bit quality is obtained with the higher-bit-rate family members—Apple ProRes 422 and Apple ProRes 422 HQ
> I've used third party apps to create/transcode 120fps to ProRez
Technically speaking, the highest framerate supported by the ProRes codec as specified by the Whitepaper is 60fps.
I'm going to guess the 3rd party apps you were using were making use of FFmpeg to handle the Prores encoding, which uses non-licensed reverse engineered prores_ks codec. There's no Apple code in there (Apple would have shut it down in an instant if there was), and it also doesn't limit itself to 60fps.
Problem is, since Premiere uses the real-deal Apple licensed ProRes codec, it doesn't know how to handle the format when it's >60fps, and probably never will until Apple update the ProRes specs.
Apple, naturally, are not a fan of this as people pay them good money to license their codecs, and dedicate an entire page in the white paper to slagging off FFmpeg... so FFmpeg must be doing something right!
Realize I'm replying to a 13 day old post! Just ended up here because I'm recommending this video to someone else ;-)
Presuming you use 720p60 ProRes proxy for the games you'd be looking at about 800GB for 40 hours. Quite a lot but not hugly unreasonable!
If you're working in 24fps for the movie footage, it's a much more reasonable 320GB for 40 hours.
This document has a whole table of common framerate/resolution combinations with bitrates and storage per hour.
I would say for anyone who wants to do some serious video work even as a hobby needs to spend a lot of money on drives/storage with the idea of having a lot of large, but easier to edit, video files.
I get it, buying external storage doesn’t feel beet sexy like a camera, a lens, or a graphics card, but it’s honestly one of the better quality of life things you can do. Whether you can natively record your clips in these codecs, or transcode them in your video editing software before you edit, it’s worth it, no matter what the resolution is.
The codec you want to look into is ProRes or DNx
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
Many, MANY beginners and otherwise untrained “hobbyists” just use consumer streaming h.264 or h.265 clips because that’s what their camera does and struggle with bad performance and/or just accept their unoptimized and kind of crappy experiences without ever knowing any better. Knowledge is power my friend.
iMovie get you ready for FCPX, but FCPx has a 90 day trial so I just went ahead and moved to the trial after a week or two.
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/trial/
You can get an idea of how much space will it take to transcode your media to Proxy by reading the Apple ProRes Whitepaper (pages 24, 25 and 26).
Just off the top of my head, I’m convinced prores HQ is more than 220mbps. Are you certain that correct for 4k UHD
Edit: White paper states 754mbps for 4k at 25p or 339 GB per hour. It’s likely you’ve been reading the stated data rates for HD.
Page 25 here has a table https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
Second edit: the difference between LT and HQ is marginal unless your filming something you know is going to need a serious grade or post work. For example, interviews, talking heads I always do in LT if not just internally. You may have damned good reason for using HQ, but always worth mentioning.
No, there isn’t a very good way to do this due to the limitations of ChromeOS. What you can do is install Chrome Remote Desktop and connect to a computer that uses good video editing software. I would recommend Adobe Premiere Pro or Apple’s Final Cut Pro X.
Before you drop the 300 bucks, I would do a few test, check out the trail: https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/trial/ Make sure your imports actually work as intended.
The arrest sounds crazy man. Sorry that happened to you, really wild stuff.
That tutorial doesn't seem to refer to tracking.
Motion is Apple's application (in addition to Final Cut) for animation, special effects, and compositing. It's inexpensive and very good for what you're trying to do, including tracking.
Tracking essentially allows you to match the motion of one layer in a composition to another layer. For example you could have a person's face and add a pair of glasses that moves with them.
Hope this helps
You may want to give FCPX another chance. It allowed external media from the beginning, but since 10.1.1, they've given full control over the way that media and cache can be stored. Here's Apple's white paper on it: https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Media_Management.pdf
Really the best way to decide is to download the 30 day trial and decide for yourself.
That should be more than enough time to decide if it's worth it to you.
I started out with a big (at the time), complicated, and all-around just confusing program, Sony Vegas 11. Now, Sony Vegas is really good once you "master" it, but it takes some time.
If i where you, i would just start out with something small, if you've got a mac, i'd suggest iMovie, but if you want to get a little bit more complicated, then you could try out Final Cut Pro.
I know that Final Cut costs a lot of money (at least used to, i don't know now, but probably still does) so what i did was pirate it.
Pirating is simple, but looks intimidating to a novice user, so stick to programs that are simple, cheap (pref free, if you want it to be, per se) and you will do just fine.
You can PM me if you have any further questions, sorry about the wall of text haha
UHD@25fps in ProRes HQ is about 737Mbps according to Apple's White Paper. 5 streams is about 3750Mbs. 4500Mbps would give you a 20% overhead, which is the minimum I would look for on 5 streams of video. 4500Mbps is about 560MBps. So I'd say look for 600MBps from your storage, give or take.
A G-Speed Studio is a 4 bay RAID that advertises 700MBps of sustained throughput for the 24TB model and 660 for the 12 and 18TB modes. Should get the job done. I'm guessing the 700MBps number is in RAID-0, so make sure you're on your backup game. If one of the 4 drives fails everything is gone. If you want RAID-5 to protect from a single drive failure (fault tolerance is not a backup solution) you'll probably need a 6 or 8 bay RAID array to get the required throughput. The G-Speed Studio could probably get it done in RAID-5 if you stepped down to ProRes422.
As far as I know, QuickTimeX does screen grabs and simple stuff of that nature. You might want to try the full-fledged QuickTime 7 that you get here: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL923 - to open up the full edit/record capabilities of the program, you need to get a Pro key, here: http://store.apple.com/us_smb_78313/product/D3380Z/A/quicktime-7-pro-for-mac-os-x
Also, to get the correct pro codec for setting input resolutions, you need to get FCPX and install and opt for the 30-day free trial.
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/trial/
It will leave the codec behind, and you only need to launch it once, with the camera you are using plugged in, and then quit it.
Good luck!
Edited to add: Now that I think on it, try the FCPX trial for free first, and see if QTX sees the codec and works with it, before you throw down $$ on a Pro Key for QT7. Since the Core A/V foundation stuff has entered the picture, it's a crapshoot when it's down to what works and what doesn't anymore for the video.
Youtube's color space is 4.2.0 - even if you recorded in 4.4.4, their compression is going to effect the look of the footage.
I'd try compressing using their settings Here
At any rate, you'll be able to see how their compression standards compare to the original cut (try testing on short clips when tweaking settings). It will speed up the upload process, but either way their video compression is designed for the masses (and their internal network speed).
If you need a good compression program try Compressor or you could use a free program called Handbrake. Compressor is better in my opinion, but both are pretty great.
PR Proxy's not intended for multi-generational use - check out page 17 of the ProRes whitepaper. If OP's not gonna link back to the OG media, it's not really worth it.
DNx is almost always 8-bit unless it's got an X at the end, which is really only the 444 media and, if PR LT's too big for OP, DNxHR HQX is definitely gonna be too big. DNxHD will also only do 10-bit at higher bitrates for certain frame rates, and you're locked into 1920x1080 or 1280x720.
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
This should answer most of your questions of which ProRes setting is generally for what purpose, and why it’s better, and has a chart for file sizes based on resolution and framerate
I can't take credit for this one, a friend sent it to me. But it's top-notch so of course I had to share.
MJPEG is notoriously inefficient with a very high datarate — 500mbps for 4k — which is high enough that some hard drives won't be fast enough to handle it, especially when reading multiple streams at once.
So you'll probably either need to move your files to faster storage like an SSD, or create proxies if you want to edit smoothly.
Read this as well if you want a good technical breakdown of why ProRes exists and what the different ones are used for, and a little bit of what delivery codecs like h.264 are for
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
So the color is baked into the ProRes?
I mean, the machine can do things, but 2160p50 is crazy. At 422 (not even 422 HQ) Apple's whitepaper ^(PDF warning) puts the datarate at 983Mbps. That is a LOT of data. Just moving it around at realtime is going to be tough. If your colorist sent you 422 HQ (which I suspect they may have) we're looking at 1475Mbps. For context, 1080p25 422 would run a scant 122Mbps and 184Mbps at 422 HQ.
Plus let's talk RAM. Those are (lightly) compressed data rates. Decompressed that's 8,294Mbits per frame. That's roughly 1GB. If you decompress a mere one second of footage that's almost 52GB for one second.
That's gonzo. I'd be asking a lot of serious questions about why you're operating at 2160p, and why you're operating at 50.00p, because next to nobody is going to be watching it at 2160p50.00.
Sounds to me like you want Apple's Final Cut Pro and Apple Compressor:
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/compressor/
Handbrake (free, Windows version too) will do a basic transcode from one encoding format to another, if that's all you need, also. It takes advantage of hardware encoding (nvidia, Intel, AMD, AppleToolBox) for a serious speed boost.
If you want a deep dive read this https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
TLDR: There are “flavors” of ProRes and DNx that are specifically designed for professional post production workflows and multigenerational encoding with virtually lossless visual quality.
So, I say read this https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
You can largely ignore the stuff about Final Cut, as ProRes and its functionality and benefits are just as good in Premiere and Resolve. Though admittedly I don’t know if Resolve for Windows does this or not. Adobe added full ProRes decode and encoding years ago on windows. But the good news is, DNx is nearly the same thing, just that I find ProRes white paper an easier to find resource. Just know there’s basically a DNx equivalent to ProRes. Though is does differ in some ways.
Seriously read it, but the TLDR of it is: Using something like ProRes 422 is going to be higher quality, visually lossless over multiple encodes, easier to edit with...basically what someone would want to use, archive to, and edit with. Sure the ones you want to send for review can be mostly whatever (but don’t be surprised if it looks blocky and crunchy, if your client is at least aware they are reviewing for accuracy not visual quality). But final export, definitely ProRes 422. Which for 1080p, at 29.97 frames per second, you see on the chart an hour long would be 66GB.
To serious video professionals, this isn’t “large” or “massive” at all. It’s actually standard fare, and lower than many capture bitrates by super professional cameras. To the, uninitiated, who only works in consumer delivery sizes, yeah it’s probably 10 times or so to what you’re used to. But that just means you need to adjust your mindset. Storage space is cheap and needs to be part of your services if you’re charging money for doing editing for clients...
I have no reason to believe Vimeo doesn’t accept a ProRes or DNx file. YouTube can. Brightcove can. Is it going to be slow as hell to upload from home ISP, thems the breaks.
Building a Hackintosh with MacOS on it will yield better results than using Windows for your video editing (yes, you can dual boot with both). Then, you can just use Final Cut Pro.
Fair fair, we all begin somewhere and this all has to be learned through a combination of experience and learning from others.
As a reference, and you can do with this information what you will, I kind of default everything I work on in terms of ProRes 422 as mg video codec. You can read about the ProRes family from the white paper and I suggest you should as it has some useful information on codecs and color depth and chroma sub sampling. https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
You can ignore some of the Final Cut Pro talk, it’s just as useful and capable in Premiere Pro and Premiere as supported ProRes files on windows for years now, so as long as you’re not rocking some CS6 or something you should be good.
But point is, you can see in the chart for the data rates that a ProRes 422 1920x1080 60 frames per second is 132 GB per hour. That’s “normal for capture and exporting” file sizes to me. There’s reasons to stick to that and only compress to consumer delivery playback files as the last last last step. To me, drives are cheap, and “big” files are worth the quality and smooth editing performance they bring using ProRes 422 files. I get it’s intimidating and weird concept to wrap your head around, why would files that are 10-20 times larger be easier? It’s due to the complexity of the encoding and decoding.
Hardware accelerated GPU features are nice under some circumstances, but to me are not a replacement for codecs that were design for their ease of use (and quality) from the beginning
You don't say what software you're using, but ProRes LT is 10 bits. There should be no 8 or 16-bit options for an export to ProRes LT, nor should there be any way to retain the alpha. You might want to check out Apples ProRes White Paper.
When it comes to preventing generation loss and limiting the damage of the final end version (in this case youtube which you can’t control), then careful consideration of EVERY step of the way is key.
1920x1080 60p at 50mbps is...to be frank...not great and really kind of trash. And that’s what you’re using for source files. That’s already putting yourself in a bad spot for future edit and exports and uploads.
I like to use the ProRes white paper for reference https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
For a ProRes 422 1920x1080 60p, the data rate is 293mbps. If you read the description for ProRes 422, that is what is designed to look good through multiple transcodes. Experts and other people way smarter than me spends years coming up with these settings and algorithms, who am I to question it? I say the sooner you accept ProRes 422 as the baseline for “visual quality over multiple generations”, the sooner you’ll understand what you can and can’t expect at the end.
So, 50mbps is nearly 6 times more compression than ProRes 422 at the same resolution and framerate. It may look fine at that initial record point, but the hidden information it threw out and compressed that first time during record makes all future transcodes is, more or less, 6 times the amount other professionals would use as like the lowest point. I’m simplifying it a lot but hey, that’s not the worse explanation without going to a semester or two of computer science classes.
So, IMO, you need to record at bitrates of 5-6 times what you are now. And export in at least the same. Then let YouTube do the final consumer compression. You’ll probably need to spend money on an external capture device that can do ProRes 422 from an HDMI or something, so it’ll cost you money, and your files will be 6 times larger so you need more storage and that costs money. Welcome to video editing.
If you really don't get it then you probably don't need to worry about it. There's a ton of resources out there that go into this topic very in-depth. I'd probably start with the ProRes RAW white paper since that's what you're interested in.
The A1 has limitations. For example, it will do pixel binning at full resolution and the only way to get the oversampled 5.6k is to shoot in APS-C/Super-35 mod. It also only records 4k60p for 30 minutes. Oh, and it doesn't have a flipscreen. It's a pretty amazing hybrid camera but I wouldn't use it if I only shoot video. For that cash you can get the FX6.
If you want to look at target bitrates it will depend on resolution and framerate. You can look here: https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf starting at page 23. Is the 100 Mbps video H264 or H265? You might do a test and see how it goes. I would probably do it, but I'd probably double check first.
I see a lot more artifacts in camera original footage than in LT, but you are correct, there can be artifacts. But who goes to 400%? It's interesting to read Apple's White Paper and get the gestalt of how ProRes was designed.
On the team collaboration Final Cut isn't as strong, but honestly I'm not a fan of software that keeps important project data in a separate database (DaVinci/Premiere) that can't be backed up easily, just to enable that stuff, I prefer to be able to do drag and drop backups of whole Projects/Libraries as FCPX allows you.
I might sound like a fanboy, and that's because I am. I tried other editing suites, but I find Final Cut Pro X to be the most efficient, unobtrusive NLE. At first glance the UI doesn't look like much, but it goes deep, it is to show how much FCPX doesn't get in your way if you want simplicity, but it still has all the tools available when you need them.
Here's some info on workflow: https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/workflows/
And this channel is super helpful: https://www.youtube.com/c/rippleguys
Also plugins, especially now with support for 3D files in the USDZ format in FCPX and Motion, this 3D-tracker plugin has just changed the game for vfx in FCPX and motion entirely https://www.motionvfx.com/store,mtracker-3d-essential-bundle,p3511.html
That's a good question. Apple recommends at least 8gb for 4k editing. But most people recommend 16gb for video editing. However, if you're only using Final Cut Pro, you'll probably be fine with 8gb. Overall, M1 with 8gb would be miles better than 2017 with i7 and 16gb.
Definitely get yourself familiar with Apple ProRes and AVID DNxHD/AVID DNxHR
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
https://www.arri.com/resource/blob/31900/307a2e1b00ffc25f74b6ff7357af0bf9/avid-dnxhd-technology-white-paper-data.pdf (supplement this with the next link) https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/articles/en_US/white_paper/DNxHR-Codec-Bandwidth-Specifications?popup=true
Honestly, you can probably do this in PowerPoint and just export as a video, then record your Voice Over over it.
Final Cut Pro is not a Motion Graphics app. The closest thing Apple has is Motion 5 ( https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/motion/). Get that if you want to do Motion Graphics. It's pretty cheap, at $49.99.
What’s the bitrate of your ENTIRE workflow. From capture to export to what you upload, all stages factor in.
I saw take a look at this https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
Read the whole thing sometime but pay attention to page 17. The descriptions of the different flavors of ProRes. 422HQ (Very high, excellent for multi-gen. finishing) and 422 (High, very good for most multi-gen. workflows).
Then take a look at the bitrate of 422HQ and 422 for your resolution and framerate. You mentioned 4096x2160 but not framerate, so assuming 30fps you’re looking at 629mbps (422) or 943mbps (422HQ). At 60fps that’s 1049mbps or 1573mbps. Even if your camera doesn’t do ProRes as a codec, your bitrate should be pretty near these numbers from capture on through export if you are super concerned about visual quality each generation.
So, what are your clips and what are you exporting bitrates? How do they compare to those numbers above?
Unfortunately no davinci support because the Project File is created in the Final Cut Pro Application... BUT if you have a Mac and just really need a Subscribe Animation like the one I showed in the preview you could download a free trial of Final Cut Pro thru apples site here: https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/trial/
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If you decide to do the free trial let me know and I'll send you a private message of the files needed :)
No idea ... Light? Low Trans... hmm. Sorry got no clue.
If you want to nerd out on the specs this is a good start:
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
If you really want a deep dive, here's Apple's White Paper on ProRes
I would typically be inclined to agree with MrSpeedy that I don't think ProRes is the best option specifically for JUST uploading to YT. While it is yes, theoretically the best, the difference compared to a very high CBR H.264 video would be negligible, and you'd be putting yourself in a situation where the upload time is SO long (due to larger file size) you risk having to restart the upload in the event of a network timeout or other failure. That potential hassle isn't worth the price of admission in my opinion.
Plus if you ever need to deliver to a client later or use in some other context, you may need to wind up making a H.264 anyway.
I know some people swear by uploading ProRes, and yes, like I said it is theoretically the best, but it makes sense to draw a line somewhere. ProRes is typically be best for making your source footage more optimized for editing (proxy or intermediates), to keep an archival master, or for multi-generational workflows (round-tripping with other software or sending to other editors/colorists/etc.).
What you may find useful is our sub has some suggestions for H.264 export bitrates on our Export FAQ: https://www.reddit.com/r/premiere/wiki/faq/export#wiki_export_bitrate
I've compiled it into "High Quality" and "Master Quality", if you're looking to maintain best quality for YT upload without resorting to ProRes, check out the Master Quality suggestions. I haven't yet added 60fps options, but in general: you can double the values you see there.
Page 10 notes that 4444 and 4444 XQ can get 16 bit alpha channels. For clarity, that isn't ProRes Raw, but that is the ProRes family getting past 12 bits.
Atomos lists 12bit+ on their ProRes Raw page, but that's the best I can do. For the life of me I can't find a good source on 16 bit ProRes Raw, but I'm certain I've read or heard it. Perhaps I'm wrong. Since Sony and Red are the only ones doing 16 bit and they do it in their own containers we haven't really had a chance to see it in ProRes yet.
I'm sorry I'm coming up short on a good source.
The trade off is, a ProRes 422 LT 1080p 29.97fps video has a bitrate of 102mbps. LT is the second lowest “flavor” of ProRes. Regular 422 of that same file would be 147mbps
Compare that to say, a GoPro 4k internal recording which is 78mbps. Transcode that 4k file to ProRes 422 4k, your bitrate is 629mbps. 9 times the file size. 9 times the amount of harddrives needed.
Totally worth it though. And if you want some more good info on ProRes, read this https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
Reading page 12 on here <code>https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/HDR_WideColor.pdf</code>it seems that with Final Cut Pro an HDR workflow can be achieved simpy with the Apple XDR monitor. Is this the case or did I misunderstand? Thanks
>We haven’t started and are not sure which computer to use or what might best improve our current system
Well, the specs are a bit vague from apple
FCPX will handle things really well.
Premiere elements is so-so at best. Your camera (the A7II) records 4k h264; the Elgato records in a very compressed h264. Meaning loads of work for the computer.
>We haven’t started and are not sure which computer to use or what might best improve our current system. Any particular equipment that would benefit/speed things up the most?
The specific specs we give in the post.
>unsure if a PCIE SSD would help with editing as we are looking to replace the SSD on our Macbook.
Probably not do much. just more storage. Assuming that you can replace the SSD. Apple sometime in the past, made these modules non-replaceable. All current systems are fixed in SSD and RAM when you buy them.
>Camera will shoot 4K 24 frames. Open to suggestions since we have not streamed/edited before and will be learning as we go.
Please see the post about mediainfo determining your format. Please read the wiki on why h264 is hard to edit.
I haven't tried all of these but it's a good list. .6 Free Editing Packages
and Apple currently is offering a 90-day free trial.
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
I would read that. It’s better than just having some random numbers posted by a random user. It should give you enough info and insight on what to expect in quality, fidelity, generation loss, and the relationship to data rates
10.5 should be out between now and during WWDC which starts June 22nd.
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You can get the free 90 day trial of FCPX here: https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/trial/
For sure! You can read about it here. https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
The important part
> Quality Although the ability to produce high-quality output is a key attribute of image and video codecs, it is quality preservation—or fidelity—that is the actual goal of a codec. Imagery often goes through many stages of processing prior to ProRes encoding, and these stages may add visible flaws, or “artifacts,” to the images. If an image sequence has visible artifacts to begin with, ProRes will perfectly preserve these artifacts, which can make viewers mistakenly think such flaws are caused by the ProRes codec itself. The goal of every ProRes family member is to perfectly preserve the quality of the original image source, be it good or bad. The quality-preserving capability of the various ProRes codecs can be expressed in both quantitative and qualitative terms. In the field of image and video compression, the most widely used quantitative measure of image fidelity is peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR). PSNR is a measure of how closely a compressed image (after being decompressed) matches the original image handed to the encoder. The higher the PSNR value, the more closely the encoded image matches the original.
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
TL;DR ProRes LT
Though I’d be shocked if ProRes LT is actually lower bitrates than your original clips...but maybe idk you didn’t state what the bitrate even was
That really shouldn't matter. Both formats are 4:2:2 color space and 10-bits. The ProRes White Paper is a full description of the details and impact of the compression used in all varieties of ProRes.
The main differences seem to be how well the various flavors of ProRes hold up in multi-generational situations since none of them are totally lossless. Except in the most demanding cases, all of them should be "visually lossless".
h.265 8bits encoding is supported by Intel quickstep. h.265 10bits is handled by the CPU.
The RX580 will handle most rendering tasks. quite well. A RX Vega 56 or a RX Vega 64 would be more powerful in theory but they are totally under utilised by FCPX in a hackintosh because they are not the Vega Pro variants found in iMac Pro. Transcoding and encoding rely mostly on the CPU though. FCPX and Apple ProRes working codecs are heavily optimised for CPU multi-threading . So I would recommend to get as many intel cores as you can buy and as much storage you can afford. The SSD’s read speed will determine the number of simultaneous ProRes streams you include in your project. If you are editing multi-cam angles get a fast SSD. If you are working with 2 to 3 angles max you might not need a super fast storage. See the ProRes codec data rates here: https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf Hope this helps.
It's probably a playback issue with your computer. According to Apple's ProRes Whitepaper ^(PDF warning) the data rate for 1080p60 in 422 mode is 293Mbps. It's possible your storage system isn't fast enough to deliver frames fast enough for playback, or you're hitting RAM limits on pre-decoded frames. And Xenu help you if you're in 422 HQ mode, that's 440 Mbps. 4444 is 660Mbps.
Yes, ProRes will be massive.
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
"The target data rate of Apple ProRes 422 HQ is approximately 220 Mbps at 1920 x 1080 and 29.97 fps."
Let's say your film is 90 mins, and let's say it's closer to 180 Mbps since it will most likely be 24 fps.
(90 * 60) * 180 = 972000 Megabits; /8 = 121500 Megabytes, or 121.5 GB. So your 125GB estimate seems about right.
That's what it takes to store files as ProRes. That does seem a bit overkill to archive a Blu Ray rip as.
I don't have any good advice - just wanted to step in to say the maths checks out, and that is to be expected of ProRes.
If he wants ProRes, bill him for the hard drives. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Glad that info helped. It sounds like you just need to update your fcpx version on your MacBook Pro.
10.3.4 is a bit old so that explains why it can’t open the newer xml file. 10.4.6 can open up older xml but newer xml can’t be opened by a version of the app that old. The app has changed a lot since then.
If for some reason you don’t have access to the App Store you can download the fcpx trial from https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/trial/ which is the current 10.4.6 version.
That will allow you to use the xml from your iMac!
Let me know if that works!
i've never used fcpx, so definitely wait to hear from someone with more specialized experience than me, but i'd imagine you're seeing a compression issue. you may want to look into using compressor, which should give you more control over your bitrate when exporting. if it looks great in the preview, i'd imagine you can get that same quality by finding a high enough bitrate for your export
FCPX is built by Apple...so your Macbook Pro. If you problem is slow computer I don't think you'll find a better software solution (aside of buying a new computer). Just do a test: FCPX has a free 30 day trial, Resolve is free. Load a bunch of clips, resize them, apply a few effect, color correct them and export (without pre-render) and time your exports.
ProRes 4444 XQ provides all the data outside your scopes. So if you ever have to suck that file back into color correction, you have a lot more options. But even with basic ProRes 4444, you've got a lot of information to play with, so it really the flavor of ProRes you choose depends on what you want it for. The difference between the two is imperceptible to the eye, so whichever you choose is going to be more than adequate.
The reason the playback is choppy is because ProRes 4444 is a mastering codec, not an editing codec. My advice is to make a couple versions of your film in 4444, HQ, and H264 & 265, so you can have whatever you want handy when you need it. Because you never know when YouTube or Vimeo won't ingest a 4444 file and you need to downgrade.
Here's the ProRes white paper for further reference.
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PRHQ Bitrates are (24p)
UHD (3840x2160) - 707Mbs
4k (4096x2160) - 754 Mbs
Data-rates start on pg 24
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
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Not saying this is your issue, but worth a look.
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The answer (like all things) is it depends. Primarily on your codec, and also whether you have an alpha channel or not, etc.
For instane, here is the white paper for ProRes: https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf I cant direct link to the subsection, but look for data rates.
For individual files, you can open them in a variety of applications to check the data rate of that specific file. For instance in Quicktime the inspector shows your file data rate.
Once you know the data rate of the material you're working with, you can make informed choices about external storage, being sure to provide sufficient padding for overhead.
If you are using external storage, I'd recommend using AJA and Blackmagic's free hard drive speed tests to see what sort of speed you can reasonably sustain, and use playback software thats able to take advantage of RAM to pre-load content as far ahead as possible, to smooth out read speed fluctuations off your external storage.
>WD black mirrored 4TB hard drives
Mirrored as in RAID1? According Apple's ProRes white paper ProRes 422 at 4K/60p is 1,257MbPS, or roughly 149.8MiB/s. ProRes 422 HQ at 4K/60p is 1,886MbPS, or 244MiB/s. In my experience a single spinning disk at 7,200 RPM can get about 100MiB/s on a sustainable basis, and ProRes 422 HQ at 4K/60p would max out a dual-disk RAID1.
You could ostensibly do it in Premiere or any other standard NLE, though you'd probably want to do it in After Effects or Motion.
Its used to make Hollywood blockbusters, I would say that it defiantly qualifies as professional.
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/in-action/focus/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Cut_Pro#Major_films_edited_with_Final_Cut_Pro
It certainly doesn’t have the market share that it used to, but its still used by people.
These numbers are for PAL (25fps), so you might end up with a tiny bit of headroom for 24fps, and UHD (so you might end up slightly short if you're shooting C4K):
1 hour of 25fps UHD in ProRes HQ 422 (always 10-bit) is a little over 330GB.
So you might in fact want to get more drives. :)
Check out the data rate chart on page 22 of this document:
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf
I'd suggest transcoding to 422 then going back online when needed. If space is an issue go to Proxy or LT. I'll go with a lower rate like Proxy before I'll go to a lower res like HD. I like sticking to same-size files for offline if at all possible.
While the ProRes whitepaper doesn't say specifically, you're probably looking at a payload of around 800Mbps for 444 or 1100Mbps for XQ. Both numbers have you in multi-drive territory for storage solutions. Or SSD, but that gets expensive for no good reason.
Try transcoding 5 clips and messing around with them. If those cut easily you know your options are to transcoding everything or invest in more robust storage.
You will find with disk inventory that the library (most likely in ~/Movies) contains the majority of your space.
DO NOT MODIFY THE LIBRARY FROM FINDER, It can make her library really sad.
I recommend Deleting Generated Content
This is not destructive to the ability to return to an edit but will remove render files and optimized/proxy media that can take up a huge amount of space.
Detailed information on Library Management is super helpful to understand going forward.
Also, Most NAS are not nearly fast enough for real time video editing. Additionally, Final Cut Pro X has a hard time generating backups when the library is on a NAS. Stick with Directly attached storage.
I recommend thunderbolt RAID drives for editing. Even usb 3 externals that are fast will work for 1080p.
Oh sure once the videos are lined up perfectly (with no effort, it just magically happens, using their respective audio tracks) you can turn off the original audio and add whatever you like. The exact details would differ with your NLE of choice (Final Cut, Premiere, etc) but PluralEyes works with pretty much everything and it's super intuitive and effective. It's pretty much the industry standard choice for DSLR folks who always need to record secondary audio outside their camera.
http://www.redgiant.com/products/pluraleyes/
Note that depending on your NLE, you might even be able to use its built-in "multicam" features to line everything up all by itself. For example I'm pretty sure Final Cut X does this now.
You can I think, I guess it depends what kind of system you have. I found a link to the system requirements for FCP, it'd probably be a good idea to check those before you get anything on craigslist. I would probably go with a macbook pro if I had the money though (and you can really find some decent deals on Craigslist, I think I've seen them for $700-800 and it could even be lower by now).
You should be good to go for ProRes. Apple's ProRes White Paper tells us ProRes 422 at 4k/30p is about 630Mbps. 24p and 25p are less.
A G-RAID gives about 325MBps, which is about 2600Mbps. (1MBps = 8Mbps)
With two G-RAIDs in a software RAID-1 you should be able to safely play 3 streams (layers) of 4k 30p, and you might be able to get 4 streams of 4k 24p. This is a storage I/O analysis, not a processing power analysis.
As for RAW, I would suggest a new thread. Tell the kind of RAW, the NLE, and your system specs. Chances are you'll need ProRes or an offline/online workflow to use RAW with an iMac.
Not to promote piracy, but this person's second point is spot on. Download the trials and compare them yourself. There are a lot of youtube tutorials you can use to get your feet wet.