Friday 9 August 2013

Use Proxy Media!

You know when FCPX seems sluggish and annoying? You know when you press space bar and it takes a couple of seconds to stop playing? Yeah? You need proxy media.

Go on, don't be shy, you know your computer can't handle Prores 422.

Don't be ashamed, just use proxy media. It'll make your system a lot more responsive and it takes up a hell of a lot less space.

Go on...make proxy media as you import....do it....and then check use proxy media in the playback tab of preferences....Go on...do it.

It's like doing an offline, but remember if at any time you want to switch back to editing with Prores or your original media just switch back in preference.
And when you export it'll still export as Prores because it'll use your original or optimised media anyway. We all win.

Thanks FCPX.

POSTSCRIPT: MAKE SURE YOU CHANGE YOUR PREFERENCES BACK TO SOURCE/OPTIMISED MEDIA BEFORE YOU EXPORT OTHERWISE FCPX WILL EXPORT FROM THE PROXY MEDIA AND IT WILL LOOK SHIT. FUCK YOU FCPX.

POST POSTSCRIPT: YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO CHOOSE SOURCE/OPTIMISED FROM A DROP DOWN MENU WHEN YOU EXPORT, BUT IT BASICALLY DOESN'T WORK.

3 comments:

  1. Something I've not checked with 10.0.9, but was a gotcha in previous versions: if you were using Proxy, and did an export, FCPX would export *from the proxy media*. Yes, that is braindead. Hopefully they've fixed it, but... check. If you see an obviously-downrez image on export, that'll be Proxy.

    Personally, I work mostly with AVCHD and H.264/DSLR media, cutting off eSATA hard drives (~150Mb/sec), and on my 2008 Mac Pro/5870 it's entirely fluid until I hit three streams in multicam. Only then do I transcode, but I usually go to ProRes 422, not Proxy.

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  2. What drives are you cutting off? FW800? Or internal SATA? If the latter - how new are your drives? Your system should be within a few % of mine (mine's only 2.8GHz), surely?

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  3. I use both types of drives and esata as well.
    It doesn't seem to make a difference. FCPX works fine for a couple of hours then slows down to a snails pace unless I am using proxy media.

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