FCPX and GoPro Problems?

Hello,

Has anyone noticed any problems with the most recent version of FCPX and GoPro footage from the 3+? I just got back from a trip and I’m having trouble importing the footage. Many of the clips come in without sound and they are black. The weird thing is that if I show in finder it directs me to the clip and it plays just fine? I’m importing into a managed library.

Anyone seeing any issues like this? I’m on the newest Retina MacBook Pro.

Thanks,

JT

No problems here with a hero 3+ silver. The 3+ may be different with file structure than the silver model but I doubt it. Likely the same h.264 files. It's important to optimize the imported clips as the GoPro footage is pretty processor intensive in its' native form. Also, the GoPro has an option to repair clips if for some reason some of them got corrupted.

I’ve played with this a bit more and it’s really weird.

1 - I keep the GoPro file structure intact
2 - I go to the import menu and select several ranges of clips
3 - I import just the selections
4 - I have the problem

Or,

1 - I copy all the mov files to a new folder
2 - I go to the import menu and select everything
3 - I import all the original GoPro files
4 - Everything works fine (except I have a lot of unnecessary GoPro footage)

Just for fun,

1 - I keep the GoPro file structure intact
2 - I go to the import menu and select several ranges of clips
3 - I import just the selections
4 - I have the problem
5 - I go to original media files in FCPX
6 - Copy those files to a new folder
7 - Delete everything out of FCPX
8 - Import the copied files into FCPX
9 - Everything works fine (and I don’t have a lot of unnecessary GoPro footage)

Kind of weird?

Silly Question. Are you importing the files via the camera hooked up via USB or are you importing the files from the card reader? I have a Black Hero3 and a Black Hero3+. I have not had a problem ingesting the media from the card reader but I have had some issues via USB.

Dave

I transferred card to external hard drive. I tried to import from external. When that didn't work I put the folder on my MacBook and tried to import. Same problem. Wondering if maybe FCPX has some issues with 120 FPS? Some of the footage was shot at 120.

Hey there...

got the exact same problem...
only difference: my footage was shot with the hero2

searched on google for hours but didn´t find a solution or something helpful.

i tried importing and selecting ranges on another machine with the same fcpx version - same result.
then i tried selecting the ranges in gopro studio2, which worked,
but since the cineform codec isn´t native in fcpx I optimized the footage via fcpx and it gave me black files again...

I have had problems with footage longer than the 4GB file size limit that needs to be spanned. This goes for Sony FS700 footage, HVX200 footage, and yes GoPro.

Due to the 'set it and forget it' nature of GoPro footage, the 4GB limit happens more often than cameras that are started and stopped more often. I'm unsure what causes this, I only know in my experience that when it starts to happen, it gets worse and worse.

I have had better luck with making camera archives along with importing the footage, but even that doesn't always stop the black footage problem. This has been a stumper for me.

This sounds to me like a hardware specific issue. FCPX is known to have different issues on different Mac platforms. The reason I say this is that we use Mid 2010 Mac Pro 12 cores with SSD for system and either Sata IIor Raid 5 Sata III drives for media. We inject GoPro Hero 3+ Silver footage frequently with no issues, including the 120FPS 720p files. Also, just 3 weeks ago we filmed a graduation ceremony with (2) HVX200 A cameras. Each camera shot a continuous 1 hr and 36 minute clip in addition to several short clips after the event. We had no issues syncing a multicam clip from this and we filmed in 720p 30PN mode. I have heard the same rumblings about DVCPRO HD footage with FCPX but we shoot these all the time in addition to HPX170's and HGX250 and all seems to be well.

Anything is possible. It seems more like a file handling issue to me since it's rewrapping the 4GB chunks, then just parts of them go offline. I have had this happen with several formats. Most of the time, the first 4GB chunk is there and not black, then the next span is.

It could be a hardware specific situation, but it doesn't make sense that it would happen on the rewrapped quicktimes.

That's exactly my point. Some systems running FCPX seem to deal with that footage fine while others, as evidenced by posts on this forum, do indeed experience problems. File handling by FCPX it would seem gives different results based on the users hardware platform and configuration. I hope as the application matures there will be more consistency with reliable operation among all Mac models.

What is your gut feeling as to the culprit?

Do you think it could be an AMD vs NVIDIA issue? I haven't messed with GoPro much on my rMBP. Now that the GPU is handling actual CPU tasks in some cases it sounds totally possible.

My theory is that the segment linking in the QT wrapper that FCP X wraps the footage in is fragile. (I'm not a programmer for the record.)

Often, opening the import window and reimporting the black GoPro footage from the cam archives brings it back without actually reimporting it. (I have the BG tasks window open.) My guess is the segment linking gets repaired, but it's still using the same copy of the files.

I am running a 12c Mac Pro 2012 with dual 7950s, it can crunch through footage like a weedwhacker through dandelions. I can play back Red epic footage in Red Cine X full debayer.

While I surely don't know for sure, I wouldn't rule out a bug in FCPX. Certainly the GPU could play a part in this. Also FWIW, I don't make camera archives. I ingest either directly from the GoPro or I first copy the sd card folder to a drive and import from there. As far as the 200 goes, the P2 contents folder and last clip.txt file is copied to a drive and imported from there. When I have a chance I'll try creating a camera archive and see if the result is any different.

Same problem here (FCP 10.1.1) + GoPro Hero black +.

Can't import range, just the whole clip! It sucks!

I guess the problem is the 120 fps.

What I've done was import all tha select ranges, go to the original media folder, copy them all to a folder in desktop, renamed, trash de original and re-imported from this new folder.

Not the best solution, but at last is faster then import all!

I'm not having any issues with GoPro Hero Black. Frame rates of 60, 30, & 120. I'm reading the cards directly from the camera itself, not from a card reader. Everything seems just fine. I know that doesn't help, but just FYI, works fine here. I'd suspect a bug. Feedback page!

Ben

It is only on the Black Hero 3+. I do not have this problem with my Black Hero 3.

My time code issue is only on the Black Hero 3+ Not the Black Hero 3.


This is what GoPro support has to say about this

"In some cases you may be able to work around that by quitting Final Cut Pro X and reconnecting the camera before re-opening FCPX.

Please let me know how it goes, or if you have any questions.


Many Thanks,
Steve D
GoPro Support


Dave

I'm using a Hero 3 +

Yes, this is the same workaround I'm using. Thanks for the confirmation!

JT

MaSu wrote: Same problem here (FCP 10.1.1) + GoPro Hero black +.

Can't import range, just the whole clip! It sucks!

I guess the problem is the 120 fps.

What I've done was import all tha select ranges, go to the original media folder, copy them all to a folder in desktop, renamed, trash de original and re-imported from this new folder.

Not the best solution, but at last is faster then import all!

Very interesting? Wonder what the difference is? Haven't tried this again with 10.1.2.

JT

BenB wrote: I'm using a Hero 3 +

Even on the fastest machine FCP 7 will always struggle with GoPro Footage. The program is simply too old now for modern codecs. When I have to use 7 I batch transcode GoPro footage to ProRes LT before importing.