Playback issues with FS7 Footage in FCPX

I have some Sony FS7 (MXF) footage that was imported into Final Cut Pro X over the import window.
The footage was shot in a 120fps rate. I would to have the footage to playback in normal speed and only use all frames when a slow motion effect is needed.
Where do set it in FCPX to playback the footage as wanted and not in the slow-motion rate (all frame)?

Thanks

It should automatically play at normal speed. In the project you can use rate conform in the Video inspector to assign how the frame rate is treated in the project and you can set it to automatic speed for slomo.

It should automatically play at normal speed. In the project you can use rate conform in the Video inspector to assign how the frame rate is treated in the project and you can set it to automatic speed for slomo.

Well, if you shot 120fps, and it's playing back at 30 /25fps (your timeline speed) then that is "normal speed" strictly speaking, but you can achieve what you want to do by highlighting the clip in the timeline and doing CMD-R to bring up the retime editor and making the footage 4x faster (assuming 30fps timeline)

If you wanted to make all the 120fps footage play back sped up in the browser, not just the timeline, then it's sort of a hack, but you can right click a clip in the browser and say "open in timeline" repeat the steps above for each 120fps clip.

I've not actually tried this though.

So this function doesn't exist anymore?

Don't have Flash. What function is that?

the function in the video was renamed at some point to "automatic speed". it's still there. though I'm not sure if it will help you with what you want to do.

FernKraft is right, Automatic speed won't help much in your case I don't think, as with pretty much all higher end slow motion cameras, the footage is recorded at 120fps, but plays back at the cameras base recording rate.

Threefold Films wrote: FernKraft is right, Automatic speed won't help much in your case I don't think, as with pretty much all higher end slow motion cameras, the footage is recorded at 120fps, but plays back at the cameras base recording rate.

Then how does Automatic Speed help or work if the footage get played back by frame by frame and not like in other Apps by its project timebase 1 sec is 1 sec no matter how many frames it has.

automatic speed is for when you are using mixed project frame rates. for example 30fps in a 24fps project.
it is not for when you "over crank" a camera, intentionally shooting "off speed". when shooting "off speed" the camera will play it back at 24 or 30fps, as will fcpx.


(that being said, iPhones can actually provide you a 120fps rate, which will then have to be conformed to your project framerate if you wish to use it as slow-motion.) there is even a special icon that appears when fcpx recognizes highframerate footage from iPhones.

hope that helps.

"automatic speed is for when you are using mixed project frame rates."

That's not correct. What you're describing is Rate Conform and is in the Video Inspector. Automatic Speed is in the retiming menu and is to set the speed of a clip to it's recorded frame output, frame for frame regardless of the project properties.

FernKraft wrote: automatic speed is for when you are using mixed project frame rates. for example 30fps in a 24fps project.
it is not for when you "over crank" a camera, intentionally shooting "off speed". when shooting "off speed" the camera will play it back at 24 or 30fps, as will fcpx.


(that being said, iPhones can actually provide you a 120fps rate, which will then have to be conformed to your project framerate if you wish to use it as slow-motion.) there is even a special icon that appears when fcpx recognizes highframerate footage from iPhones.

hope that helps.

So when I put a clip that was recorded with 120 on the iPhone and drop it into FCPX it will playback 1 sec to 1 sec ratio. Then selecting Automatic Speed it will then play ever frame back (slow). Then why not with footage that was recored on the Sony FS7 with the same frame rate???

I'm not sure I understand what you are saying.

120fps from an FS7 doesn't play back at 120fps. It's just 30fps. It was recorded at 120fps which makes it slowmo.

50 or 60p placed on a 25 or 30p timeline fcpx will do the correct rate translation to make the footage play back as intended, the visual speed stays intact.

Selecting automatic speed on this footage, will essentially create "slowmo" and this is something DSLR shooters are well versed with. 1 frame is matched to 1 frame and the footage is stretched.

Alex 4D has a great post about it here:

What who's saying? Unfortunately no threading here.

No link to Alex4D

Sorry Slow to post. All mainstream high end cameras do this with their footage. Phantom, Alexa, RED. Usually slowmo is shot slowmo, because it was intended to be slowmo.

Here's Alex's link again: alex4d.com/notes/item/final-cut-pro-x-rate-conform

Tom is correct on the automatic speed and rate conform confusion on my part. I didn't mean to imply that automatic speed will conform the framerate to the project, but that it will "unlock" it from it's rate conform... (does that make sense?)

usually when I'm using "automatic speed" it's with footage that has been shot at 60fps, by clicking automatic speed, it gives me a quick way of getting some nice and smooth footage. Luckily, that's pretty rare, and we now have a camera that does proper over cranking.

so in short, if you click automatic speed it will have 60fps footage in a 24fps timeline play every frame.

as for why the fs7 does not behave like an iPhone... I'm not sure why apple decided to have i phone footage behave that way. I guess they thought it would be more friendly for consumers.
Personally I prefer the way the fs7 behaves, but i don't mind that the iPhone does what it does either. 6 of 1, half a dozen of the other I guess.

Here might be a simpler way to think of this. Any clip dropped into the FCPX timeline will play at the framerate of that timeline. Drop a 120FPS clip in the timeline that is set for 30FPS and that clip plays at 30FPS. If you select the clip in the timeline and then choose "Automatic Speed" for that clip, the clip plays at the FPS that it was natively recorded at. So a 120FPS clip either plays (in this example) at 30FPS in the 30FPS timeline if nothing is adjusted, or if "Automatic Speed" is selected, it plays back 4 times slower at 120FPS in the same 30FPS timeline.

dgwvideo wrote: Here might be a simpler way to think of this. Any clip dropped into the FCPX timeline will play at the framerate of that timeline. Drop a 120FPS clip in the timeline that is set for 30FPS and that clip plays at 30FPS. If you select the clip in the timeline and then choose "Automatic Speed" for that clip, the clip plays at the FPS that it was natively recorded at. So a 120FPS clip either plays (in this example) at 30FPS in the 30FPS timeline if nothing is adjusted, or if "Automatic Speed" is selected, it plays back 4 times slower at 120FPS in the same 30FPS timeline.

Thank you that's the case I would like to see with the footage that was shot on a Songy FS7 with 120fps.
But it will not play back in normal speed when dropped on a project in FCPX tha is setup to ether 24fps or 30fps. Tried both configuration.

But when I drop footage that was shot on a iPhone with 120fps it will playback in normal speed as in 1 sec to 1 sec ratio.
As soon as I select Automatic Speed it will playback every from in the clip which will is Slowmo.
What is wrong with the Sony footage (MXF), should I maybe transcoded into ProRes before importing it?
As I mentioned I imported direct from the card into FCPX.

Can you send a short clip or make one available for download so we can test what is going on? If so, I would like to test that.

dgwvideo wrote: Can you send a short clip or make one available for download so we can test what is going on? If so, I would like to test that.