Apple Final Cut Pro 7 - Manual (Page 377)

About Media File Optimization
Final Cut Pro captures and writes media files to maximize the number of simultaneous
streams and real-time effects during playback. Video streams are defined in terms of the
number of simultaneous media files that can be read from your scratch disk, and do not
necessarily correspond to the number of video tracks in your sequence. For example, you
may have ten tracks in a sequence, but if the clip in the topmost track covers all the
others, only one video stream plays from the scratch disk.
In rare cases, Final Cut Pro alerts you if imported media files cannot be optimized for
multiple-stream, real-time playback. These files are perfectly fine to use in your Final Cut Pro
project. Unless you are editing with multiple uncompressed video streams that demand
maximum media file performance, you can usually leave the files as they are and continue
editing normally. Since Final Cut Pro always optimizes files when capturing, simply
recapturing should maximize the file’s performance.
Note: If you are editing standard definition DV captured in Final Cut Pro, your media files
are already optimized.
Final Cut Pro may not automatically optimize the following:
• Media files captured or created with a third-party codec not supported by Final Cut Pro
• Some media files captured in early versions of Final Cut Pro
To turn off the non-optimized media warning when importing files into Final Cut Pro
1 Choose Final Cut Pro > User Preferences.
2 Click the General tab.
3 Deselect “Warn when importing non-optimized media.”
Final Cut Pro will no longer warn you when it discovers a media file that it cannot
automatically optimize.
About Importing Audio Files
Final Cut Pro allows you to import audio files from other music and sound editing
applications, as well as audio from audio CDs.
When you import audio files into Final Cut Pro, you need to make sure that their settings
match your sequence settings. If your audio clips’ settings don’t match the sequence
settings, you can still edit with them, but Final Cut Pro does real-time conversion which
reduces overall playback performance.
For more information about digital audio, see “Audio Fundamentals.”
377 Chapter 26 Importing Media Files into Your Project