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Apple – please focus on FCP X stability!
I’m working on my first big FCP X project with the client in the room. Expect a blog post to come when I can debrief and evaluate the issues.
For now, let me say that working with X in the “real world” integrates aspects of using both the best and worst NLE imaginable. I’ve had at least 3-4 instances per day of crashes or force quits. Granted this is in a SAN environment with BMD cards (part of the problem, I presume). At least recovery has been good and fast.
But, when you are working with the app, trying to respond quickly to client request, it’s obvious that the system is slow to perform compared to every other NLE on this exact same system. There are clearly times when X has to “think” as something appears to be going on in the background. Frequent beach balls that range from a fraction of a second to 1-2 seconds in length. Sometimes this happens every other action you take. At other times, the app is completely fluid and responsive without any rhyme or reason as to why what is being done is different from one moment to the next.
Simple titles, like two lines stacked as two layers (no animtaion), cannot play unrendered without dropping frames. Other things are completely buggy. For example, “break apart clip items” blows away all your color correction done with the color board!
I’m cool with the magnetic timeline and lack of dual viewers. Audio mixing is atrocious and needs work. Even so, I can live with all of that for now, if the next update leads to a more responsive and stable application. I really like the clip/event/favorites management and this makes it fast to show a client options. I am willing to put up with a lot if the app can become more solid than it is today.
It may be obvious to some, but the app behaves quite a bit better on a standalone machine without external i/o, but that’s not the world many of us live in.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
59 Replies
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I couldn’t agree more. More stability, please.
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For whatever reason it seems to struggle with titles.
I like the method of how it does titles, but it’s got to do them with less hiccups.
I agree, focus on getting the overall performance more solid please.
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[tony west] “For whatever reason it seems to struggle with titles.”
Because they are all embedded Motion projects. That never worked well in FCP 7 and it still doesn’t work well in X. The irony of this is that there are already internal text/font tools as part of the OS and Quartz Composer, which Noise Industries had tapped into with Manifesto. Apparently not available in X.
On the plus side – following up on the long thread about render speeds I posted last week – rendering of internal effects (titles, keys and color correction) has been relatively fast. It still loses links to render files on relaunch, though.
Another issue I found was that the app frequently gets “stupid” about what’s loaded into the timeline history. You can load up six projects and then after moving forward or backwards, you end up with only two loaded for some reason. Then you reload again and they are OK. Tabbed sequences was a MUCH BETTER design. Especially when you need to make quick comparisons of the edit structure (Project Library browser is inadequate for this).
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Since you’re on SAN I would recommend using Proxy files. You can still export using the full resolution. That would help playback.
I love the idea of background rendering but it really eats up resources quickly! The computer slows to a crawl. I’ve tried to turn it off or delay it but it keeps rendering away. Very annoying.
Still, FCPX is a great app.
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[Robert Bracken] “Since you’re on SAN I would recommend using Proxy files. “
Just curious, but why?
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[Robert Bracken] “Since you’re on SAN I would recommend using Proxy files. You can still export using the full resolution. That would help playback.”
It’s a Fibre Channel-connected, volume-level SAN controlled under FibreJet software. This is not seen by FCP X as a SAN, so the “add SAN location” feature doesn’t work. (I would guess they only ever tested this with Xsan.) In any case, FCP X sees the volume to which I have write permission as any other external drive.
I don’t see the logic of using proxies. The system has plenty of performance and handles uncompressed and ProRes4444 files just fine. My media was all ProResHQ, so optimized. There is no problem with media playback. The playback issues are with titles over black.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Robert Bracken] “I love the idea of background rendering but it really eats up resources quickly! The computer slows to a crawl. “
I turn that feature off. It gets in the way and it’s not “background rendering” at it. It’s really “idle time” rendering. It would be nice if they had a “don’t lose render links” feature 😉
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] “It’s a Fibre Channel-connected, volume-level SAN controlled under FibreJet software. This is not seen by FCP X as a SAN, so the “add SAN location” feature doesn’t work. (I would guess they only ever tested this with Xsan.) In any case, FCP X sees the volume to which I have write permission as any other external drive.”
I have a SAN too (metaSAN) that gets 500+ MB/sec to fibre clients and 80-100MB/sec to ethernet clients.
It works fine with no proxies.
Oliver, have you talked to FibreJet?
My SAN Volume does not show up as a typical “Local” drive.
It has to be the fibreJet way of doing things as metaSAN seems to work like XSan.
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[Jeremy Garchow] “Oliver, have you talked to FibreJet?
My SAN Volume does not show up as a typical “Local” drive.
It has to be the fibreJet way of doing things as metaSAN seems to work like XSan.”I don’t own the system, but I have made the owner’s service consultant aware of it. Apple is also aware of this via bug reports and follow-up. I would presume metaSAN is a file-level-locking system, whereas FibreJet is a volume-level-locking system. My guess is that all similar systems have the same issue, including volume-based versions of Terrablock.
The SAN volumes show up on each of these workstations as external drives with volume-level read/write permissions. The Event Library inside the FCP X UI only displays volumes with write permission, though I can access media from any of the volumes. The accessible volumes (with write permission) are displayed with an external drive icon instead of the “globe” network icon.
In any case, media performance from the drives is fine. However, since data is being written back over the FibreChannel network to the event and project folders on the volume with write permission (not the internal drive), some of the beach-balling I see is likely due to some type of network traffic or issues with FCP X in this configuration.
Since it works just fine with Premiere Pro, Media Composer, FCP 7 and FC Server, it seems like it’s an Apple problem to fix. If they want their application in professional facilities, then FCP X needs to work with SAN environments other than Xsan.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Oliver Peters] “I would presume metaSAN is a file-level-locking system, whereas FibreJet is a volume-level-locking system. My guess is that all similar systems have the same issue, including volume-based versions of Terrablock.”
Yes. It’s file locking for the most part.
If it’s Volume level, though, why do you need a SAN Location? Is it one Volume per machine?
Jeremy
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