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Decklink performance with FCPX
Greetings, all.
I posted this on the Blackmagic forum as well, but I wanted to see if anyone here is experiencing this…
I’ve noticed that playback performance is not too solid with Final Cut Pro X and Decklink (both PCI and Thunderbolt based). When I play back at anything other than 1x the Decklink output to the broadcast monitor goes out of sync with what’s playing back on the computer monitor. It turns into a slideshow at higher speeds. If I’m shutting footage backwards or forwards and then stop playback, the broadcast monitor “catches up” with where playback actually is, so looking at the Decklink output while editing is frustrating- I keep my eyes on the Mac display to see where I really am.
Is this a Decklink problem or an inherent limitation of AV monitoring in FCPX? We are a shop with 10+ Decklink cards so I don’t have another solution to compare, but I would consider switching to AJA if it gets the job done.
I have noticed this in every version of the Decklink driver since I switched over to X in December 2012- I keep the latest OS and Blackmagic drivers installed at all times.
FWIW, the same Decklink on the same machine has better results in FCP7, except for the random audio crackling that many here are experiencing.
Thanks,
Bill -
5 Replies
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Depends on the system specs to a certain extent also whether you’re in high quality or in better performance mode.
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That’s true, but I’ve seen the same performance issues on a 2010 Mac Pro and a 2012 iMac, both with the fastest processors available and at least 32GB of RAM. Both playback settings yield identical results as well. It’s not a total deal breaker but it’s a big step backwards.
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Yeah it might be worth demoing another type of AV interface on one of your systems just to see where the bottleneck might be.
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I’m sitting here with a Decklink card in my 2009 Mac Pro editing on FCPX and using the card to send to a big output monitor in the room and it performs quite well. I did have to go into the Preferences and cycle through all the output settings to see which performed the best and it was strange to see that a couple of settings that seemed that should work were not suitable. For me, the ‘Set default video standard as:’ is set to HD 1080i 59.94. That setting shows smooth playing and scrubbing from the FCPX timeline. Your mileage may vary depending on the monitor you’re feeding. Or not. It’s all voodoo.
Hope that helps.
NewsVideo.com
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Yep it could be as simple as the monitor you’re feeding not syncing up to the signal you’re feeding it.
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