• Apple Final Cut Pro

  Why Optimize and Slow Motion does not look good.

  Posted by Adam Berch on August 18, 2015 at 1:16 am

  When I put on a Slow Motion on a clip that is not Optimized, it is Pro Res 422, I can se the Compression on it when I play it back.

  Will the Slow Motion effect look better Optimized?

  Will the Slow Motion effect look better if I just export it to a Standard DVD file (MPEG2)?

  Why Optimize footage? If you don’t need footage Optimized to work in FCP X and you don’t need to Optimize it before you output it to DVD, then why should you Optimize it?

  Thanks in advance.

  Bret Williams replied 10 years, 9 months ago 2 Members · 5 Replies
• 5 Replies

• 

  Bret Williams

  August 18, 2015 at 1:32 am

  optomizing it as prores takes a bit of burden off the processor/gpu, enhancing performance, like RT fx and playback while editing. If you have a high end iMac or MacBook Pro you likely don’t need to as they have h264 acceleration. The MacPros (old or new) do not and depending on your specs on MacPros, and the demands of the footage and your edit, you might want to optimize.
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  Adam Berch

  August 18, 2015 at 1:42 am

  Hi,

  Thanks for the reply. I have a 2010 Power Mac Intel, 10 GB Ram. When I import my clips I do not optimize. It plays fine on my timeline. I only have to render effects and transitions, even cross fades.

  Would I have to render cross fades and effects if I optimize the footage as I import it?

  Thanks in advance.
• 

  Bret Williams

  August 18, 2015 at 2:15 am

  You shouldn’t have to render anything until you’ve got a few layers with effects. A 2010 Mac Pro might fare better with a better GPU and more RAM, but I wouldn’t drop a dime on it. New iMacs are so much better performers. Did you say your footage is proRes 422? That’s already optimized.
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  Adam Berch

  August 18, 2015 at 2:25 am

  Hi,

  I import my footage at original Media, not pro res 422. Sorry about that. Do I still have to optimize it on export? If I optimize it on import would I still have to render transitions?

  Thanks again
• 

  Bret Williams

  August 18, 2015 at 2:45 am

  Optimizing for export isn’t necessary or beneficial. In fact, I believe that export will draw on originals whenever possible but someone may correct me. It never has been completely clear just how X exports. Does it utilize optimized and/or render files or does it decompress everything for s single pass best quality export? I’ve never gotten a clear answer. If anything, optimized would potentially be a faster export, but not a higher quality one.

  If you want to see if optimized gives you better editing performance, select all the media in your event and right click and choose to optimize it. Be sure and watch the progress window because performance will be worse during optimizing, but you can still edit while its optimizing.

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