• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  Mixed codecs in same sequence creating stuttering/frame rate issues

  Posted by Nik Blumish on June 17, 2009 at 3:47 pm

  Hello all,

  I’ve been using FCP 6.0.5 and After Effects CS4 together on my own 8-core Mac Pro without major issues for some time now, but I’ve recently been working on a virtually identical system and am having very strange stuttering issues when I combine an After Effects export (Animation or ProRes) into a FCP DVCProHD sequence. The AE export plays flawlessly in Quicktime Player and in the viewer, and it works a bit by changing the sequence codec to the AE export, but if I need to render the clip for any reason (i.e, cross dissolve), the rendered section is choppy.

  I’ve played with my render settings, and tried exported the video, but the issue won’t go away. I’ve found a workaround by exporting out of AE as a DVCProHD, or converting all of the DVCProHD footage to ProRes/Animation and both work just fine in FCP, but these aren’t great solutions for many reasons.

  I’ve tried to mimic the problem on several other, nearly identical systems; three didn’t have any issues, one did. Does anyone else have this issue?

  Mac OS X 10.5.7, Mac Pro 2.8 8-Core, 14 GB RAM, Kona LHe, FCP 6.0.5, QT 6.6.2

  2 TB internal RAID, 6 TB Enhanced Technologies external RAID with HighPoint RocketRAID 2322 Card,

  Shane Ross replied 16 years, 11 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
• 1 Reply

• 

  Shane Ross

  June 17, 2009 at 5:27 pm

  Mixing codecs is really only for offline editing playback…to see how things look. Playback might be rough, but it really is only for seeing what you have. If you are trying to get full res footage onto a timeline, then you really should match the codec you are editing with.

  Odd that you can’t mix ProRes and DVCPRO HD though..I have…I have even mixed HDV and DVCPRO HD with zero issues (after rendering). Animation, on the other hand…that isn’t meant for editing really. So it might slow things down if it is a full screen image. I use Animation clips for lower thirds (because I need the Alpha), but after rendering things are fine.

  Shane

  

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